Hey Martian, I hope you're not bothered with so many people asking you for advice for different subjects..
I would really appreciate it if you helped me out on the next matters:

1.- Should I use Fender's recommended pickup height from the support manual? If not, what do you recommend?
2.- Should I keep the bridge flat against the body?
3.- Does having 5 strings for the bridge affect in something, apart fom a more difficult to use trem arm?

I'm not bothered in the least. As a matter of fact, I'm somewhat flattered.

1. No. These recommended settings have a calculated amount of, "so we don't get too many phone calls and e-mails regarding same". Meaning, any true, precise setting as applied to one, specific player cannot be achieved with a, "blanket statement". Consequently, it is better to proclaim a generic, stand-offish type setting which would work for most even though it is not best for most.

Depending on how aggressively you pick and the gauge string set you use, this is what determines the height for me. Say, for example, you are fairly aggressive with the pick and use a 10 gauge set, I'd set the high E side of the pickups a nickel's thickness away, string to polepiece. With the low E, two nickels thickness. If you are a very light picker with 10s, than the high E would be a dime and the low E would be one nickel. I also synchronize the pickups' magnetic flux to prevent, "Stratitis". Lastly, I'll listen to each pickup, evaluating if any fine tuning for that 'sweet spot' is necessary and then adjusting the pickup(s) as appropriate.

2. Premising one NEVER uses the wang bar, there are two camps here: First, resting the tremolo plate on the body and immobilizing it is presumed to improve resonance as the plate now radiates directly off the body; bending strings are more efficient and require less effort as the bridge will no longer 'give' when the strings are bent and lastly, without this fluctuation of the plate, arguably the guitar will hold its tuning better. Then there's the other approach which reasons that keeping the plate ever so slightly afloat maintains that touch of reverb through the tremolo springs that many including myself have come to enjoy and require in a Strat, thus setting it apart from a hard tail type resonance. In this particular situation too, the wang bar remains readily available for a player to accent his or her stylings as opposed to those who use it as an, "in-stone" ingredient in their stylings. The way I figure it, a properly functioning wang bar is part and parcel of a Stratocaster and it should be readily available even if for only speculative purposes. YMMV.

3. In practical terms, 'maybe'. It all comes down to what the player feels works best for them. Some feel 5 springs give them better sustain, better tuning stability, etc. This perception is directly related to a player's personal stylings. Others like myself find the 5 springs, "over-kill" and see no dramatic plus to having them. But then again, I use a .009 string set with a light touch and to someone who uses say, a .011 set with a wound G and has a heavy hand will see things the total opposite of me. Who is correct? BOTH of us but in our OWN genre. Again, it all goes back to the SPECIFIC player's stylings.

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Thanks, as always, Martian. I really appreciate your opinions on these matters, and I suppose many other people benefit from them too.

You're quite welcome. I'm glad to help and hope that others may benefit also.

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You dig?

[quote="Martian"]Depending on how aggressively you pick and the gauge string set you use, this is what determines the height for me. Say, for example, you are fairly aggressive with the pick and use a 10 gauge set, I'd set the high E side of the pickups a nickel's thickness away, string to polepiece. With the low E, two nickels thickness. If you are a very light picker with 10s, than the high E would be a dime and the low E would be one nickel. I also synchronize the pickups' magnetic flux to prevent, "Stratitis". Lastly, I'll listen to each pickup, evaluating if any fine tuning for that 'sweet spot' is necessary and then adjusting the pickup(s) as appropriate.quote]

Hey Martian, what would that be in English money?

I haven't a clue. If you're at all familiar with Canadian currency, it's virtually the same as that.

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