Set-up guide: Stratocaster.

Hi guys!

Well, my "Project" guitar is all finished. It's a '57 Reissue CIJ Strat in Candy Apple Red / Maple neck. I've fitted it with Lace Sensor Hot Golds and had my local guitar shop (Machinehead Music) make a new bone nut to replace the cracked plastic original. They've done a great job and it has all the ingredients to be a lovely instrument.

But...

I can't get it to play right!

I've fitted the trem, and set it up so that the baseplate is flush, but with three springs. That way I can depress it with a good push on the arm but it's got stable tuning.
I've followed Fender's set-up guide from their website, and it all seems to be within specs, but the problem I'm having is that the treble strings "Choke out" when doing whole-step or higher bends on about the 12th fret and above.
I realize that with a vintage fretboard radius I'll have to have a higher action to get round this, and I've set it very high on this, but it still does it.

My "Clapton" one with the same fretboard radius plays far better with a lower action. Any thoughts?

Also, I've followed the Lace Sensor wiring diagram to the letter and it works fine, but for one thing:

When I turn the tone pots below about "2" on the knobs, the sound cuts off altogether! (CTS 250K pots, standard tone cap, wired as a standard Strat)

Anyone have any suggestions? Or any recommendations about a good set-up guide or book I can buy?
I had thought about the Haynes manual, but I'm not sure how much detail it goes into.
I've set up many Strats in the past and they've all been fine, so this one has me stumped.

Any thoughts guys? :-?

Top strings choking out, You could try tightening the truss rod slightly, too much relief can sometimes cause the 'dusty-end' to curve up a bit, but it will probably need either a light fret dress, or a higher action. Not really much else you can do.

Thanks John.

The neck on it is from an old MIJ Strat of mine and played fine in its previous body.

I did notice a thin paper shim in the body end of the neck pocket that I left in there. I might remove that, but I don't think it'll make a huge difference. I left it in to try at first and see what happened.

The neck relief is within Fender specs (having checked with a feeler gauge) so it may be a case of playing with shims and noting the results.

I'm a little reluctant to get a pro set-up done as I've already spent far too much on this one, but if it's the difference between a great player and an average guitar that'll mainly be just ornamental then I may have to consider it.

Thanks for the advice though.

Graham.

PS: Here's why it sounds so good:

Totally silent! No background hum whatsoever!!





I have a severe copper fetish.

Despite having had many Strats over the years, I still haven't worked out exactly why some choke out whereas others with similar action don't. When setting one up defeats me, I have a good tech locally who usually manages to solve the problem with a fret dress. Usually, taking the top 4 or 5 frets down quite low on the board under the E, B & G strings sorts out the problem.

If you can get to North London, & you want to try my tech out, send me a PM and I'll give you his details.

Mike

Well if that's not worth spending ?40 on a set-up and/or fret dress, I don't know what is! You've obviously gone to a lot of trouble & expense with the pickups and shielding, it would be a shame for it to turn in to an ornament.

The Fender relief recommendations are just that, recommendations. I find guitars play best with the least amount of relief you can get away with, just enough so that the lower fretted notes (particuarly the G string) ring nice and clearly. Certainly too much relief can deaden a guitar above the 12th fret unless you play with a highish action.

Is the shielding job DIY, or a pro job? looks amazing!!

Thanks!

The shielding job and installation was done by me. There's a great seller on Ebay where you can get the large sheet of adhesive copper to cover the pickguard for about ?3. The roll of adhesive and conductive tape was from the same place and was about a fiver. There's enough on a roll for two guitars. The wiring came from GuitarPartsWorldwide (?2)

I used to make electronic prototypes for specialist audio systems in a previous life, so one thing I do know about is hand-wiring one-offs.

I could have trimmed the edges of the copper on the body a bit neater, but I didn't want to start taking a stanley knife to it in case I slipped.

It contacts the pickguard properly, it's flat, and no-one's ever going to see it anyway.

The Lace Sensors were the bargain of the year! Some place on Ebay U.S. was knocking them out brand new but unboxed at ?21 each, so I had to have a set.

I love the clean uncluttered look of Lace Sensors too:






PS: Ignore the state of the bridge saddles - this was just a pic from when it was all first loosely screwed together - before I'd done any set-up whatsoever!

JohnA said:

Is the shielding job DIY, or a pro job? looks amazing!!

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Looks good. If there are any bits you missed, I have some spare bacofoil that arrived yesterday in a guitar case....

Yeah, I think he took the instructions "For use on Turkeys" a little too literally with that one.

:lol:

NIce work!! I like the look (and sound) of lace sensors too, for live work 'proper pickups' suit me just fine, but I'm playing strats more than ever at the moment, and recording with one can be a pain. I feel a project coming on

JohnA said:

...for live work 'proper pickups' suit me just fine

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Got that covered too. Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro II 8):

So what did you do? Does she now play as good as she looks?

Well, I had a good look at it, and the MIJ neck I put in there wasn't a very good fit in the pocket. You could slide a business card into the gap on the upper side of the pocket.

Given that I still have all the components of the "E" series Strat that the neck came off, I took the neck with its newly-made nut to put back with its original body (Just as soon as the new Ducati Red paint dries).

The Candy Apple Red CIJ one above now has its original maple neck back on. It's a much better fit (As you'd expect) but the original tuners were cack so I put a new set of Kluson Deluxes on there.
Unfortunately it also needs a new nut as the original plastic one is cracked below the G string. This means that whenever you try to tune it, the string pulls deeper into the crack and it goes flat. Not good.

So, the plan with this one will be to take it into the shop tomorrow for a new bone nut like the last one, and a set-up.
There are one or two grooves in the lower frets, but it doesn't seem to affect playability so unless they'll include that in the cost it can stay like it. They want a lot of money to re-crown frets and if it's not hurting anything then why pay out?

