- 1 week ago
From pickup selection to essential maintenance, this guide walks you through getting the most out of your Strat. We explore the versatile tones of EMG SA pickups and provide practical advice on guitar setups, neck alignment, and more.
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00:13hi this is Richard for guitarist magazine and I'm here today to tell you about three things you can
00:19do to get the best out of your strat or strat type guitar a few people have asked me about
00:25this
00:26particular guitar I've brought with me today so let's start with that it's a parts caster basically
00:32a mixture of fender licensed parts put together for me by a friend of mine called Alan Knight
00:37over the time I've had it I've made various changes to the original spec which was three single coils
00:45and a vintage tremolo I'll talk a little bit more about that as we go through the video but briefly
00:51you can see that I've fitted the EMGs and I'd like to get this point out of the way as
00:56soon as
00:56possible these are not super powerful metal pickups these are EMG SA's of the kind used by Mark Knopfler
01:04David Gilmour Steve Lukather there are preamps in the guitar as well but I'm not using those I've got
01:11that all dialed off so this is very similar to a kind of full-bodied sounding 60s strat apart from
01:18the pickups the only other major deviation from vintage spec really is that this is a 10 inch radius
01:25mind you as I'm going to go through the the radius it's not necessarily a deal breaker I think that
01:31the
01:32vintage radius works really well too I have another strat not identical to this but set up very similarly
01:37this is a working guitar that's why it has the spec it has I need it to be reliable I
01:42need it to stay in
01:43tune I've got a Japanese reissue that I've customized in a very similar way and that's the vintage radius
01:49and I'm very comfortable playing that too I'm plugged into the studio's Vox AC15 the hand-wired version
01:55and I've set up a fairly grimy tone actually and I thought it might be nice to just calibrate our
02:01ears
02:02by going through the pickup selections so start with the bridge and I'll just go up through the five positions
02:16with that kind of dirt I can vary my picker tech or maybe even use the volume control to clean
02:21things
02:22up but my feeling is that absolutely clean isn't all that flattering unless we're going for a real 60s thing
02:40so
02:45the
02:46the
02:46the
02:47the
02:48the
02:48the
02:49the
02:49the
02:50the
02:58guitar solo
03:29guitar solo
03:56guitar solo
03:59For this first point, and it's a very basic piece of advice, that is get your guitar set up properly,
04:05and then you can maintain that.
04:08I think get it set up once a year probably is an idea.
04:11That doesn't necessarily mean fret work, it just means the adjustments like your neck relief, things like the intonation.
04:19So, assuming that you're starting with a fairly well set up instrument, the things that I tend to keep an
04:25eye on with these, bearing in mind that they travel around a lot and they get bashed around in the
04:29hold of aircraft, is I keep an eye on the neck alignment.
04:32That's something that's relatively easy to make sure, you make sure that the spacing of the strings is the same
04:38either side, and make sure that these bolts on the back are not over tightened, but tight enough to hold
04:44it in place.
04:44Sometimes, I will loosen them just a half turn, reposition and tighten up again.
04:50So, that's something that you can do yourself if you're careful.
04:55Another thing to bear in mind, and this applies probably to any guitar really, is that you don't want to
05:01let them get too cold for too long.
05:04I find that if you put it in the case and store it somewhere cold, by the time you get
05:09it out again, your setup's going to be all over the place.
05:12The neck's going to have moved.
05:14I think it probably takes about three or four days for the thing to return to normal.
05:18So, obviously, when traveling, you can't avoid some temperature changes, but they're being played all the time then, and so
05:26that minimizes the amount of problems.
05:29I think that keeping the guitar out of the case with a flow of reasonably warm air around it is
05:34a good way of keeping it in pretty good shape.
05:37I've found this with my own guitars and a couple of bass guitars that I've got.
05:41It works much better.
05:42In fact, I can pick them up off my rack and they're usually in tune.
05:46Next up, I'd like to talk about intonation and string height.
05:50So, if we start with the intonation, a great way to check that is to play the open string and
05:56then compare it with the 12th fret.
06:01Another way I like to do this is to do the harmonic at the 12th fret.
06:10So, that's quite a good way of checking you, obviously, go across all the strings and check that.
06:15Now, when you find a problem, the way that this works is these six adjustable saddles on here can go
06:24forward or back.
06:25Forward being towards the neck, back being away from you.
06:28If the note is flat, you come forward just a little bit at a time and then retune and then
06:35double check.
06:36You can also try playing whole chords.
06:44Sometimes single coil pickups will pull the string a little bit at the top, but we're going to get into
06:49that later on.
06:51So, on to string height.
06:53This depends very much on the kind of playing that you want to do.
06:57So, if you want to play Alan Holdsworth type legato, hammer-ons, pull-offs, then a lower action and a
07:03lighter string is going to work better for you.
