I love strats, but having never played a exceptional one, I have a question about strats generally:

I've owned a total of 4 strats, and each one was set-up to the best of my abilities (and in one case, by a tech), with correct truss rod deflection etc, to Fender specs (4/6ths, high E; 5ths, low E @ 17th fret).

Why then, do they ALL rattle, unless played by picking lightly and no further back toward the bridge than the neck PU at best (often like to anchor my hand near the bridge)?

I suspect the answer may have something to do with trebley relatively weak PUs (c.f. something like a Gibson PAF), long scale and woods that emphasise the higher frequencies. For example, it seems to be possible to get whatever action is required on a Gibson SG (PAFs, magohany, short scale length).

Where am I going wrong? The tone seems to suffer long before getting the action down to a height where strings fret-out on bending.

could be to curved a neck for the height of the strings. i set my neck dead flat the do the setup . i dont use a streight edge over the frets i use one of the ones stewart macddonald sells it goes right on the wood. then i check the frets for level if all is ok then i set the string height etc. im assuming you mean fret buzz .

I had a weird rattling on my Strat once. I took it to my tech and he said it was just some of the screws holding down the bridge coming loose (the six in front of the saddles) so we tightened them up and now it's fine.

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I think it is fret buzz. Are you saying you set string height on a dead-straight neck and THEN add neck relief?

I have one of my strats set-up with the bridge-plate flat to the body, so that would be impossible, owing to the chamfer under the front edge of the bridge-plate. As for the others, many recommend that only the two outer screws are fully tight, and the four inner slighty looser to facilitate trem function- all of mine are as tight as they can be without impeding the trem.

It sounds like it's coming from the frets.

Thanks for the ideas though.