Ok so I've had a MIM strat here for about 5 years, maple fretboard, pickups are SCN that i put in myself and the nuts been replaced twice. About once a year, generally in the summer I believe and certainly in the summer now, i go through a period of several months where my high e and b strings seem to be twangy or vibrating slightly beyond pitch. The last time this happened i struggled with it for months and finally changed the strings and it was gone for another year. Now it's back, changing the strings doesn't seem to help anymore though. I'm pretty sure it's humidity related as i've tried adjusting the saddle height, pickup heights, truss rod, and it has occurred with a floating tremolo and with the tremolo drawn against the body (as it is now). strangest thing here is that it only occurs when I play at home. I thought I was losing my mind when I didn't notice it at a gig, or that I was just hearing things, but it really and truly does not happen when I play outdoors, or inside at a show. The last time it happened I lived in a different house, so that throws out the insanity plea. Could the humidity in my house or the heat be causing this? Could I be haunted by the ghost of bad intonation? Could I be an idiot for not saving up for another month and buying an american strat? Regardless, if I don't figure it out soon this guitar is going to be launched from my third story window out of a cannon. I heard saddle ware could be the culprit, and I should smooth them out with sandpaper? worth a try? I'd love to take it to a tech, but I don't know a good one in the area and I can't afford to put this MIM POS in the hands of someone I don't trust, at least until can afford to replace it. Thanks for listening to the rant. any ideas appreciated greatly!

is there a way you can post audio of this sound?
Is it doing it on all 3 pickups?
Is the truss rod snug?..by that I mean not loose and vibrating. I had a couple guitars that sounded like fretbuzz or worse and it was because the truss rod or a tuner was too loose and it would only happen when one certain note was played.. Probably not your particular problem though.
Sometimes certain frequencies can do some mighty strange stuff.

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truss rod is snug, I'll post audio later today if I get a chance, yes it does it with all three pickups, more noticeable with the bridge pickup just because its that much more twangy, it used to just sound like excess vibration but its bordering on trash in the frets 3 to 8 range on the high e now. Absolutely does not occur on the E a d g strings. Guy said he set up the nut for .10 strings, and thats what I'm using. Maybe go .11 e and .14 or something on the b? Tuners is something I was thinking too, could i just tighten those suckers up if I loosen the strings first? kinda new to this whole thing only been playin for 5 years so this is like my frankenstien's monster, you should see the soldering on the new pickups, looks like I dumped a gallon of molten steel in the cavity and attacked it with a battle axe. But it works. Heard some talk about pickups being to close and actually pulling the string away from its natural fluxuation? But no matter how high or how low I go with them it's still there.

Thanks
Seth

If the tuners are the kind with a nut on the top then you might be able to use a small wrench but it's best to remove the string and use a deep socket. Tuners get loose so easily but since the string is applying so much tension you never really notice until the next string change...with for me is about everytime the year ends in a zero. you know 1990,2000,2010,etc...

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