I'm very excited to say that this year for xmas my beautiful fiance is buying me an American Standard Stratocaster (2011). Its very hard to walk by the black hardshell case everyday withough being able to play it (except for when she leaves the house of course and I open the case just to catch a whiff of that new guitar smell) (do I have a problem?.... hahaha). ANYWAYS, I just had a quick question about the saddles. Should Each saddle sit parallel to the bridge as in the two screws that keep them in place? I know they are suppose to follow the radius but should each individual saddle be parallel to the body or at an angle? Also I will be changing the stock 9-42 strings for 10-52s. Will I have much trouble doing so?
Sorry for the giant mouthful. Just know I am excited to be a part of the fender family and I look forward to your replys.

Jace

Congrat , a very nice gift , American Standard Strat is a very good guitar.
Saddles should follow the radius of the neck so should not be parallele to the body and at angle is good way to be.

If you go to .010 instead of original .009, the neck could need a truss rod adjustment, not shure.
You have to check .
You should have close to .010 to .011 inches space between strings and 8 th fret. You must fret the string to cancel nut eight to read the right mesure.

Look there for more explanation;
http://www.fender.com/fr-FR/support/art ... etup-guide

see; Truss Rod

the distance from the saddles to the neck vary, which is called innotation. They should not be in perfect line with each other. As far as height goes, that's an issue related to radius of the neck.

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I knew this would create a little bit of confusion. I'm not the best at explaining things but i'll try again.

What I mean is when im thinking in terms of the two little adjustment screws on each saddle. should these saddles be adjusted so that the plane of the saddle sits parallel with the body? like should they be adjusted to the same length or 2 different lenghts so that the saddle itself is at an angle? catch my drift? I hope I made my question a little clearer. Thank you very much all the same for the responses.

And the other part of my question (which i also should have clarified) is, will i need to file the nut to compensate for the thicker strings?

Thanks

They should be parallel ie. both screws should be adjusted in or out by the same amount if it's what i think you're referring to. You're meaning if you held the guitar up in front of you, holding the body and looking directly at the bridge from behind, the saddles should not be higher towards the bass side or the treble side but level?

If you put on strings that are a lot heavier then yes you might need to get a luthier to adjust the nut slots particularly going from a 42 low to a 50 that's quite a big jump.

Truss rod might need to be loosened a bit to compensate for the extra string tension being put across the neck, but you might get away with it, as someone said before you have to check it if you're going to be doing it yourself.

Nice present to get

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

I understand what you mean
With the individual bridge saddles correctly adjusted for height for each string, you are asking if having the top of each saddle needs to be level with the top surface of your guitar, or can the bridge saddles follow the contour of the fretboard radius better if , say the low E saddle was adjusted with the saddle screw nearest the edge of the bass side of the body, lower . Mine is set up like that, I find it stops string buzz better on low strings (not much out of "square" mind just a tad )
(You can see this on this pic of mine, if you look at the low E and high E saddles)
(press CTRL and + to zoom in and CTRL and ) to go back to normal size)

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

What I mean is when im thinking in terms of the two little adjustment screws on each saddle. should these saddles be adjusted so that the plane of the saddle sits parallel with the body? like should they be adjusted to the same length or 2 different lenghts so that the saddle itself is at an angle? catch my drift? I hope I made my question a little clearer. Thank you very much all the same for the responses.
Sheppard93

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It is very clear what you write and had give you the answer

Your second question; Only if the strings does'nt slip easely

Ah! thank you very much people. That was exactly what I needed. Its what i kinda figured but I really wanted your advice seeing as I am new to the Stratocaster. Now if I can only wait until the 25th of December without losing my mind I'll be all set.

You have a wonderful fiance.

Come back on this forum after Chrismas to tell us how you do with your Stratocaster. You sais your new to Stratocaster,You will discover why is the most popular guitar and can I say the best ?