i put a 10-16 compound radius neck on me strat and love it.

action as approx 4/64 now with 10's. 4/64 might be a bit low if i hit the strings hard?

when i'm strummin the pick just doesn't seem to "glide" across the strings like i would prefer.

should the "e" strings be a bit different in height to help out with this? its those two strings that seem to my feel to be a bit off when strummin.

let me now what some of you guru's think/suggest and i'll try it out.

Frankly, I'd not get hung up on any measurements. I'd simply adjust the guitar to what feels and responds the best and then tweak it from there.

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You dig?

yep, i can dig that.

Martian’s is the best advice.

mo4FFU, try this. First get the neck relief set to your satisfaction. Then temporarily set the intonation.

Now attend to each string in turn. Start on the E string and using your normal picking style play it at each fret up and down the neck. If you get no buzzes lower the saddle a quarter or half turn of the two height adjustment screws. Play it at all the frets again. Still no buzz? Lower the saddle further. Go on and on doing that until you start getting buzz that you can't live with. Then reverse the last height adjustment to remove the buzz, a quarter or half turn. You now have that string set as low as it will go without buzzing.

Next, do the same thing with all the other strings in turn.

Finally, you will need to reset the intonation, because height adjustments throw it off.

Regardless of what the actual measurements are, you now have all the strings set as low as they will go without buzzing. Very likely you will find that their heights describe an arc of a slightly smaller radius than the fingerboard and tilted over lower on the treble than the bass side. It will probably look something like my diagram here:



By strange chance, that is how the action is set up on Taylor acoustic guitars - and you seldom hear anyone complaining about the playability of Taylors.

However, that shape is mere coincidence: it is not what you are consciously aiming for. Simply do the step-by-step process described above and you will arrive empirically at the lowest possible action for your neck with your picking style.

Sorted.

Good luck - C

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Well, I second (and third) Mr. Martians and Ceri's advice.

By chance is your new neck a Warmoth compound radius neck?

You haven't told us what kind of strat you put the neck on, or what kind of bridge it has (6-screw vintage, 2-post modern/aftermarket, Floyd Rose, etc.). To address your stated issue, when I built my guitar - I shimmed the bridge saddles to match the approximate curvature of my (W) compound radius neck. On a 25-1/2" scale guitar with a compound radius of 16" at the heel, that would in turn be approx. 18" at the bridge saddles. To get the uniformity of string heights and feel you're looking for, the saddles should be adjusted to the approx. 18" radius, then tweaked per Martians and Ceri's suggestion on an individual string basis. I used shims to adjust the saddle heights for my strat, but that was for a Floyd Rose bridge. If you have another type, I see a Stew-Mac radius gauge in your future.

HTH,

ORCRiST

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that's interesting, i'll give it a try. i set the two E strings to low=5/64 and hi=3/32 then put a 20 radius gauge close the bridge. playability is much better than it was.

i want to try your way too and compare and find my particular sweet spot for action.

thanks!

yep, it is a warmoth 22-fret, med-jumbo frets, 2010 HH mex strat, gotoh turners, wilkinson 5+1 tremolo, 10-46 strings,

i do have stew-mac gauges, just not the 18. i have 16 & 20. the 20 put the strings just a tiny bit more flat, which for me, for now seems ok. at least the strumming is smooth. i might as well get an 18 gauge just to check it out and compare playability.

as for shims, pretty sure i don't require them with the wilkinson bridge.

thanks for the help!!