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Case Studies

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New Fender American Strat needs strings changed to lighter gauge but found manufacturing flaws along the way.

Case Study 1

New Fender American Strat needs strings changed to lighter gauge but found manufacturing flaws along the way.

Here I check the string height at the nut on low E. It was .039. Spec is .024 so when I checked all six strings at the nut they were too high which means, from the first fret up, it would be hard to play this expensive ($1,800.00) guitar.

Here I measure the string height at the 12th fret and it is also higher than specifications so this guitar plays more like a $300.00 guitar. The guitar was .080 at the 12th fret. Spec is .078.

My remedy for this Stratocaster was to file out the nut slots on all six strings to get an even lower than spec height and lower the saddles at the bridge accordingly.

I finished up filing the nut and now polish up this beauty, restring it and here’s the tally of what was done. The proud owner Steve Conroe of Piranha Sound in Erie stated this plays amazing, now better than when it came from the Fender factory.

ESP Strat | ESP Clean Controls | ESP Steel Wool | ESP Condition

Case Study 2

ESP Strat
This is another of Steve’s guitars he bought used and had me do a re-fret because somebody tried to re-fret the guitar at some point and it had excessive buzzing and dead spots. Now it was in for a maintenance check up.

ESP Clean Controls
Here I’m going through and cleaning the volume and tone pots as well as the 5-way pickup selector switch I replaced a few years earlier with a Fender switch because the original was cheap and fell apart.

ESP Steel Wool
I steel wool the fretboard to get all the grime off, especially on the edge of every fret.

ESP Condition
Now it’s time to protect the rosewood board. I use a special conditioner. This should be done 3 to 4 times per year. When Steve played this guitar he laughed and said that, with the fret job and the guitar freshly set up, it played better than his Fender Strat…but he still loves his strat.

Heres an Ibanez acoustic electric that's never been serviced and not played much because of extremely high string action, so let's get to work.

Case Study 3

Ibanez Acoustic
Heres an Ibanez acoustic electric that’s never been serviced and not played much because of extremely high string action, so let’s get to work.

Ibanez 12 Fret
String height is .120 and specification is .090. This means there is only one remedy and that is to remove the saddle from the bridge and file it down, but only if there will be enough string angle from the bridge pins so the strings won’t buzz on the saddle when playing.

I measured the bridge, saddle and height of the neck where it joins the body and determined how much drop I should be able to go. So I measure the side of the bridge and mark it by using a nut file and running it back and forth. Then I use a marker to fill the notch I put in the side of the saddle; then wipe off the excess and I have a nice clear line to go by. I use a special vise that has angled up sides so I can see the work much better than in a regular vise. I use a heavy rasp to knock it down and a smooth file to put a nice edge on it. This is important because the saddle sits on top of the pick up in the bridge.

After all the filing, I check for square because equal pressure throughout the saddle is important so all strings are picked up equaly in volume by the pick up under the saddle.

Ibanez Final String Height
I put the old strings back on in case I needed to go over something and I could test it out. So this guitar started out with a string height of .120 at the 12th fret. Specification is .090. Now I got it down to .082. It turned out playing beautifully. All I need to do was set the neck releif for the extremely low action and change the strings. Steve was amazed when he played this guitar. He said, “I was ready to just sell it but now I don’t think I could find one to play as nice as you got this to play.”

This is a classical guitar that needed lower string action because the standard string height made it difficult to play chords clean without muting strings unwontedly and causing finger and hand fatigue.

Case Study 4

Stock Fret
This is a classical guitar that needed lower string action because the standard string height made it difficult to play chords clean without muting strings unwontedly and causing finger and hand fatigue.

Fret Removal
Here as the frets are removed. You can see the fret slots are rough. I used a special tool I had made to clean out all left over glue and loose wood.

New Fret
Before I start to lay fretwire, I sanded the fretboard and vacumed out the slots. I pre-curved the fret wire to a 10 radius so it would have more curve than the fretboard which was flatter with a 20 radius. Over the years I came up with a formula of how much pre-curve is needed depending on the fretboard that I’m working on at the time. So when I use my fret mallet the frets seat in very snug.

Neck Relief
After I planed the sides of the frets I re-strung the guitar to check neck relief. I find this is important because I sanded the freatboard and using my specail notched level I can check the backbow of the neck only and she looks perfect. This tells me that, if I have a fret buzz, it is not the neck but would be the frets and some extra work filing the uneven frets to clear that issue up would be in order. As it turns out this re-fret job is perfect because there was no buzzing.

Fret Dressing | String Height Open | String Height 12th Fret

Case Study 5

Fret Dressing
After basic filing of the fret edge to get it level to the sides of the neck it has to be dressed. Here I use a special sloted cover that allows me to dress each fret without digging into the fretboard. Dressing the fret is essentially smoothing out the rough edges left by the files and this special sanding stick puts a nice smooth edge on those frets.

String Height Open
Here the gauge reads @ .015 at the first fret that is now half of the factory set up which was .030 and there is no buzz on the open strings.

String Height 12th Fret
On the 12th fret the new string height is.140 the factory was .160. That’s .20 lower than factory so raising the fret height was equal to dropping the string height by the thickness of a low E string at the 12th fret and one and a half E string thickness down to the open string. The playability of this guitar was greatly improved in my opinion, better than any off the rack guitar. So if you have a nice guitar but it you would like it to play easier with less aches in the fingers or hands call or e-mail your questions to me 24/7.

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