I've made myself a hardtail strat partscaster and I seem to be struggling with string tension.
The neck is a USACG birds eye maple and rosewood. 2 string trees, frets are jumbo, radius looks to be flattish.
I would usually put 9.5 gauge strings on a trem strat, so I put 10s on. Immediately noticed the strings felt too tight, and sort of scratchy?
I lowered the saddles and that improved ability to bend but it still feels very stiff.
Swapped to 9.5s but not a great improvement so I put it in Eb and still I'm really not liking it. Theres something about when I first attack the string that sounds scratchy and weird.
I'm not sure what the problem is? I've had tons of guitars of all variety and I've never really cared or noticed swapping between bridges, scales, string gauge etc. I had this same issue on a Mexican Tele about 10 years ago and I ended up selling it. Never had a guitar do it again since and I've had loads.
Comments
Scratchy sounds like the frets need polishing up.
Agree with this
So unfortunately the answer is that you need to replace the body with a trem one.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Hardtail always sends strings through two bends, ending perpendicular to the main string path. Unless set flush against the body, a fulcrum vibrato introduces a slightly shallower overall angle. (Admittedly, this is pretty marginal.)
Have you changed string brand? If the core:wrap ratios differ, the tension could also differ.
In similar vein, how skinny or chunky is the neck profile?
I'm a fan of hardtail Strats, I've had a few over the years and even ordered one from Fender Custom Shop because they're pretty much impossible to buy off the shelf. In the last few years, having avoided all tremolo systems for many years, I've grown to like the vintage-style Fender bridge so I've now got a couple of those too.
I don't notice a massive difference in feel or tension going back and forth between hardtail and non-hardtail, but maybe I'm just used to it now.
If you were, then you need to loosen the truss rod very slightly - you do want a tiny gap, but it can be *really* tiny and still be right, as long as the strings don't rattle in the lower positions.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I have a Fender Billy Corgan Strat and it is super slinky, but it does have some big ol' frets on it, so probably helps with the grip. I string it with 10s and it plays really smoothly.
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