String Help

[ceve4life]

OK! I couldn't find a place to put this question, so I'm putting it in electronics. I have a strat with a floater. I have never changed one till recently (a pain to do one). When I finally finished, I didn't notice a noise out of place, so good, till about two weeks later. On the low E, A, and D strings when I strum at normal pressure, the stings ring off of the metal of the fret in front of the one I'm playing on. Only a chime for about half a second, but annouying - mostly on the low E. The back of the floater is not really that high off the guitar and I'm guess maybe that is the problem, because the strings are just to low. Why I'm asking what to do is I hate going into problems blind not knowing what the solutions going to be besides random work. Takes to longer and I never understand unless someone tells me. So please, help me out, the floater is killing me.

Edited May 17, 2006 by ceve4life

[George Brown]

when you say floater i presume you mean your floating trem. first off check the action at the saddle, raising it should probably fix it. also i would advise to check the relief of the neck. to do this place a capo of the first fret then using your right hand hold the low e string down at the last fret. now your string is a straight line by which you can make measurements! take a business card it should just be able to to fit under the string at the seventh fret this should be a fairly tight fit but not so tight the string has to be pushed upwards. depending if there is too much back bow or too little adjust your truss rod acoringly.

[ceve4life]

Thanks. It helped some.

[lovekraft]

Read all the tutorials here:

Basic lessons on how to setup a solid body guitar

You've got something out of adjustment, and it shouldn't be that difficult to correct. BTW, questions like this are more likely to get answers if you post them in the solid-body guitar section.

[al heeley]

Sounds like the replacements strings are heavier gauge than the old ones. Before you go tweaking the truss rod, you need to adjust the trem spring tension by turning the screws holding the trem claw in the back cavity. Heavier gauge strings will be higher tension and pull the saddle closer to the line of the fretboard. The trem springs will need tightening a little to balance it out again.