I brought my 1972 Stratocaster to get refretted about a year ago because there were so little frets left that it was becoming very difficult to play (especially bending strings). When I got it back I noticed the action was set-up nice and low. However, I also noticed that the saddles on the bridge were set-up really high, about as high that they could go. I did not worry about it until this year as I was working on the guitar, after repotting a pickup I though that I would lower the saddles and compensate by adjusting the neck with the truss rod. So I lowered the saddles some bit and tried adjusting the truss rod to compensate. However, the truss rod does not seem to be able to change anything, and I have had to bring the saddles back up all the way to avoid the heavy buzzing that I caused.

Anyone know if there is a way to fix the problem ?

Dan

Did you adjust the micro-tilt feature?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

From my experience, MANY 72 Fender necks had truss rod problems. Specifically, they were very weak or didn't work at all.

Stand your guitar up and tap the back of the neck with your finger. If you hear a rattle, your truss rod is loose and for all practical purposes, useless. I really hate to say this but I'm sure you can surmise the rest. This also explains why your guitar was setup the way it was.

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Is the trem set the way you like it? Floating the right height?


That's something that's bugged me about getting a "pro" to set up your guitar ... how do they know how you like it? Unless you work with them for years, a pro wouldn't know for sure (beyond some generalities he'd get from asking you). Seems kind of hit or miss.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Funny, I never had a problem with my 72. I've adjusted the neck from time to time and it ALWAYS worked just fine. Usually problems occur from someone turning it too far and breaking it. The bullet truss rod adjustment made it easy to screw the pooch.

I would look toward who ever set it up. I've had Strat since it was new and never had any problems associated with many of what have become urban myths. No neck stability problems, loose pocket syndrome, problems with the tilt neck etc. I've played a lot of early 70's Strats that were nice. I've also set up many Strats and Tele's in the 70's and never had a problem setting them up or the truss rods.

It's like Martin says, if it rattles it's probably broken.

Thanks for the inputs guys,

I have been playing with the guitar recently unplugged and did not notice any rattle, but I will specifically try tapping it to see this evening. When I tried to adjust the truss rod I was very careful not to go too far in either direction, but my feeling was that it had no impact.

The saddles are up quite high where the screws are a few mm below the top of the screw hole, and I still get a little buzzing on the lower E and A strings.

I never thought of trying the micro-tilt screw as someone suggested (never really knew I had that until I checked yesterday evening). Would that help ? I suppose I would need to screw ccw to lower the bottom part of the neck ?

In terms of the tremolo, I did notice that it is a bit stiff, perhaps I shoud consider removing one of the springs in back. Would that help raise the overall bridge ? Maybe it would allow to lower the saddles a little. I might check that.

Dan

The microtilt is basically an adjustable shim as should be used when the saddles are maxed out (ie high or low as possible) to correct the action and this sounds to be the situation you're in.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Dan,

It is no urban myth that MANY Fenders from those years had their share of problems. Granted, SOME of them were indeed, fine but at one point, CBS even selectively solicited some of their authorized repair facilities' personnel for input on solving many of the rampant problems which DID in fact, exist.

As I've said before, many of those necks had reverse, arch, convex or whatever you want to call them, warps where the truss rods were useless. Your statements about the overall setup and symptoms of your guitar have made me positive that this is the root cause of your guitar's problems. And don't forget too, having the new frets put in will further contribute to this as any newer fret will expand a fingerboard ever so slightly and in this case, most people don't know it but CBS Fender shoved the frets into their slots from the low E to the high E side and not from above. This is also part of the reason they slathered the poly finish all over the maple necks.

If the base of your neck is flush as it can be with its mating surface in the neck pocket of the body, the micro-tilt will essentially be disengaged. Yes, CCW turning of the allen screw will back it out. The last thing you want to do is to turn that screw tighter as it will lift the neck from the body and cause the strings to be even closer to the fingerboard.

Lifting the tremolo will indeed lift your overall action slightly to where you may be able to lower the saddles slightly. However, here too, you are treating a symptom and not a cause.

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Couldn't hurt to try it. Just read up on how to adjust it. You only need to loosen two of the three screws. From what I remember it's the top two and only go three turns. I'm still not buying the truss rod thing completely. Like I said, I did tons of truss rod adjustments back then and never remembered a rod being non responsive unless someone forced it and broke it. CBS owned Fender since 1965. I'm not saying Fender wasn't having problems especially in the mid to late 70's, but I think some of it was blown way out of proportion by the gear snobs who couldn't accept any change in Fender guitars or amps.

I see a lot of problems even today with Fenders QC.

I just tried tapping on the back of the neck with my fingers or knocking it slightly with my knuckles and I hear no rattle noise so I am presuming it is not broken or at least not cracked.

The funny thing is that the action was higher before the re-fret and I am quite sure the saddles were lower then. So perhaps the refretting expanded the neck as someone suggested. Whether that would be sufficient to cause that problem, I doubt it. I suppose they would need to remove the neck to do the refretting (can someone confirm that ?). Perhaps the neck was not butted right up against the back of the body when they screwed it back in or something prevented it from seating properly, acting like a shim. It does seem solid. However, when I look at where the neck seats against the body on the side that you can see, it seems very flush, but I am able to insert a sheet of paper almost 1/2" into the space. I did check the trem and it lies against the body, it is not really floating. Perhaps another possibility is that the tech screwed it in a little tighter ? I opened the trem cover behind and there are four springs, one which seems quite new and more rigid, and I don't remember ever changing one.
Therefore the options I have now would be to try to ease the tremolo a bit (perhaps remove one of the springs ?), to try to see if I can get the neck reseated and screwed in more tightly and/or perhaps before to try to unscrew the micro-tilt to see if that will fix the problem. Do I need to remove the strings for that ?

Thanks for your help everyone.

Dan

Dan,
Usually I have an eighth inch of float. Maybe you could try another tech. Sounds like your tech messed up the setup. On a Fender or any bolt on neck it's way easier to do a refret with the neck off. Did you always need four springs? You can loosen the claw to get more float, but the only time I used four springs is when a used 12 gauge strings.

I've pretty much said my piece on all this but to answer your questions:

No, a neck does not have to be removed to be refretted.

If it seems a solid mating, it probably is or you'd clearly see a seam. Oftentimes, the woods aren't perfectly trued so still, the majority of the neck and the pocket mate flush where maybe a piece of paper can enter. However, if you can push that paper clear through to the other side, that would surely be the deciding factor.

I would presume the tech tightened the 3 bolts.

I would definitely back out the micro-tilt screw to see if it is a factor. The strings can stay on and do not have to be detuned or anything for this adjustment.

Glad to help!

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I still have the instruction manual from my 72. If you need the instructions, I can scan them and send them to you. Just shoot me an email.

I'll check this out tonight.

Thanks again guys, and I will take up the offer on the instructions for the '72 strat, I appreciate that.

Dan