Strat Action/ Bridge Setup

[jimmymackisback]

A question for all you techies - help needed here.

Setting up my Custom Shop Strat after tightening up the truss rod, the action is too low. The neck is now straight with a tiny bit of relief, but not much. The 1st and 2nd strings play very well and sustain nicely on the 12-15th frets, but the 6-5-4 strings are too low from the bottom up to the 12 th fret.

My choices seem to be: shim the neck to increase the angle and thereby raise the action, or raise the saddles.
The saddles are now at the top of their respective screws.

IS IT PREFERABLE TO HAVE THE SADDLES AT THE TOP OF THEIR SCREWS or low and closer to the bridge baseplate, thereby necessitating the shimming in the neck pocket????

My other 2 Strats have steeper neck angles and the saddles are lower, and play just fine

Opinions???

[Stratosaurus]

I'm no techie so take everything I say with a grain of salt for your own protection. But I am under the impression that the higher the saddles are, the greater the downward pressure the strings create over the saddles; resulting in a slight bit more sustain. However keeping the saddles low is great for comfort.

I could be, and probably am, completely full of it though.

Shimming, IMO, is really more of a last resort thing for me. I don't like having the saddle height screws digging into my hand. But if you are running out of saddle height screw threads it sounds like your only option.

Is the nut cut right?

[WickedGTR]

How high is the bridge floating? (or is it?) That can affect the saddle height.... I assume it is a vintage style (not 2 point) bridge....if so make sure the screws that hold the bridge down are loose enough to allow normal bridge plate travel.

I set the float angle by a rule of thumb (rather than the feeler gauge). I set the tension on the springs (therefore the float angle) so that an E note on the G string (9th fret)will go a full step sharp with the bar pulled all the way up.

I have set up a lot of strats, with different string gauges and this method always works for me. I'll occasionally shim the neck (slightly) at one end of the pocket (usually the bridge side) to get the action consistent down the neck.

(did I set a new record for parenthesis in one post?)

[GTO]

The neck is now straight with a tiny bit of relief, but not much.

I presume you want a nearly straight neck for a reason?But it would help if you could say what the objective is. Guitar setup is about the necessary tweaks to get to your end goal. In any case shimming the neck is a last resort, or a specific requirement, it shouldn't be something you think is a normal tweak. I would suggest you just start again completely from scratch, and set the guitar up as it was intended, floating trem and all. You can then lower the action, or whatever, from known parameters which help you keep track of what you are doing. The Strat setup guide is here

http://www.fender.com/support/setup/stratsetup.php

[Joe-Bob]

Sounds like you may have the neck just a bit too straight. Also, you can let the bridge float a little higher, (if you want it to float ay all).