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Strat Quirks...


Longhair

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The idea of shimming the neck heel and raising the saddles is the easiest solution. I do this to get a bit of air between the strings and p/g (got used to that playing acoustics all my life). You also need to move the pups up naturally. I do a lot of swells so I like my volume knob close to the stock location. The Warmoth option just looks silly to me.

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If the slot is too wide you will need to replace the nut (unfortunately). Removing material is easy. Adding material is impossible in this case.

 

Buzz from low strings caused by the saddle can be remedied by getting longer saddle screws so that you can adjust them further, I guess.

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Personally I think you'll get used to the volume knob. I've heard many people swear off strats for that very reason but i've never found it to be a problem. I like having easy access to back it off or bring it back up without having to move my picking hand too far. I have block saddles on my 99 MIA and the screws are about flush on the 1st and 6th strings and a little embedded toward the middle. I prefer the block saddles for both comfort and for a little less twang/more balls to the sound.

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My problem with the volume knob location is that my playing style is close to the bridge, especially for palm muting, and it really is an obstruction for this style. If nothing else it makes you 'think' about it when you're playing which is distracting. Maybe I'll just pop off the knob and see if that works. :D

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Either round off the edges of the screw tops (careful not to break through into the hex part) or cut them shorter so they're flush or sunken.

 

As for the volume knob, I'd just get used to it. It's there for convenience and, in my opinion, if you're bumping into it your picking hand is too sloppy and should be mended anyway.

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I need bonding time with the strat so I am not making any changes other than a set up for the moment.

 

Now when people tell me to change my technique - does that mean to have my wrist floating so the pick can easily be changed from pickup to pickup (reference example) ?

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Either round off the edges of the screw tops (careful not to break through into the hex part) or cut them shorter so they're flush or sunken.


As for the volume knob, I'd just get used to it. It's there for convenience and, in my opinion, if you're bumping into it your picking hand is too sloppy and should be mended anyway.

 

No. My picking is very precise (neo-classical precise, if that helps). It is that when you are picking near the bridge and pick the strings near the volume knob - high-E, B, G, you are going to be putting your hand (mainly the pinky and ring finger) near or into the knob no matter what. I don't pick randomly - I pick precisely. And the knob is precisely in the way. :eek:

 

To put it more bluntly: I don't see changing my long established technique to move my arm towards the neck as my picking goes towards the higher strings as an efficacious technique. I also find the middle pickup, despite my love of Fender Strats, to be a bit of a bad design since when you are playing between the neck and bridge, there it is, the middle pickup in your picking range. I could lower that pickup more than usual and not use the middle position on the 5-position switch I guess. :facepalm:

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I need bonding time with the strat so I am not making any changes other than a set up for the moment.


Now when people tell me to change my technique - does that mean to have my wrist floating so the pick can easily be changed from pickup to pickup (reference example) ?

 

 

Economize your picking motion so that your hand is not traveling so far from the strings and hitting the knob.

 

I think moving the pot elsewhere is the lazy way out. Practicing to avoid inadvertently moving the knob will only make you a better player. By avoiding the knob you are exercising improved control over your pick hand. This will translate well to other guitars.

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Here is what I did about the volume knob. I usually play with an open hand near the bridge (I do a lot of palm muted riffing) so even if I don't move the pick far away from the strings it would still get in my way and piss me off. Not to mention in 2 years of owning the guitar I haven't been able to find a use for two separate tone knobs for the life of me. The way I set it up also hooks the tone knob into the bridge, which if you are keeping the 3 single coils setup actually makes the bridge usable. That part is a matter of opinion I suppose, but without being able to roll off some of the highs bridge single coils sound terrible on strats IMO. You can get a diagram for it at the seymour-duncan website if you choose to go this route. I just put a sticker over the hole for the volume knob. Its not the most professional way to go about things but if you don't have money to burn on a custom pick guard I don't see the problem with it.

 

IMG_2083.jpg

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If you get used to playing one particular style of guitar (Strat, me, as it happens), you always need to reprogram yourself slightly when switching to something else. When I play my LP-alike Vintage Lemon Drop, I often find myself hitting the PU selector on upstroke strums -- and on my PRS SE, the positioning of ITS selector, not to mention the way that it flips left-to-right rather than up-and-down, often costs me a fraction of a second simply because I haven't yet developed the reflex to switch PUs without thinking about it the way I can on Strats.

