I've recently started doing my own setups--first on my MIM Jazz Bass, and now on my Strat. My first attempts on the bass worked well, but now I've run into an issue working on the Strat. In setting the fine intonation of the G and B strings I've found that I have to move the saddle way back, to the point where the spring around the saddle screw is fully recoiled (or rather close to it). I think the B string is okay at this point, but the intonation of the G is still off and I've backed the saddle up to the point that I've started to meet resistance trying to adjust the screw any further. I might be able to back it up a more with a little force, but I'm guessing that wouldn't be a good idea. Any thoughts on how to handle this? Could I maybe find a shorter spring that would allow a little more movement? Or could this be this indicative of another, bigger issue with the guitar?

My Strat is US-made, circa 1992. I followed the Fender setup guide through the other steps of a setup (just truss rod and action height, nothing else needed adjustment). This guitar has been set up professionally before, but it has been at least a few years. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Cut a piece of the spring off to make less material getting in the way...

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The vast majority of Strats that I've seen with this problem have the tremolos sitting too high and/or the necks having too much relief. In lesser cases, it is a faulty string. For those who rule out all the aforementioned, cut the spring(s) and hope for the best.

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Thanks for those suggestions. I think the neck relief is okay, but I'll take a look at the tremolo height and see if that could be the problem.

Yea...oddly enough I have to second Martian on that. Most of the time when you have a G string that is THAT far off, it's usually due to a neck and/or bridge problem. If you're just getting into your own setups, you REALLY want to check/double check that neck relief...don't over-tighten the truss rod obviously but I'd bet a shiney penny that's where the problem is. What I've seen happen is that the truss rod will be completely loose, the neck will start to bow a bit and someone will try and compensate by lowering the bridge or saddles...or vice-versa...the neck will be over-tightened and someone will raise the bridge/saddles to compensate for string buzz. The problem is that the bow/reverse bow in the neck also shortens/lengthens the scale length a bit causing the need to move the saddles excessively.

Now if it does turn out to be a relief problem, I would like to reiterate DON'T OVER-TIGHTEN THE TRUSS ROD. I've had a couple of different Strats recently where for some reason, the truss rod was completely loose. If you have a situation like this, plan to make that adjustment over the coarse of a couple days...nothing will ruin your life (not to mention your guitar) like a broken truss rod!

My suggestion would be to start with the Fender Strat Setup guide on this website and follow those measurements to the letter (again over a couple of days if need be) until you figure out where the problem is.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Jim

+1 Martian

I'll echo most of the above!

If you have to move the saddle that far for correct intonation, the problem is elsewhere. Don't go cutting springs and the like, as you're just trying to cover up an issue elsewhere that really needs sorting out.

Faulty strings are also still surprisingly common - I've had at least two from big name manufacturers in the past year, although I do go through rather a lot of strings.

Like Martian write , I see this problem sometimes . Cutting spring is the only way to fix. Easier to try few set of strings .....

But we must be sure neck bow is in spec first

The neck relief was set to spec using a .010" feeler gauge. The bridge is pretty low to the body, but I noticed that the plate is a little higher on the bass side than the treble side. Could that have something to do with it? See pics below.

Faulty strings could be the issue, but I've been having intonation issues with those two strings for a while now, with multiple string changes in between.

Thanks.

I would try tilting the neck back a bit to with the micro-tilt adjustment.
This will slightly lengthen the distance between the nut and the saddles.

Be sure and loosen the neck bolts 1st. Re-tighten them after adjusting the tilt.

Adjustments are made much like the truss rod, except I'd recommend an 8th of a turn at a time, rather than quarter turns. If you experience any resistance, you just need to loosen the neck screws a bit more.

The tilt will also lower your action at the 1st fret and at the heel (22nd fret), so some action re-adjustments may be required after (truss rod and/or saddles).

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm having a bit of difficulty with this process. I loosened the neck bolts a little, then inserted my 1/8" allen, which I believe ought to be the right size (same one I used for the truss rod), but it doesn't seem to engage anything. I tried wiggling the allen around a bit to see if I was just missing the hole it's supposed to fit, but nothing ever clicked. I also pointed a flashlight down the hole to see if I could see what was going on in there, but I couldn't really make anything out clearly. I tried moving up to a 5/32" allen but had pretty much the same result. I tried rotating the allen and was able to do so, but with no resistance--it didn't feel like I was actually moving anything inside, and after tightening the neck bolts back up, the action doesn't seem to have changed at all. The next larger allen I have is a 3/16" and it doesn't fit into the outer hole. Any idea what's going on?

It might be an illusion in the photograph but it appears to me that the treble side of your tremolo is closer to the edge of the pickguard than the bass side. There have been some reports of the wood breaking loose between the tremolo screw and the pickup rout on two point tremolos. If this is happening on your treble side screw that would explain why your saddles have to be set so far back to intonate correctly (or nearly so).

Have you ever pulled off your tremolo to see if the two screws are in good shape?

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Your bridge is not adjusted for a working tremolo . It should have 1/8 " space between back of the bridge plate and guitar body.

1/8 inches high E and low E

Look here , Tremolo;
http://www.fender.com/support/articles/ ... tup-guide/


RRR have a good advice

Thanks, but I don't use the tremolo.

Ok but put bridge plate parallele to body if it is not ( like your photo suggest ) with the help of the 2 bridge plate screw.