Setting up guitar, want to learn and do myself

[jhollon]

maybe i am crazy (let's say i am), i have a late 70s model strat that i have brought back to life and upgraded the pickups and all electronics and even installed an active element from guitar fetish that does the distortion on board. I really like it. My question now revolves around the setup. I have read all over the place and learned alot about setting up the thing for proper intonation and string heigth. Here is my delima......
I measured from the nut to the 12th fret and doubled that number to get the scale to roughly setup the first string nut. It comes out to 25.75". The way i understand it is that this is the distance from the nut the first string saddle should rest (i think the measurement is to the part the string lays on top of). I have that and i feel confident that i can get it intonated without a problem using the fender "roughing it" setup www.fender.com/support/setup/stratsetup.php and then i can get the it dialed in so that the 12th depressed note matches the pitch of the open string. That isn't the problem. I am trying to find the best, easiest way to make sure the neck is setup with the proper relief and the string height properly setup for the neck. Can someone out there make this a bit easier to understand so I can learn while i do this? To add to the matter, I have named my creature "Blackie Malmsteem". Let me explain (here is where my confusion sets in). the strat is black and has active features (thus the Blackie name) and the neck is scalloped and i have an HS-3 in the bridge and a YJM in the neck as well as a brass nut (thus the Malmsteen name).
Because of this, i can't figure out the neck radius easily becuase i am missing the wood between the frets. Should i just measure the frets themselves for the radius? I can get the measurements to speck if i can figure this radius and the relief right. Also, my big question is on the saddles themselves. I notice that all of the allen head screws that adjust the height are not all the same length and i am not sure that i have each of them in the correct string position. Is there a rule here to were each screw should be? Right now i have all the longest screws in the low strings and the shorter ones in the high strings. Not sure if it matters. I have noticed these www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Fretting_tools:_Fret,_fingerboard_preparation/Understring_Radius_Gauges.html and this seems to be what i want to do to make the strings conform to the radius. I don't want to buy these because i don't plan on doing this for a living and want a cheaper way to do the same thing. Can someone give me a detailed (i know i am asking for the world here) guide to setting it up and what order to do what as well as any tips and advice they may have. I want the string height as low as humanly possible without buzzing.....

thanks a ton,

Jeff

[sumgai]

jh,

Stew-Mac's in-house repair guru is Dan Erlewine. He has a book out called, of all things, Guitar Player Repair Guide. In that book, the first couple of chapters are devoted to setup issues.

Dan also has another book called How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great! I don't have this one, so I can't comment on it's quality or applicability, but if it's anything like GPRG, then I'd say that it'll give you what you want.

You can get the GPRG directly from Stew-Mac, but you'll pay full price. Shop Amazon, or even eBay, and you'll probably save a few bucks.

Stew-Mac does have other books that look interesting, but I've not seen them, so I can't comment on them either. But I'm drooling. ;D



sumgai

[tacobobbo]

Jeff: I'm not all the familiar with a scalloped neck, so....the wood in the scallops may or may NOT follow the original neck radius. Before I did too much trying and experimenting I would do this: String up your guitar and bring it up to pitch and adjust your tremelo to the desired angle. Once you have obtained where you want it....BLOCK your tremelo so it doesnt move. Then remove your 5 & 6th and 1st & 2nd strings. Using said Fender setup guide I would vary from it just a touch that instead of using a six inch ruler I would use feeler guages to measure the distance between the bottom of the string and the fret. Move to the 17th fret and measure set the heighth and clearance desired using the feeler guages for the 3rd & 4th strings. Add your 2nd & 5th and repeat. Add the 1st and 6th & repeat. Yes, you will hafta use your frets to guage the radius. Hopefully, that helps you.
Bob
P.S. If it doesnt work you can come back here and publicly criticize me. ;D

[eljib]

taco's got some good suggestions. I would add that you should probably put the longest screws for your saddles on strings 3 &4, getting shorter as you move toward the outside of the neck. Because your trem is flat, you need the longer screws in the middle to adjust height and match the radius of the FB. Although it may not matter for intonation, if you happen to strum that power chord REALLY hard on your current setup (like I did with mine) the longer screws at the top may do some serious damage to your hand.

[mikesr1963]

sumgai said:

jh,

Stew-Mac's in-house repair guru is Dan Erlewine. He has a book out called, of all things, Guitar Player Repair Guide. In that book, the first couple of chapters are devoted to setup issues.

Dan also has another book called How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great! I don't have this one, so I can't comment on it's quality or applicability, but if it's anything like GPRG, then I'd say that it'll give you what you want.

You can get the GPRG directly from Stew-Mac, but you'll pay full price. Shop Amazon, or even eBay, and you'll probably save a few bucks.

Stew-Mac does have other books that look interesting, but I've not seen them, so I can't comment on them either. But I'm drooling. ;D

sumgai

When you go to your local book store look on the clearance racks that's where I got my Guitar Player Repair Guide for $11.99.

I didn't know about the other book and just checked it out at Amazon.com. They let you see the table of contents and a few of the instruction pages too. I added to my wishlist, it's 13 dollars and change. You can't go wrong with Dan the repair guide is excellant.