07:05But if you want to switch from that straight to doing a really tough kind of who-style Townsend rhythm
07:11part, then that's not going to work so well.
07:13Things are going to start sounding a bit pingy and weak.
07:17So, I think that we'll work on the premise, the assumption that we're going to use a standard gauge set
07:25at a reasonable height.
07:26So, let's say 10 to 46, or if you're looking for a uniform feel between your Strat and your Les
07:34Paul guitars, I use a 10 on the top of a Gibson guitar or Gibson scale length.
07:39And I found these Ernie Bulb sets, which are 9.5 to 46.
07:43I think they're called turbo slinking.
07:469.5, 12, 16, 26, 36, 46 as it goes down.
07:51And that gives me a really good compromise.
07:53I can bend, and as you can hear, without the amp on there, you can hear that there's a certain
08:04amount of rattle if I really whack it, but not too much.
08:09It's a balance, and it affects the tone when you are plugged in a lot.
08:23So, there's no need to use 13 to 56 or anything like that to get a tough sound.
08:28It's just a matter of making small adjustments, and that can be every bit as effective as adjusting the tone
08:33controls on your amp.
08:35So, I think that with those tips, you can optimise the tone that you're getting out of the instrument.
08:41One final point.
08:43The string height on this particular guitar is about 1.5mm from the top of the 12th fret to the
08:50bottom of the top E string.
08:53And at the bottom E, then it's getting towards 2mm, though I try and get away with a little bit
08:59less if I can.
09:00I'll start with those measurements, and I'll see if I can go a little bit down from there without it
09:06sounding pingy or choky.
09:08I think it's best not to be too minuscule about these adjustments, because when you're travelling, sometimes things will move
09:16a little bit.
09:16But that gives you the full kind of insight that I can give on what the height of the string
09:22does to the tone.
09:24So, having gone into all that detail about string height, I would like to just qualify with one final point.
09:29And that is that, yes, it's true that you can change the tone with the string height, but I want
09:35to wheel back to the first point I made, which is get your guitar set up properly by someone experienced.
09:41Because, though each individual thing, the intonation, the intonation, the string height, the neck relief, these are all relatively simple
09:48things to adjust, but balancing them all so that they work together to make a really good playing guitar is
09:54not so simple.
09:55So, I'll give you that bit of advice about tone, but then say, get your guitar set up.
10:02Right, we're ready to move on to number two.
10:07All right, time to talk about this thing here.
10:12Vibrato, tremolo, whammy.
10:14Leo Fender called it a tremolo, arguably in error, but it's so ingrained in my mind, I'm afraid I'm going
10:20to have to keep calling it a tremolo.
10:23As you can see, this is a relatively vintage style tremolo, though it does have the block stainless steel saddles
10:30on it,
10:31which some later strats had from the factory.
10:34I've changed to those because I preferred the tone to the pressed steel kind, which are a bit more delicate
10:41and arguably more vintage.
10:44But that doesn't really change the advice that I'm going to give you about keeping a strat in tune.
10:50So, we have to be realistic about this, but there are a lot of things that you can do,
10:56and I've got two similar guitars, and I do tour with them all over the place, and they stay in
11:03tune pretty well.
11:03So, I think that I've got a few valuable bits of advice for you here.
11:08First of all, let's assume that you've got this tremolo set floating.
11:14The factory spec is about two to three mil here, resting above the body.
11:20This is adjustable via springs at the back of the guitar.
11:24You'll see that I've got the remains of some electrical tape on here.
11:28I'll come back to that.
11:30These springs I've got set up in this formation, and the reason for that is because many years ago,
11:36I read an interview with David Gilmore's Guitar Tech in Guitarist magazine about how he sets up David's guitars,
11:44and he said he's got the middle one going straight up and these two coming in.
11:48So, I did mine like that, and I've done it like that ever since, and it's worked quite well.
11:54Maybe, maybe it makes no difference, but I've found that it works, so if it ain't broke and all that.
12:00The springs need to be in reasonable condition, but you're looking at years and years
12:04before you have any problems like that.
12:08Adjust these further into the body, and it'll pull the bridge down.
12:13Release them, and it'll allow the bridge to come up.
12:16So, this is set about factory spec.
12:20Now, I don't measure the back end of the bridge.
12:22What I do is I'll play the bottom E and pull the trem up as far as it will go.
12:30And to about F sharp, or maybe a bit below, or perhaps this country bend.
12:37Then I know that it's going to give me
12:42the kind of Ritchie Blackmore vibe that I want.
12:46I can wobble up, and I can wobble down.
12:49So, for now, that's dealt briefly with how things should be set up at this end,
12:53but, of course, none of that really matters if this end isn't set up right.
12:58Job number one is make sure that the nut is cut properly.
13:01That's the job for luthier.
