I have had my American Standard Stratocaster for about 2 months. I have spent the last 2 months trying different types/sizes of strings, setting the bridge flat/floating, setting the neck flat/wit relief, setting the pickups at different heights, and setting the intonation.

I have tried every size and type of string, and have probably spent from $100.00 to $200.00 on strings. I have tried steel, nickel plated,pure nickel, and even flat wounds. I have tried sizes from 9's to 12's.

After 2 months of this, I am back to the nickel plated steel 9's (the ones that come on the guitar), with all settings to factory specs except the pickups are set to 1/8th instead of 1/16th.

I'm right back where I started, and think I like it the best.

Some might say that this was all a big waste of time and money, but I have learned a lot in the process, and can do a complete setup (including the string change and floating the bridge) from scratch in about an hour...

Ok, so I'm trying to look at the bright side...LOL

_________________
American Standard Stratocaster

That's funny. I was at a guitar shop yesterday, picked up a nice Strat that seemed to be pretty well setup to factory specs. The bridge was floating. I liked it so much I just spend the last couple hours going over my setup and decided it was time to go back to the float. Fender's been at this a long time. They know what works.

_________________
-Kirk

GUITARS
'12 Sonoran Acoustic - black (dated 10/31/12)
'13 Standard Strat
AMP
Vox ac4c1-bl
PEDALS
Compressor
Big Muff
Vox Stomplab 1G
Carbon Copy Delay

I don't think it's a waste of money at all. Now you know what you like best for sure, you know all about how other types of strings feel and you've had some very good practice setting up your guitars for all those different string types.

_________________
Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckslaird
Instagram: http://instagram.com/beckslaird

more importantly you have learned a bunch of things you don't like.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Interesting you say you've headed back to floating bridge. I've been thinking about blocking my Am Std because of the 2 note - 1 note bending issue with the floating bridge.

So lets say your doing a bend where you're playing two strings at a time and bending one note up to the same note as fretted note on the other string (think about the big sounding bends at the start of "with a little help from my friends" by the beatles). As you start bending the note up, you apply more tension to the string side of the floating bridge, which effectively depresses the bridge as if you were pushing down on the wammy bar. This makes the note that you're fretting and trying to bend to drop in pitch. In order to do both in tune you have to now bend both strings at the same time. Not impossible but a pain in the butt never the less.

Have you noticed this problem, does it come up alot in your type of playing?

_________________
My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

When I bought my Jimmy Vaughn Strat last week the first thing I did was set the bridge flat and put on a set of D'Addario 8-38s so I have no pitch changing problems when letting one string ring out while bending another.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

And to supplement that sentiment, consider these quotes from Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931):

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

"If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

"Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."

2 months is nothing,come back after 40 years of tone chasing,and tell us you're back where you started....
I realized about 10 years ago that the tone I wanted was what I had in '66.
But still you will find that no matter how long you do this you will still experiment,if you don't you can become stale.

"Knowledge is the one appreciable asset that is not subject to diminishing returns"