Set-Up 104: Adjusting your Strat’s ‘Action’ (String Height)
There are several reasons why you may want to adjust the string action of your Stratocaster. If you’ve recently changed string gauge, the change in the string tension exerted on the neck may have an effect on the overall neck relief. Or if you want to set up a guitar for bottleneck playing, you’ll want to raise the string action to keep the slide from catching the frets.
Several factors contribute to the string action on your Stratocaster, including:
- The amount of neck relief
- Fingerboard radius
- Fret size and wear
- Nut height
- String gauge
- Bridge saddle settings
All other factors being the same, the bridge saddles will be your means of adjusting the action of your strings. Located on either side of the saddle are two small .050″ Allen screws. Adjust these will raise or lower the bridge saddle, and therefore adjust the string’s action.
When changing string height, you’ll want to reflect the radius of the fingerboard, meaning the 1st and 6th strings will be lowest, the 2nd and 5th strings will be slightly higher, and the 3rd and 4th strings will be higher still.
When adjusting the height of the bridge saddles, you’re also changing the string length, meaning the pitch of the string will have changed. Tune to pitch again and repeat the adjustment as necessary.
The Fender-recommended string-height settings are as follows (NOTE- measurements for string height are taken at the 17th fret ). As always, your settings will vary:
| Neck Radius | String Height Bass Side |
Treble Side |
| 7.25″ 9.5″ to 12″ 15″ to 17″ |
5/64″ (2 mm) 4/64″ (1.6 mm) 4/64″ (1.6 mm) |
4/64″ (1.6 mm) 4/64″ (1.6 mm) 3/64″ (1.2 mm) |
Mojo Monkey, Muddy Money, Mad Stratter’s been up to something funny
Is it possible that the good and groovy mojo that we love and know arises out of a big bad mojo bubblin’ up from down below?
Wrap your mind around that one, Jack; wrap your mind around itself and bring it right back in.Can you feel your mojo workin’ and churnin’? Scope it out, dive on in, lay back and groove on it. Where’s that burnin’ coming from?
It’s a zen thing man…
Nah man, it’s just the blues
and hopefully not the clap
Set-Up 101: Adjusting your Stratocaster’s truss rod
You can adjust the curvature of your Stratocaster’s neck by adjusting the truss rod. The truss rod adjusts the amount of ‘relief’ in the neck, and plays a significant role in the action of your guitar’s strings; too much relief and your strings will be too high off the fingerboard, too little relief will cause ‘dead strings’ and ‘fretting out’.
To determine if your Strat’s truss rod needs adjustment, sight down the edge of the fingerboard from the headstock looking toward the body, with your guitar strung and tuned to standard pitch. A properly adjusted truss rod should leave a slight concave curve to allow for string bending.
Depending on your particular model of Stratocaster, the truss rod adjustment will be found in one of two places. On modern Stratocasters, the truss rod adjustment nut is found at the headstock, just above the nut. On vintage Stratocaster, the truss rod adjustment is found at the heel of the neck.
To adjust for too much concave curvature in your neck, turn the truss rod nut clockwise. To adjust for a convex curvature in your neck, turn the truss rod nut counter-clockwise. Tune to pitch and repeat the adjustment as necessary.
The Fender-recommended neck relief for the distance between the top of the 8th fret and the bottom of the 6th string is as follows:
| Neck Radius 7.25″ 9.5″ to 12″ 15″ to 17″ |
Relief .012″ (0.3 mm) .010″ (0.25 mm) .008″ (0.2 mm) |
The wacky and wise JP from Strat-O-Blogster offers this bit of advice as well:
If I might add another tip to that, it’s also good to warm up the neck with a heating pad, and slowly turn that rod a little bit at a time until you reach the desired relief point. This is especially important with older instruments.
Thanks JP!
Anatomy 101: Getting to know your Stratocaster
Guitar Wisdom: 99 Ways to Play Better
I stumbled upon this list of 99 Ways to Play Better today & found some good stuff.
Of particular note:
- 5. Unmask
“Try cutting back on the effects in your setup. It may help you to better discover the music.” —Bill Kirchen
- 12. Move On
“Don’t be precious about anything—much less a certain guitar sound. There is always another interesting sound or effect just waiting to be discovered.” —Robin Guthrie
- 19. Literary Soloing
“Think of a guitar solo as a paragraph. You need a clear beginning, a middle, and an end. Look at musical phrases like sentences, and make sure you break them up using punctuation—or space. You pause naturally when conversing, right? If you don’t, you’ll bore the listener. The same thing will happen with your audience if your solo is one dimensional. You’ll wear them out and lose their attention.” —Tom Principato
- 32. Mix It Up
“Treat each guitar track—and each song—completely different. For example, if I’m using a certain amp and guitar on one track, I’ll deliberately use something else for the next tune or overdub.” —Keith Richards
- 36. Rhythmic Solos
“If the band is playing in 7/4 time, try to play in 4/4. When you do that sort of thing, you begin to notice certain ways in which the two rhythms synchronize over a long period of time. Thinking in these long lengths, you automatically start to develop rhythmic ideas that have a way of interconnecting.” —Jerry Garcia
- 38. Get Funky
“Forget about the fancy chords, and just concentrate on a funky beat.” —John Lee Hooker
- 41. Go Big
“Use big strings. I like a set with a .013 E string, but I’ve gone as high as a .018-.074 set. They’ll eat your hands, your tuning pegs, and your amp, but they sound great.” —Stevie Ray Vaughan
- 67. Hello, It’s Me
“Get in touch with your uniqueness—even if you don’t like it. Once the crushing realization that I wasn’t going to be Brian May or Steve Morse hit me, I had to start embracing the things I hated about my style.” —Ty Tabor
- 70. Get Out
“You must perform for an audience, because the real crunch happens when you get in front of people. You may discover that some things you played in rehearsal don’t make any sense, because you fooled around too much with the frilly stuff and forgot the basic drive of the song. Playing live also teaches you deal with situations like dropping your pick or breaking a string, as well as forcing you to project. You have to direct your playing somewhere—unless you want to sit in a room like a painter who won’t show his paintings to anybody.” —Rory Gallagher
- 71. Noise
“Once you get off the beaten path of chords and notes, any noise can be its own microcosm of songwriting. There is a deep library of songs that go from G to C. There is not a deep library of songs that use a toggle switch and a wah pedal. It’s a wide-open road.” —Tom Morello
- 91. Mess Up
“Play sloppy, make mistakes, and let those mistakes lead you to different territories and ideas. It’s important to take advantage of both the rational control and the irrational uncontrolled.” —Henry Kaiser
- 99. Trust Your Hands
“Your sound is in your hands as much as anything. It’s the way you pick, and the way you hold the guitar, more than it is the amp or the guitar you use.” —Stevie Ray Vaughan
