Hello all, just looking for advice on my new american std. Ash body, maple C neck with stock staggered single coils, 2 point trem. Here's the list. Any comments/suggestions appreciated.

1. There is a small gap seperating the body and neck, looks like a poor cut. I am hoping Fender will replace this body because this will affect resale value and possibly the performance. Just wondering if anyone else has experience this kind of defect. Also am having to scrape off glue from around each fret.

2. I am trying to tone this down a bit....guitar is too thin and bright when played loud and suprisingly inarticulate for a guitar with single coils. Played my buddies guitar which was same guitar with rosewood fingerboard and single sized humbuckers and it sounded much smoother and even with humbuckers sounded more articulate. Has anyone had this problem with stock pickups. I adjusted height but no luck with sound. I am not sure staggered pickups are good for the well balanced sound I am looking for either. I also noticed the neck pu does not allign with the strings very well. Kind of annoying. I am not giving up on this guitar just yet though....but this is an area I need some improvement on.

3. The low E is fretting out at the 15th fret slightly. more noticeable on neck/mid pickup. Not sure if this is because I need to adjust saddles and springs again or adjust the neck. Have tried this and it only works temporarily. The intonation is good up and down neck as is the clearance on pu's.

My last post didn't register on this so forgive me if they all show up later.

I'm not sure warranty issues are allowed to be talked about here. As for the tone. There are several factors. For starters, what model amp are you using? Is there a guitarist's tone you're trying to emulate?

_________________
-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

For starters , the gap at the neck shouldnt be a big deal unless its excessive.Remember this is a bolt on neck on a mass produced guitar.Its not a hand made one.I doubt its from a poor cut, but anything is possible.As far as the pickups not being articulate,I would look more at the eq of the amp and amp choice first,and are you talking about playing it clean ?I have the same guitar and they are anything but not articulate,well defined notes and great clarity.The whole idea with the staggared pickups is for string to string balance.I have a vintage staggered pickups and the G string is too loud ,so the custom staggered pickups is a good thing.They are staggered to match the radius of the neck.As far as the note fretting out ,it sounds like you have the action set too low in my opinion.I would have a good tech set it up and raise the action a little.Definetely play around with the eq of your amp too.When you say they sound thin sounding , are you comparing it to a humbucker?They sound totally different than a HB for sure.It took me a while to learn how to adjust my technique for a single coil guitar.Its a totally different animal.Certainly less forgiving.But you can listen to some great players on a strat and see those tones are there somewhere in that guitar.But the strat isnt for everyone.

Sorry, not looking to get anyone in trouble on warranty issue, just currious if anyone had this poor cut problem....but yes that is between myself and Fender. LOL.

As far as tone, I love the tone David Gilmour has both clean and distorted on his black strat. I am hesitant to say I want to sound exactly like one person...just want something that sounds smooth and something that handles distortion well. I love to play with a dirty clean like Hendrix on machine gun. I also like some heavy stuff, but not at the expense of the clean sound that the strat really shines at. Robin Trower's sound on Bridge of Sighs/Far Earth Below is another tone that comes to mind. I have actually considered using his (David Gilmour) kit, but want to be sure I can get my guitar to give me a decent sound without going in that deep. I am also looking for an amp so I don't have a very good reference here, but my buddies fender blues jr. sounded good with his strat and terrible with mine....have only played mine through my VOX AD120 VTX and the Fender and it sounded the same...weak and thin and too bright when cranked. It sounds decent at a low volume but the bright is too much when cranked. Sounds to much like a sick goose.

I'm not a setup expert - just had one set up my 2009 Am. Standard. The one thing about the neck spacing is that the Standards have MicroTilt - might this have something to do with it?

Well , it could be the amp eq like I said .Its a modelling amp ,also if you have the tone pots set on 10,roll them off to about 6.Also , what are you using for od /distortion?If you are using the amps,then maybe the sick goose is there and not the guitar.Like I said ,I have the same guitar ,but I have put alot of thought and time into getting my settings just right.It sounds to me like you have to spend some time dialing in the right tones.