13:04Also, what you can do is there are various products available,
13:07but you can just use pencil, graphite, Vaseline.
13:11I've got some Dunlop stuff.
13:13Put it in the nut slots each time you restring, which should be done regularly,
13:17and they should be fitted properly on here,
13:20no more than two or three wraps around each post.
13:23Now, there are a couple more things on top of that.
13:26You'll see this has a retainer there.
13:28Some of the 70 Strats have two retainers on.
13:31What I've done with this one is that,
13:33rather than have the retainer pulling the top E and B strings
13:37right down against the headstock,
13:39that sets up quite an angle going over the nut
13:42and quite a lot of friction.
13:45They're easy to get.
13:46I've bought a tall washer to go underneath this retainer,
13:50which minimizes the angle that is coming off towards the post of the tuner here.
13:56I've got more to tell you about that in a moment,
13:58but you'll see that there's an angle here
14:00and we'll have a close-up shot of that in a moment.
14:04Moving on to the tuners themselves,
14:06a vintage style set should be completely good enough,
14:10but being a bit of a tinkerer,
14:11I decided to have a mess around with a staggered post set
14:15because I'd heard that that was what Eric Johnson's Strat had,
14:19which pretty much eliminated the need for a retainer.
14:23Has it made a difference?
14:25I don't know.
14:26A bit.
14:26A bit.
14:27They're not expensive,
14:28so they might be worth a try.
14:29The E and A, D and G and the B and E strings are all slightly shorter as you go
14:36along,
14:36so you get that slightly greater angle.
14:39I mean, I've also owned guitars with Spursal locking.
14:44There are various brands available.
14:45These particular ones were Spursal and they work great.
14:48I had that guitar for about 20 years and toured with it,
14:50and they worked well too.
14:52One final obvious point is that when you restring,
14:56make sure that you stretch them in properly.
14:58Just pull them until they come back in tune and balance the whole thing out.
15:03Right.
15:03There is one thing that I said I was going to come back to,
15:06and that's this tape on the back,
15:07which is looking a bit raggedy and coming off.
15:09I need to replace it.
15:10The reason this is there is because if I happen to be playing loud with a bit of gain,
15:15then these can ring a bit,
15:16and that just dampens them down a bit.
15:18Some people like that sound.
15:20I don't.
15:21So there's the reason for that.
15:24Right.
15:25Flipping this back over,
15:26there's one more thing that I wanted to share with you, actually,
15:28and that is about the arm itself as it goes into the block.
15:32One of the things that I personally really dislike,
15:35and I've heard other players talk about,
15:36is when the arm gets a bit slack.
15:38When you've used it a few times and the threads start to wear,
15:41then it can feel a bit sloppy in there,
15:44and it doesn't stay where you put it.
15:46So there are a few ways of getting around that problem.
15:50And one of the best, most effective, and cheapest,
15:53is to buy a roll of plumber's tape or PTFE tape.
15:57Take the arm out, wrap a bit of that around there,
16:00and then screw it back in.
16:01Job done.
16:02And that'll last you for a while.
16:04The other way is to get a block with a plug-in arm like this,
16:07which is great for travelling with.
16:09Just plug it back in each time,
16:11and you can tighten up this little Delrin collar.
16:14So that's another possibility you might want to think about.
16:21So our third and final thing, pickups.
16:24I've already mentioned that you can change your pickups around
16:28and get different tones from your Strat,
16:31but I think that the point I really want to make here is
16:34that there isn't really a classic Strat sound that works for everybody.
16:39If we think about the more vintage Strat players,
16:43Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore,
16:44they both got very different sounds out of the standard setup,
16:48which you can change using the pickup heights.
16:50But before I get ahead of myself,
16:52I wanted to mention that David Gilmore's Strat,
16:55his black Strat, which he's gone back to using,
16:57has a bridge pickup.
16:59I think it's an SSL 5.
17:00That thing is over 13k.
17:03That's a very powerful pickup.
17:05That is not what most people would call a classic Strat pickup,
17:09but we've all heard the solo from Comfortably Numb
17:11and I think we can all agree that that's a pretty classic Strat tone.
17:15At the other end of the spectrum,
17:17a player like Eric Johnson uses a lower wind
17:19and he's got those real sparkling hi-fi cleans.
17:22Of course, that is also aided by his Fender Twin amps,
17:26but the source sound of the guitar is quite bright
17:29and I think that he uses slightly higher value pots
17:32in his signature guitar to allow more of that ultra high end through.
17:36The point is there are various pickups available
17:38to trim your Strat sound to the ideal that you hear in your head.
17:42As I've just said, a lower wind will give you a more hi-fi quality,
17:46lower output too.
17:47A higher output with more windings on,
17:50you'll start to shave off that ultra high end.
