Re: Strat Setup

On Dec 28, 9:03 am, "Dr. Zontar" <drzon...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm not a luthier, and I do setups on my guitars by feel alone. I
don't measure anything.

So, I have no right to argue with a master like Erlewine. But
4-5/64th's at the 12th fret seems like ridiculously low action. 4/64
is only a 16th of an inch. Unless you're a 2-handed tapping shredder,
why would you need strings that low?

By "rattle" do you mean fret buzz? You're bound to get a little of
that if your action is that low. Strings need room to vibrate,
especially if you hit them hard.

- Rich

To each his own, but I set bass guitars up to 5-6/64 @ the low B
gradually dropping to a tight 4/64 on the G string. I typically set
guitars up from 3 -4/64 on the low E to 2 -3/64 on the high E. The
fret leveling needs to be correct & the neck almost straight for this
to work correctly. If someone is getting buzzes with action higher
than this I strongly suspect that the frets are not level. BTW, in my
experience many brand new guitars have poorly leveled frets. PRS,
Parker & (of course) Spector USA come to mind as a couple companies
that do it right. Korean instruments manufactured by World Musical
Instruments (Schecter, Spector imports, PRS imports, etc) are
generally ahead of the curve on the fretwork...If they could only get
their wiring together...everyone else...well, you takes your chances!

Jim Eppard
www.spectorbass.com
.

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