With a bit of luck they'll be able to set it up and I can use the trem, but if not they can just put all the springs on there and lock it off like on my "Clapton" model.

I'll be happy if it just comes out playable.

I still can't figure the tone pot problem though. I've followed Lace's diagram to the letter, yet the two tone pots act like treble-cut down to about 2, then volume controls from 2 to Zero! No idea why.

Given that I never use the tone controls anyway I'll probably admit defeat with that one.

I'll post some pics of the next Work-In-Progress soon. MIJ '57 Reissue in Ducati Red with Tex-Mex pickups. 8)

Well, that sounds like progress I think!! Sounds like a lot of work too, I've given up the bitsocaster project I had going, too much other stuff to do!

Pics when your all done please

Sorry can't nelp with the wiring issue, but if you post some pics of the wiring I'm sure someone will spot the deliberate mistake :wink:

Will do.

The other MIJ Project is coming along nicely, but I'm not happy with the finish.

It was originally a knackered and not very good 2-Tone sunburst, so I repainted it bright red.

I used automotive Acrylic paints, which have given a lovely even high-gloss finish, but it's extremely hard and brittle. I've managed to put two chips in it already and that's just from a couple of light knocks that wouldn't have broken the paint on the original finish. :-?

I can see myself having to do this one again at some point. Bum.

Update:

The Candy Red '57 RI with the Lace sensors has gone back into the shop, so we'll see what the experts can do with it. I should know after Christmas sometime. Fingers crossed.

Here's what I've asked for:

"FAO Workshop:

Hi Guys!

Just dropped one of my Strats off this morning (Candy Apple Red Jap '57 Reissue with Lace Sensors, in Fender case) for a quick tweak. Thought I'd email you what I need as you looked pretty busy this morning.
Basically, I dropped it in a few weeks back for a new nut, which you did, and a good job it was too, but being as the neck wasn't a particularly good fit on that body I've put that neck back on the original guitar now, so the neck that's on the candy apple red body that I dropped off today is the original.

I'd like the original (cracked) plastic nut replacing. There's a bone nut blank in the case for this.

I'd also like a set-up done, ideally I'd like to be able to use the trem. I usually set them up with three springs and the baseplate against the body, so that it takes a good push on the bar to operate it but that way it stays in tune better. You guys are the experts, but if I've got a choice I'd go with stiffer rather than looser. I'm not a shredder!
The body on this one seems to be cut so that with the trem block resting against the cavity there's about a 1/8" gap below the bridge plate rear. This is fine. Basically, if you can get the trem to work, then great, but if not just fit all the springs and lock it off Clapton stylie.

There's a bit of fret wear, but it doesn't seem to affect playability as it is. If you can clean this up easily with a quick level during set-up then go ahead, but if it's gonna be big bucks please give me a shout first.
If you need to replace the strings, I use Ernie Ball 9-42's on Strats as a rule.

Don't worry that the tone pots don't work properly. I'm going to fit a Clapton circuit board that I've got lying around spare to make it electrically the same as my main "EC" type Strat. When I get around to it! If you can just get it mechanically playable properly that'll be great.

If it's going to cost much more than around a hundred quid or so in total, please give me a shout first.
There's no rush on this one. I have a couple of other guitars and this one is really just a spare. Anytime in the New Year will be fine.

Cheers Chaps! Have a good Christmas."

The refinished one I'm working on is looking really good!

The last parts arrived today so I can get on with polishing and assembling now. I laid all the bits out loosely today and it looks great. Very much like Mark Knopfler's one from the early Dire Straits days (He had a Sunburst that was repainted in non-standard red too):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_duNqDMSQDU

I've done the same job with screening the pickguard on this one, but I'm not going to do the body cavity. Reason being that as I said above, I'm not convinced that this finish will last and I can see myself having to strip and repaint it with Polyester. If I have to remove all the copper and glue it'll take bloody ages.

Here's some pics of progress so far (Sorry about the quality - off my phone!):



And the neck. It was this guitar's Birthday two days ago! Although all that's left of the original is the body, neck, tuners and bridge. Everything else is new. Either Gotoh, Fender. CTS or Switchcraft.



The colour hasn't come out too well on the phone pics, but it's Ducati Red, like they use on their racebikes and the 916, 748, etc.

JohnA said:

I find guitars play best with the least amount of relief you can get away

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+1

MIJvintage said:

JohnA said:

I find guitars play best with the least amount of relief you can get away

Click to expand...

+1

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Stop agreeing with me it's unnerving :wink:

JohnA said:

MIJvintage said:

JohnA said:

I find guitars play best with the least amount of relief you can get away

Click to expand...

+1

Click to expand...

Stop agreeing with me it's unnerving :wink:

Click to expand...

+1

30th December:

Well, I spent last night sanding the "soft" lacquer off the red Strat body.
I'd never have been happy with it, so now it's down to the red colour coat and nicely keyed I'll wait until a mild day and spray another couple of coats of Ducati Red on it.
Once that dries I'll polish the top coat and leave it at that. I noticed that when I polished up the paint itself rather than the clear coat I got a much deeper more vibrant red anyway. Should dry pretty quick, and I doubt the neck plate will 'sink in' as the base coats were painted about a year ago now so they should be hard enough.

To ensure I'm not tempted to rush it I've ordered another set of Kluson tuners from the U.S. They'll take about a week to get here anyway. The old OE ones weren't bad, but when you shake the neck you can hear them rattle. The Klusons that I put on the C.A.R. '57 are solid as a rock. Worth the extra thirty quid in my opinion.

Next pics will be of the completed instrument. 8)