Guitar Setup Advice (yes its misc & meaningless)

Hi, I think their are a good few guitar fiends about here, hopefully you can help me out.

I changed to a heavier set of strings on my guitar a while ago, then didnt play it for a while.

Coming back to it now, the action seems loads higher and adjusting the bridge is making no difference.

It seems that the neck has bowed foward slightly. It seems I might need to adjust the truss rod, something I have not done before.

I found this guide:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/trussadjust.htm

It seems simple enough, but it crucially does not mention whether I need to loosen the four bolts attaching the neck to my guitar body, it doesnt say you do, but I can not see how the neck would move over if I dont?

Any advice greatly appreciated. My guitar has a floyd trem & regular bolt on neck btw.

Time for a negative shim...

don't touch the neck bolts

a truss rod is a metal rod running inside the neck, tightening it causes the neck to straighten (a guitar neck should be slightly concave when strung) against the pull of the strings.

guitar action is determined by three things:

nut height
bridge height and setup
neck action (truss rod)

people are too quick to go for the truss rod most of the time, read the set up guide you posted. the whole thing not just the truss rod section.

putting heavier strings on will upset the action if the guitar was set up for a different gauge

look at sheldon ffs

Hi, I think their are a good few guitar fiends about here, hopefully you can help me out.

I changed to a heavier set of strings on my guitar a while ago, then didnt play it for a while.

Coming back to it now, the action seems loads higher and adjusting the bridge is making no difference.

It seems that the neck has bowed foward slightly. It seems I might need to adjust the truss rod, something I have not done before.

I found this guide:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/trussadjust.htm

It seems simple enough, but it crucially does not mention whether I need to loosen the four bolts attaching the neck to my guitar body, it doesnt say you do, but I can not see how the neck would move over if I dont?

Any advice greatly appreciated. My guitar has a floyd trem & regular bolt on neck btw.

Given that it has a Floyd trem, I'm assuming that its something fairly decent, in which case I would take it to a decent shop and get it done.

As RPM said, putting on heavier strings will put more tension on the neck, which can cause it to bow.

It's not a great idea increasing the string gauge (dramatically anyway) without knowning how to set-up the guitar for the heavier guage. I suggest you take it in for a setup. Can't hurt!

Your in Birmingham right? Take it into Sound control (now reverb)
http://www.reverb-store.co.uk/
89 Old Snow Hill, Birmingham, B4 6HW

They are pretty good, and have lots of nice shiny Taylors and Martins...

For fuck sake, if it's got a Floyd that is your problem. Floyds float and are set up for a specific gauge of string. If you run heavier strings, you'll have to increase the tension in them, pulling the bridge up and forward.

Adjusting the saddles is going to do almost nothing when compared to the amount that the Floyd will have been moved. The chances of it being your truss rod are super slim.

I used to string my Strat with 13-56 and I put a 5 springs in the back to help with the string tension.

Get a strightedge on you neck, see if there's a significant up-bow, if there is adjust (tighten) the truss-rod until this is almost gone (most folk like a very slight up-bow in necks). Go SLOW! 1/8 turn at a time.
If it has a floyd you'll have to adjust the trem claw/add springs to balance out the tension of these new strings.

For fuck sake, if it's got a Floyd that is your problem. Floyds float and are set up for a specific gauge of string. If you run heavier strings, you'll have to increase the tension in them, pulling the bridge up and forward.

Adjusting the saddles is going to do almost nothing when compared to the amount that the Floyd will have been moved. The chances of it being your truss rod are super slim.

this is the corect answer.

this is the corect answer.

really? Hmmm... Dissapointing. I wanted to sell the guitar, had just restrung it, now have to buy more strings again! Doh!

no you don't. just adjust the springs in the floyd dude.

Dispose of your Floyd-Rose pukes on cock equipped guitar and get one of these (the one on the right, unless you're a midget)... It has a tone knob, which I find a bit superfluous, flashy even...

Dispose of your Floyd-Rose pukes on cock equipped guitar and get one of these

I totally share your viewpoint. I bought the guitar a few years back when I was 16 and 'discovering music' I regretted it not long after, but held onto it all this time thinking itd be a shame to never get it up on stage. But I never did, and its just soured my interest in playing guitar altogether.

I just wanna get rid, and buy a baby folk acoustic. I have a beat up japanese SG I got from a jumble sale I can use whenever I fancy an electric thrash.

no you don't. just adjust the springs in the floyd dude.

