Hello,

I was just given a used Mexican Fender Standard Strat from a friend and am having some trouble with it. Whenever I perform larger bends on the B string, the B string goes under the G string, pushing it up. These bends are usually on the higher frets, and nothing too crazy. The G string jumps from its space in the nut (pictured below):



The action is also a little high, but its not too bad. The strings are brand new, 10-46 gauge. Is there any way to fix this? Or is my only option getting a new nut?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks so much!

Hi Scaryfied,

Have you tried winding the strings in the right direction on the tuning posts with three or more winds on the smaller strings? With the strings wound the wrong way, there is a force on the string pulling it to one side of the nut slot. You would probably also benefit from a complete setup, including lowering the action.

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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.

Good catch, Shimmilou.

Scaryfied, read this:

http://www.fender.com/support/articles/ ... etup-guide

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Bill

Mexican Strats are sort of known for high nuts. Before I ever owned one, I asked around to see what I should be careful of and every single person mentioned this. You might want to check each string for proper height in the nut. I would suspect that they are a bit high. If so, file the grooves to proper height or bring the guitar to a tech who can do that for you. I've also found that the grooves are very tight with 10's. I believe that they're cut for 9's and could benefit from just a bit of filing to loosen them up for 10's. Personally, I live with the tightness and use appropriate amounts of graphite (use a sharp pencil) in the grooves and it hasn't been a problem.

Oh.....and like Shimmilou said.....wind the strings the right way on the tuner posts. (The last 2 guitars I bought had strings wound the wrong way.....I don't understand why people do this).

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

I think that is an over generalization. The nut on my 2009 MIM Standard Strat is spot on. 10s fit it perfectly. Almost all Strats, including American made ones, come with 9s as standard (check the specs on this website) and I have never heard of anyone complaining about 10s being tight fitting.

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Bill

+1 on this.

I only replaced my (MiM) nut with a graphTech, cos a drunk mate knocked my axe over at a gig and it cracked

Thank you so much for your quick responses, its very appreciated!

I think I will just go the safe route and get the guitar set up by a professional. I don't have any experience working on guitars so before I make anything worse I'll get it checked out.

Thanks again!

PS. . . . also
+1 . . on winding the strings the correct way on the posts

I find all Fender nut slots to be left too high, regardless where their made or by whom. My CS guitar was the same, as well as my Hotrod, Deluxe and Baja Tele.

The problem here however comes from the top of the nut being too close to the fretboard. The slot not being deep enough, not because the bottom of the slot is too far away from the fretboard. But because the top edge of the nut itself is too close to it.

As a rule your strings should submerge into the nut to varying degrees. Low E 50% in, 50% out. A string showing roughly a quarter of the string out the top of the nut. The D string fully submerged. Then that line of the top of the nut stays pretty much parallel to the board. Enabling the G,B and High E strings to be well seated with plenty of side wall either side of them. Being slightly lower cut (around .005" lower than the wound strings)

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No no and no