17:52It'll be getting closer to a humbucker tone
17:54with more warmth, mids and low end
17:57and you can go quite a long way in that direction.
17:59I've mentioned David Gilmore's bridge pickup on his black Strat.
18:03You can go noiseless.
18:05There are actually mini humbuckers that fit into the Strat route.
18:08The possibilities are pretty endless.
18:10It's something that's very well worth researching online
18:13and I would recommend that whoever you've got to do your setup,
18:16get them to fit the pickups unless you're great with a soldering iron.
18:19But before we go there,
18:21there is something very simple that you can try
18:23and that is the heights of the pickups.
18:26If the pickup is set very close to the strings,
18:29you're going to get more power,
18:30you'll get more lows,
18:32you'll get more highs too
18:33and that can be good
18:35but with a Strat which can tend to be bright,
18:38things might start to get a bit shrill.
18:40The other thing that you might get
18:41as you get higher up the fretboard on the lower strings
18:44is you'll get what people call Strat-itis
18:46where the magnets will start to pull the strings out of tune
18:49and you just can't get the intonation right.
18:51So, it's all about the balance.
18:54Higher pickup is brighter,
18:56might affect the tuning.
18:57A lower pickup,
18:58you'll start to shave the lows and the highs off.
19:01You'll get more mids,
19:02it will sound a bit more woody,
19:03it will be less high output.
19:07Certainly, it's less spiky to the ear.
19:11Generally speaking,
19:12you'll want the bridge pickup a bit closer to the strings
19:16than the neck pickup
19:17because of the way the string vibration is all set up here
19:19along the scale length, neck pickups always sound louder.
19:23Now, on this particular guitar,
19:25I've got the bridge pickup set higher than the neck
19:28and the middle pickup somewhere between the two.
19:31These aren't a calibrated set.
19:33Some sets have a more powerful bridge.
19:36These aren't.
19:37They're just EMG-SAs.
19:38So, that's more like a vintage Strat setup in that sense.
19:42The way that I like to measure the pickup heights
19:44is to hold all the strings down at the 12th fret.
19:48Most pickup makers have recommended heights,
19:51usually somewhere about a mil and a half
19:54underneath the top E-string
19:57and the pole piece of the bridge pickup.
20:00Now, I've got this penny here as a handy ready Rackner.
20:03That fits under here just about perfectly
20:07without much room.
20:11So, as with all these settings,
20:13I'll trim them a bit afterwards.
20:15In fact, before we started shooting today,
20:17I lowered this bridge pickup ever so slightly
20:20because I felt it sounded a bit spiky compared to the neck.
20:23We'll get into tones in a little while.
20:26The bass side,
20:27well, I don't want that to be louder than the treble side
20:31and it probably would be if I had the pickup set flat.
20:34So, I've got that set slightly lower.
20:36I reckon that's just over two mil in this case.
20:41And so, EMGs you can have really close to the strings
20:44but I find that they suffer from the same thing
20:47that a regular single coil does is
20:49things can get rather shrill.
20:51At least, that's been my experience.
20:53Once I've got the bridge pickup sounding how I want,
20:56then I will balance the middle and the neck
20:58to the bridge pickup without particularly measuring.
21:02You'll find that they sit a fair bit lower
21:05unless it's a calibrated set.
21:07And I do make sure that on the neck pickup especially
21:10that I don't have the bass side too close.
21:13Again, because I don't want that to overpower the bridge,
21:16I don't want to have a great big booming neck sound
21:19then flick down to the bridge
21:20and just have the whole thing disappear.
21:22I also don't want to have that Strat-itis thing
21:26that I was talking about
21:27with the warbling sound that the magnets can have.
21:30Let's have a listen to that and you'll hear what I mean.
21:34I've got the bridge pickup set where I like it.
21:43Now, let's hear the neck.
21:50It's a little bit mellower because it's further away
21:52but the key thing for me
21:54is that I don't suddenly lose all my bottom end
21:58when I flick to the bridge.
22:00So I'm going to play with the neck pickup
22:01for a couple of minutes and then flick to the bridge
22:04and you'll see that they're relatively equal in output.
22:26We are going to hear some different frequencies.
22:28The neck pickup will be slightly more boomy
22:30and in some situations or some rooms
22:33you may hear a bit more low frequency
22:35but essentially I've trimmed the output
22:37to be as equal as I can make it
22:40and that's quite a difference.
22:45So there we go.
22:46I realise that some of these tips
22:48may be obvious to you.
22:50Apologies if that's the case.
22:52But on the other hand,
22:53there's what I've found quite a lot of useful info
22:56for making sure that I can keep my strats
22:58in shape between setups.
23:01If you like this video,
23:03please do hit like and subscribe
23:05and I'll see you next time.
23:22I'll see you next time.
23:23We'll see you next time.