When Stratocaster Nuts Drive You Nuts - Keeping The 6-Screw Fender Tremolo In Tune:

[chilipeppermaniac]

Eric Johnson Strat experts, String tree?

I recall seeing somewhere that real earlier EJ strat from 2005/6 do have string tree on the headstock. Can anyone validate this to be the case? I know majority EJ out there do not. Shopping form EJ just want to better educate my self. Thanks

www.thegearpage.net

 

[Inspector #20]

have you put it through the ringer yet?
you know, heavy duty bends near the headstock and all that?
if it works, you're good to go.

Yes. So far, so good...

 

[Inspector #20]

Hmmm....so, maybe .046" x .008"???

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Hmmm....so, maybe .046" x .008"???

Umm Well Robert, Let me see. Broken Picks., Frequently worn Nuts, If I remember right, Fairly often worn Saddles.

Maybe 8's are a wee bit light for a heavy handed style.

 

[Inspector #20]

Umm Well Robert, Let me see. Broken Picks., Frequently worn Nuts, If I remember right, Fairly often worn Saddles.

Maybe 8's are a wee bit light for a heavy handed style.

Maybe!!!!

But, i'm also playing in the studio everyday and playing in bands at night, so my guitars are getting a 6 day a week workout...

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Here is my other thought. Strings are cheap enough. Try em and if they suck,. chuck em and go to old faithful

 

[Inspector #20]

@chilipeppermaniac - Here's a video of us playing "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac. The video is a collage from different shows and soundchecks.

In this song, I play my part mostly fingerpicked. I never back my amp settings down, I just roll guitar volume off to clean things up a bit.

 

[Inspector #20]

Rehearsal day....

 

[Inspector #20]

The rain turned to a light snow in Cherry Valley. The garage was cold. When we tried to run the heaters, it would blow the breaker, so we had to wing it.

This was our first rehearsal without our #3 guitarist, and it was a big change for me. I'm now having to play everything clean and it feels so strange to me to have no "punch" when I strum my guitar....Sad....

 

[Inspector #20]

On the up-side, I can tremolo dive YelloStrat as much as I want with zero tuning issues. I did several 11 semitone dive bombs without any change in tuning.

11 semitones is how far this will go with the bar against the pickguard.

 

[syscokid]

@chilipeppermaniac - Here's a video of us playing "Dreams" by Fleetwood Man. The video is a collage from different shows and soundchecks.

In this song, I play my part mostly fingerpicked. I never back my amp settings down, I just roll guitar volume off to clean things up a bit.

Nice! I can't really tell how much your guitar is influencing the sound of the song, unless yours is the only one with a chorus effect that I'm hearing.

The lady lead singer has a very sweet and smooth sounding singing voice.

 

[Inspector #20]

Nice! I can't really tell how much your guitar is influencing the sound of the song, unless yours is the only one with a chorus effect that I'm hearing.

The lady lead singer has a very sweet and smooth sounding singing voice.

I think we are all using chorus on that song.

Watch where we are on the old trailer with the wire railing in front of us. I kind of arpeggiate the chords by picking across the strings backwards, dedicating a single finger to each string of the chord. It's subtle, but I think it gives the song depth...

 

[Inspector #20]

The footage of me at 0:36 with the Les Paul is actually footage of "The Break Up Song" so the playing appears totally wrong.

 

[Inspector #20]

Tried a lot of different string lengths on this guitar. What I discovered was the strings don't stretch around the post, they stretch between the intonation points.

I used different lengths to give me the amount of pressure that I felt was needed in the nut.

E = 30"

A = 31"

D = 32"

g = 34-1/2"

b = 35-1/2"

e = 36-1/2"

I very quickly cut my new strings to these lengths and installation with vintage hollow-post tuners is super fast.

The strings also stretch within just a few minutes of playing because the taper of the post keeps the winds super tight.

The tuning stability is absolutely on par with my Floyd Rose equipped guitars.

 

[Inspector #20]

I found these interesting...



And string tree placement...

 

[Inspector #20]

This is how I set up my old neck...no pressure at all on the 'D' string...

 

[Inspector #20]

So,

I've been experimenting with nut floor profiles.

Here are the published Fender nut slot dimensions for .009 x .046 strimgs:

E:	1.4732mm / 0.058"
A:	1.2192mm / 0.048"
D:	0.9652mm / 0.038"
G:	0.7112mm / 0.028"
B:	0.4826mm / 0.019''
e:	0.3556mm / 0.014"

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Tried a lot of different string lengths on this guitar. What I discovered was the strings don't stretch around the post, they stretch between the intonation points.

Interesting detail and on par process for a Robert Herndon equipped instrument. Knowing your story of dad and you at junk yards looking for the proper bolts for engines, etc makes this to be expected.

I also own ONE guitar with vintage tuners. I never gave consideration to actually measuring the strings to a specific length with intonation points as a parameter to consider stretching wise. Of course mine is a string thru body and I usually just do the stretch the string a couple posts past the one it goes in, and snip it there then insert in the right tuner and tune to pitch method.

 

[Inspector #20]

I wasn't happy with the variation of the first fret string height. Certainly, this isn't a big deal for some, but I like my strings to rise near the center of the fretboard.

My actual preferences at the first fret are:

E: .018"

A: .020"

D: .022"

G: .024"

B: .022

E: .020"

So, I decided to make some adjustments...

 

[Inspector #20]

Ok,

So, my first goal is to fill the 'G' string slot:



Fill slot with bone dust...



Add super glue liquid...



More dust, more super glue...



Filled and leveled...



Cut new slot...



Testing...



Ready to go...