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My First Setup. Help Please.


Know-dem-scales

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I have to agree - that bridge pickup looks way too high. 

Can you post pictures of the pickups from the sides so we can get a better idea how high you have all three of them set?

The bridge looks to be in the ballpark as far as the saddles go, but you really have to rely on the tuner and the open vs 12th fret octaves for that... 

 

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Nah, I did not lower the bridge pickup.  Just slipped my mind after supper and family is over during the whole Covid thing.  I will do that tomorrow.  Also, I guess I need to put the string trees back on.  Will this mess up intonation or just the basic tuning?  

Also, which aftermarket tuners will just drop into the SX headstock with no mods?  Are there any?

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21 hours ago, Know-dem-scales said:

Also, which aftermarket tuners will just drop into the SX headstock with no mods?  Are there any?

Stewmac gives measurements of the tuners they sell. Since we can't see yours, measure them and find something with the same measurements. I use a Wittner GT2 analog tuner for setting intonation. It's not perfect but it's better than a Snark IMHO. Compare the 12th fret harmonic to the same string fretted at the 12th fret.

Wittner.jpg.beac9dca0477930b2c2f6297e1e81460.jpg

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Yeah man.  I lowered all pickups and compared my American Professional Strat and used it as a guide.  Used open note and 12th fret harmonic.  They are same.  Action is still a bit high, but I feel the truss rod won’t turn much more.  Saddles are kinda low also.  I will measure when tools come in.

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9 hours ago, Know-dem-scales said:

I lowered all pickups and compared my American Professional Strat and used it as a guide.

Unless the pickups are identical your American Strat is just a guide. If the second guitar's pickups have stronger magnets they'll pull harder. Go ahead and lower 'em some more and see if that does any good.

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On 3/29/2020 at 4:03 AM, Know-dem-scales said:

Yeah man.  I lowered all pickups and compared my American Professional Strat and used it as a guide.  Used open note and 12th fret harmonic.  They are same.  Action is still a bit high, but I feel the truss rod won’t turn much more.  Saddles are kinda low also.  I will measure when tools come in.

I need to chime in here too.  The open note and the 12th fret harmonic will always be in tune by definition.   Its the fretted 12th fret note and the harmonic that need to be in tune.    And of course turning the truss rod isn't how you set the action.

I lower the pickups as much as possible, do all the action settings in  order (since they affect intonation), then once the action is perfect, set the intonation.   After that is done bring the pickups up and balance them.

I wrote this for another forum, it might be helpful as you are trying to learn how to do setups

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/basic-setup.952636/

 

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2 hours ago, Know-dem-scales said:

. . . But if there is a huge U shape in the neck, frets 7-10 or so will be a pretty good ways from the strings.

If you mean the neck has a lot of bow, that's excessive relief. Among other things, excessive relief can cause fretted notes to be sharp. I usually shoot for 0.01" or so at the 8th fret. Here's how Fender recommends setting up a Strat: https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/212774786-How-do-I-set-up-my-Stratocaster-guitar-properly- You'll need a capo, an Allen wrench in the correct size, and a set of feeler gauges.

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Greetings,  I am brand new to guitar but played East Indian Stringed instruments for @50yrs. A sitar requires frequent and precise maintenance so I'm not shy about doing my own set ups. I watched the YouTube member "Daves wonderful world of stuff" vids to get the basic steps down.  Something he stress's is clean. Looking at your pics I would remove the strings for a short time and really clean the bridge, saddles (the saddles look like they might not operate as smoothly as you would want when you get to the final step of intonation, fretboard and any other place finger oils and dust and schmutz accumulates. Fretboards collect amazing amounts of cr*p on the inside edges and even in the wood pores of fretboards. Its much better to work on mechanical components when they are clean.

When shes all clean restring to tension and adjust the bridge. I use a small metal metric ruler to set my string height. If the bridge is correct but the string action is still wrong adjust neck relief the object is to eliminate string buzz or strings contacting frets anywhere on the board.

If your neck adjustment was correct look at the bridge again and adjust as needed. *note: if you can find the bridge and PUP specs  for your guitar that gives an optimum or median measurement from the guitar deck to the bottom of the strings. Adjust the bridge and you will have a data point to judge how much you will need to adjust the neck. This should be done prior to the truss rod adjustment.

Hopefully by now the strings should clear the pickups by enough to allow adjusting the PUPs. There are a lot of vids on pickup clearance on the UTube. adjust according to your ear a chimera or a past life experience. You will probably go through these steps a couple of times

adjust>play>adjust>play=Guitar God!!

I'm not nearly as good as some of the luthiers' online and my experience is primarily on floating bridge guitars with tremolo. But I hope it helps. If your really unhappy with your results find  luthier with good reputation and be specific on what you would like the instrument to do.

I'm setting up a Gretsch 5422 right now and finding it a challenge, the b and g string "Bark" with a real fast and harsh attack. I haven't had the cojones to remove the neck bridge since I read that the Filtrons on this model have to be removed and surgery done to the PU cavity to lower the pick ups. If it still creates butthurt I'll travel the 200 miles to a luthier.

Good luck and if it ain't fun it ain't nuttin"

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