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To put it more bluntly: I don't see changing my long established technique to move my arm towards the neck as my picking goes towards the higher strings as an efficacious technique. I also find the middle pickup, despite my love of Fender Strats, to be a bit of a bad design since when you are playing between the neck and bridge, there it is, the middle pickup in your picking range. I could lower that pickup more than usual and not use the middle position on the 5-position switch I guess.
:facepalm:

 

I don't see picking in one area along the length of the strings all the time as good technique at all. Playing with such rigid constraints isn't musical in my opinion. But I don't think music is 100% about note choice. When you aren't glued to the bridge, you can get so much more depth out of what you play by varying where you pick. And it's done deliberately. Not just to accomodate some wicked run. I choose to play up where the strings have more give when I want it to sound more ornery. Toward the bridge if I want it chimey.

 

It just seems that this is kind of what happens when people buy guitars because they like the way they look. "I gotta get one of them teles" "I gotta get me one of those strats".

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Now when people tell me to change my technique - does that mean to have my wrist floating so the pick can easily be changed from pickup to pickup (reference example) ?

 

 

Personally, I just rest my hand and palm mute a few inches closer to the neck. I pick in between the neck and middle pickups. Though you're right, for a lot of heavy palm muting techniques, you do need to palm mute back at the saddles. I guess I don't play a lot of that kind of music.

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It's not from palm muting that lightly resting my hand on the bridge comes from...

 

Honestly, I don't know how it came about shrug.gif

 

I listen to one type of music however I don't see myself playing that style. By having "limitations" from one guitar to the other, that will push me into different directions musically thus justifying to the wife why I need more guitars :D

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It's not from palm muting that lightly resting my hand on the bridge comes from...


Honestly, I don't know how it came about
shrug.gif

I listen to one type of music however I don't see myself playing that style. By having "limitations" from one guitar to the other, that will push me into different directions musically
thus justifying to the wife why I need more guitars
:D

 

Might as well quit now.

 

I got a new GF.... she's never dated a musician before, and gets all dreamy eyed when I play for her.

 

I have a feeling that will quit should we last long enough to have a shared income/home and she realizes how much time/money/attention/space this hobby takes up. Particularly for me, since I am a tinkerer and a gearhead.

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Ryan, your assumptions are correct. Marriage, and even moreso, kids change everything. Not a bad thing, but the thing that attracted her to you now, your music, will eventually be the thing that takes you away from your family. It's just the way women are wired. As long as she is reasonable about it, it's all good. You want to avoid someone who pushes you to quit the things you love, that's a big red flag in any relationship.

 

Sorry for the hijack.

 

Lou

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I think my block type saddles are causing a buzz on the 1st string (sitar effect). the slot may be too wide. Anyone else notice this? Mine's a '94 40th anniversary.

 

 

Are you gettin a sitar affect only when the 1st string in played open or all over the neck. If open only then the effect is due to a poorly cut nut slot....generally where the back of the slot is slightly higher than the front. If all over the neck then it's the saddle. If you saddles are REAL low to the base plate then the break angle over the saddle won't be great enough and could be the cause of the sitar effect. Look at your bridge from the side. If the front of the block saddle is lower than the rear (in relation to the base plate) then I would put in a heel shim so you can raise the saddles and retain the desired action.

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On a modern 2-point trem with blocks, you have the option of mounting your bridge relatively high, but lowering the saddles... or screwing the bridge mounting posts lower, and raising the saddle blocks.

 

Any reason to go for one over the other?

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Some people use the proximity of the volume on the Stratocaster to do swells but I too agree that it gets in the way more than not. The idea of making the bridge tone pot a master tone and moving the volume to the neck pot sounds very interesting. Why exactly does one need two tone pots anyways? One is exclusively for the bridge pickup and the other for the neck pickup. The two never shall meet (and I don't use tone knobs anyway - isn't tone in the fingers?).
;)

 

Normal strat wiring is tone one neck tone two middle bridge has no tone control.

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