I just wanted to add that the guitar does give me a great sound at a lower volume and it could be that I need a bigger amp that is not pushed as hard to keep that sound. I have heard 2 other strats on my amp and you can hear the individual strings better on the other 2 guitars. One with single coils and one with humbuckers. If it wasn't for that, I would definitely say I need a better amp too. I don't know to be honest. I would think an articulate guitar would retain that at a higher volume more so than one with humbuckers but maybe it is the opposite...maybe I need a better amp to handle the brightness of this guitar. Maybe the way I set my amp at a lower volume should be totally different at a high volume, but I believe I should be able to get the same sound regardless of the volume. I am totally new to the strat so what do I know. I have tweaked everything I have to work with and still can't get that articulation at a high volume. It does sound pretty awesome down low. One thing I also notice is that I have to work a lot harder to get the character into the notes I am playing. The chords I hit at high volumes especially get muddied up too. I did notice the strings on my buddies strat were set higher so I will try that next. Anyway I appreciate everyones input.

The Ash body / Maple fingerboard you have is the brightest configuration. A Rosewood fretboard will smooth out the intensity of the sharp tones. That said, The difference can be overcome with the right amp and amp settings. At what height are your pickups adjusted?

_________________
-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

+1 on the ash body .The amp will sound different at higher volumes?Most likely,each amp has its breakup point where it distorts because its being pushed.Some pickups push the amp harder than others causing them to breakup earlier.I can play my American Standard into my 59 bassman and get pretty loud without breaking up.I would suggest if you cant get satisfactory results by tweaking the settings on your amp,you take it back to the guitar shop and play it thru the same and other amps at different volumes.Each model of strat had slightly different pickups and need to be equed differently.It still sounds like the problem is your amp and your settings than the guitar.I was never a big fan of amps that have built in effects for this very reason, you can only do so much with the settings.

I set the pickups by ear and that is not something I have checked for the recommended spec. Good point. Not sure how you guys measure this, so bear with me. From the top of the low e pole to the bottom of the string I believe it was set at approx. 5/32'' on all the pickups and on the high e it was set from 4/32'' to 6/32'' on the high e poles, not positive on these...I wrote this all down last night at home and lost all the info on my goofy computer. I seems like I have to work a little harder on the higher strings when playing so I tried to angle the pu's up on the high end. Not sure if this is the best thing and don't claim to be an expert on this. FYI. I can't go too high with these pu's because the strings will rub on the D pole which I believe was the highest. I did spend about 30 minutes trying to find the sweet spot. Normally I get a moan when I find it, but nothing yet. Ok...bad joke

If you're not measuring while fretting the strings at the last fret, your pickups are way too high.

"PICKUPS Set too high, pickups can cause myriad inexplicable phenomena. Depress all the strings at the last fret. Using a 6" (150 mm) ruler, measure the distance from the bottom of the first and sixth strings to the top of the pole piece. A good rule of thumb is that the distance should be greatest at the sixth-string neck pickup position, and closest at the first-string bridge pickup position. Follow the measurement guidelines in the chart below as starting points. The distance will vary according to the amount of magnetic pull from the pickup.   Bass Side Treble Side Texas Specials 8/64" (3.6 mm) 6/64" (2.4 mm) Vintage style 6/64" (2.4 mm) 5/64" (2 mm) Noiseless™ Series 8/64" (3.6 mm) 6/64" (2.4 mm) Standard Single-Coil 5/64" (2 mm) 4/64" (1.6 mm) Humbuckers 4/64" (1.6 mm) 4/64" (1.6 mm) Lace Sensors As close as desired (allowing for string vibration)"

_________________
-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

No, I wasn't pushing down on the last fret when taking the measurement...will check that one again tonight. Like I said, not sure how you're supposed to measure that one. That's good to have a guideline. Thanks Kirk.

Just take it in for a complete setup i think.

Yep , strats are finicky little buggers when it comes to setting it up.Get the strings you want and have a tech set it up for you .

Well Kirk, you were correct on the pickup height being height...set them to the spec in the manual and that helped some, the balance between each pickup was way off. I meant to set them back some time ago to the book, but always seem to get distracted when I pick up the guitar and go off on a tangent playing.

The guitar is still too bright at high volume so I think I need to get a amp that doesn't break up as soon. If anyone has a suggestion for an amp that works well with bright guitars I am all ears.

I think I could compensate in other ways, changing to a rosewood fingerboard, changing pu's, etc. But I need a new amp anyway and would love to find one that would work with this guitar at higher volume...the guitar sounds really good at low volume so my goal is to get the same sound cranked. I guess everybody wants this too.

I am trying to resist relying on someone else setting up my guitar...but that is not a bad suggestion. I am getting closer. Thanks everyone.