Ive found the relevant info on the floyd website, thanks for all the pointers. It looks like ill need to intonate & all that jazz too. Useful to learn I suppose.

oh and this youtube vid kinda explains it, if anybody else was having similar issues:

YouTube - Floyd Rose Tremolo Setup (English)

For fuck sake, if it's got a Floyd that is your problem. Floyds float and are set up for a specific gauge of string. If you run heavier strings, you'll have to increase the tension in them, pulling the bridge up and forward.

Adjusting the saddles is going to do almost nothing when compared to the amount that the Floyd will have been moved. The chances of it being your truss rod are super slim.

this is the corect answer.

Shouldn't be so hard on either side of the bridge there should be a hex bolt, think of it like adjusting spoke tension, very small even turns until corrected, theses bolts raise and lower the bridge.

Guitar teching is even worse than bike meching... Bloody hate it, I guess thats why my Les Paul Jr has 6 year old strings on it... Maybe even older, when I actually stop and think about it... :S

Shouldn't be so hard on either side of the bridge there should be a hex bolt, think of it like adjusting spoke tension, very small even turns until corrected, theses bolts raise and lower the bridge.

naaah, in this short time of being educated by dooks, the floyd website and the german dude on youtube. I have laerned a fair bit. The bridge/saddle height is kind of irrelevant to this issue.

String tension has to be balanced with the tension of the springs behind the trem.

I have to open the guitar and tighten up the spring screws, or in the case of a big gauge change, I have to put on an extra spring.

hexactly. good work.

i had a pointy headstock and floyd rose when i was 16 too so i don't judge. in fact, i'm pretty sure 80s guitars of this ilk are due a come back. after all, in the 80s when these were the hep thang, hard up and indie-minded types bought up dustbins full of old jazzmasters etc as they were cheap and out of favour.

now everyone's fighting each other over the last remaining mint '52 tele and even late crappy CBS era stuff is being palmed of as "vintage" i'm surprised more indie minded and hard up kids aren't rediscovering actime EMGs, floyd roses, pointy headstocks and fluoro paintjobs. maybe they are i dunno, i'm not down with the kids anymore.

personally i'm a telecaster and fender amp nerd extraordinaire but then i'm old, opinionated and stuck in my ways.

g'luck with the tech-ing.

Guitar teching is even worse than bike meching... Bloody hate it, I guess thats why my Les Paul Jr has 6 year old strings on it... Maybe even older, when I actually stop and think about it... :S

you're clearly not rocking hard enough.

i had a pointy headstock and floyd rose when i was 16 too so i don't judge. in fact, i'm pretty sure 80s guitars of this ilk are due a come back. after all, in the 80s when these were the hep thang, hard up and indie-minded types bought up dustbins full of old jazzmasters etc as they were cheap and out of favour.

Makes me wanna cry sometimes, there were so many cheap guitars around in the 80s... Of course, being a penniless musician made it impossible to purchase as many as I would've liked... My sob story involves a 1960 Les Paul TV that went for £350 in 1989, I went out and got a part-time job to stick a deposit on it but my beauty was gone when I went back a few days later... It'd been in the shop for weeks, a Japanese bloke bought it... Typical of the time, it's probably sitting in a vault somewhere... I could go on (but won't)... :(

i'm surprised more indie minded and hard up kids aren't rediscovering actime EMGs, floyd roses, pointy headstocks and fluoro paintjobs. maybe they are i dunno, i'm not down with the kids anymore.

Shhhhhhhh prices are already going up

yeah but the upside is that if not drool worthy but decent and functional new and reissue stuff is cheaper than ever.

and the proliferation of new and reissue small valve amps in particular has restabilised the prices of original stuff a bit. silverface champs went from a couple of hundred quid to easily double that in the last few years but now everyone and his dog makes champ clones and reissues they've if not come down in value at least stopped going up ridiculously.

I've got a few wiring issues with the Strat I built. It's been perfect for over a year now, but I had to replace the output jack and now I'm getting (I think) grounding issues and now the Humbucker on my HSS (already wired) strat plate no longer seems to output.

It buzzes heavily when I touch the strings, and is fine when I touch the jack/metal cable casing on the output wire. I'm thinking this is a problem with solder connection between the wire leading to the tremolo claw and the claw itself. I've soldered, and soldered again, stripped back the rubber outer for a clean bit of wire and tried again but to no avail.

Also, it heavily buzzes when the vol knob is below 10...Not really sure why, because I bought the electrics pre-wired, so all I did was wire the claw and output jack up...

Got the jack the right way round?

is the pickup cavity earthed/screened?