New build - 66 relic strat built with all Fender "Made in USA" parts - I have been building this for about a month or so,(trying to figure out to post a photo in the body of this message, as i am new to the forum, any advise would be great!) - as i finally completed it the other day, i put some strings on it noticed two things - 1). The 69 custom shop pick-ups are worth the hype and the money for sure, they are crystal clear and and absolutely nail Hendrix's tone, and 2). I know its never going to play like any of my Les Paul's, which is fine because its not one, which, after all, is why i built it. I was hoping someone would have some advise on a proper set -up technique, the neck is dead straight,nut seems ok, saddle hight is ok( but i would like them a little lower), i have one very thin shim in the neck pocket which caused the the action to be a bit high for my taste so far, but definitely balanced out the feel of the neck - the problem is the note bending, I cant seem to bend up (or down) more then one note without the string "fretting out", bending two notes kills it dead completely - normally i would say the action is to low, but its not the case here, the action is plenty high - could it be the neck radius? or, is it even possible to bend more then 2 steps on a strat? - Gilmour has been doing it for 40 something years now... im really digging this guitar in the few short days its been together and i want to make it "sing"

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Thanks, Peter.

Hi peterstone101,

To post pics, upload them to a publicly viewable site such as Photobucket (free), then copy the "IMG" code generated for each pic (pop up menu when you hover over each pic), and paste the code in your post here. Then when you "Preview" or "Submit" your post, the pics will be visible. The code will look like the one in the code box below.



BTW, how does it play (fretting out) without the shim in the neck pocket?

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

It is a little tougher to get the 7.25" radius fretboards playing cleanly on bends. But it can be done. Try different setups until you find a compromise between playability, bend-a-bility and tone. You will need some relief in the neck, but I found that my particular guitar seems to favor only a minute amount of relief (nearly straight) and a slightly higher string height. Once you get the guitar set right I think you will love it! I totally prefer the 7.25" boards over the 9.5" or whatever radius. If there just seems to be no middle ground to getting the setup right, here is one option.....you can dress away the higher frets in to a "fall-away" like acoustic guitars have, or have a luthier sand and recrown the higher frets into a make-shift "compound" radius More often than not, though, persistent tweaking will win out and you will get the axe playing right without any modifications

+1

My luthier opines that a careful balance between neck relief and overall string height is the key to getting the 7.25" necks to play correctly.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

thanks for all the great advise guys!!!! i was actually thinking about having the frets filed a bit to compensate for this - i am about to take the shim out again, make some adjustments and take it from there - the neck (to my eyes) appears to be pretty straight and the truss rod feels like it had absolutely no tension on it when i turned it - i gave it half a turn and it seemed to fix the middle of the neck issues, so now thats done, and it does feel better for sure....considering what im going for here, would a 9.5 radius work better for clean note bending, i am not to crazy about this C shape neck to begin with and am definitely considering buying a new one at this point, but i would like to get it playing real nice in the mean time....i never understood what the difference was between a 7.25. 9.5, and compound radius fretboards were (did i just admit that out loud, ha.)

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Thanks, Peter.

The lower the numerical value of the fretboard radius, the tighter the curvature will be across the width of the board, eg: the 9.5" will be flatter than the 7.25", the 12" even more so.

HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

thanks for the all the help!!!! as it turned out i removed the shim and dropped the action down a bit, the neck did also need a very slight bit of relief - the action below the 12th fret is still a bit high for my taste but it does allow for 3 note bends now...guitar is definitely playable!!!!...but i still think i would be better off with a different fingerboard radius. Good lesson after all these years....highly recommend the 69' CS pickups.

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Thanks, Peter.

Keep tweaking! All of my 7.25" boards are set well within Fender's factory specs for action and none fret or choke out! I think with this radius, the tollerances are tighter, and you really have to have things "right" for it to feel right. Flatter radius boards give you more wiggle room I think.

yes the flatter fretboard definitely gives you more wiggle room - i found out that the Les Paul i have been playing for 20 years has between a 10 -12" radius, which is probably why i was so concerned that i did something wrong when i was building this Strat with a 7.25"....i mean, how could you not bend a note up 2 steps on a guitar, right?...in my mind something was not right. I still might have some adjustments to make as time goes on but all in all it looks, sounds, and plays almost exactly the way i was hoping it to and im glad to be part of the Fender world now - the guitar seemed to move a little on its own in the last day which is typical of a bolt on neck guitar, but its getting there - i think the wood is stripped out on one of the mounting bolts on the neck from taking it off so many times so i have to deal with that !!!!!!!!! anyone know the "right" way to fix this???

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Thanks, Peter.

I don't know if there is a right way.....but, one way for at least a temporary repair would be to put a couple of toothpicks (or more) in the stripped hole on the neck, or similar thin pieces of wood, and break them off flush with the top of the hole. This will give the screw something to grab onto and is pretty darned secure, especially if you don't remove the neck many more times, and could even be permanent fix, depending on how badly the hole is stripped. Otherwise, you would need to fill and re-drill the hole, which can be tricky, with the possibility to make it even worse.

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.