Biddlin's foolproof setup method

Please allow me to share our friend Wade’s strat bridge setup method as well.


“Uncle Wade's Super Secret Fender tremolo set up.... It's so easy it's STUPID!
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Go and find you an old leather belt. You know, a standard thickness and one that you don't mind taking a 3" hunk out of to make it just long enough to fit under the bridge. Dump your wammy bar down and slip that piece of leather just under the back of the bridge so it holds the bridge off the body. The leather won't scratch or damage the instrument either, OK.... Tune to pitch with each string. Then adjust your springs within the body cavity with the instrument vertical (like in a playing position) and do the adjustment real easy. As you near the right bit of tension the small piece of leather will gently fall from the instrument. When it does this, you're all set with a floating bridge. The 3" hunk of leather weighs very little and it will have just enough heft to it to fall away on it's own when the setting is right. Is that easy or what???

Another reason to keep that strip of leather around is when you go to change strings, before you do, slip the leather under the back of the bridge again and then you can remove all the strings. Clean the board. And string up with very little effort to get back into tune and not be winding tons of excess string on the pegs in the process. Makes for super fast string changes with a "floater"....

When in luthier school they taught us to use a block wedge in the body cavity to hold the spring block in place, but that was always inconsistent and a pain in the ass to use. I thought of this leather trick one day when I cut up an old belt for a razor strop and the cut off end was sitting there and the ideal popped into me head. Guess I just hated wasting stuff too!
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This trick works wonders when you change string gauges too. Cuts the set up time down to almost nothing!

And to think that I used to charge $45 to do this (strings included in a basic setup) at the shop using my belt tip trick.
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BGood said:
This subject has to be pinned somewhere.
Thanks Biddlin.

Begin by setting the bridge height for frets 17-21(2) so that the strings play buzz free at the lowest possible height.

Start with low E. Lower the bass side until it buzzes, raise until clear. Check A and D raise slightly if needed to get clean notes. Then do the treble side. If you bend notes up here, try a few typical bends, to make sure they don't buzz out.

When all strings play clean go to the lower frets and neck relief. Play the high E string from fret 1 to fret 16, increasing relief (loosening trussrod) to relieve buzz or decreasing relief (tightening trussrod) to lower the string height. So tighten, by fractional turns, until it buzzes and back off until it doesn't. If you bend strings , do your typical bends to insure they don't buzz out. Once satisfied, check the other strings and make small adjustments as needed.

Once you have acceptable relief, i.e. no buzz and easy action, set your intonation and you're done.

This is the opposite order of most setup directions. It is based on performance and not measurements, hence, I don't take any. It works because the neck is immobile between frets 17 and 22. The trussrod only affects lower frets. By setting the upper end first, you know any buzzes are coming from too little relief. This method works for most guitars, with truss rods.
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I tune the guitar with the old strings and then set the neck relief before I take off the old strings and begin the setup process. This saves time in the end since the relief is already set before you start adjusting the saddle heights. Setting the saddles first then adjusting the relief to only have to come back and readjust the saddle height again just adds an extra step to this process. You can also check relief without strings on the guitar by flexing the neck with your hands to simulate the string tension.
 
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