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help..... Argghhh!


john

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I know this forum is for homebuilt guitars and such, but i reckon this is the best place to ask this question so here goes:

I am having big intonation problems on the high E string of my chinese squier standard series stratocaster.

The fretted 12th is almost a whole semi-tone below the 12th fret harmonic ..... which is bad. :D

the story so far:

about 2 months ago , i gave the guitar a good once over, set the intonation... beautiful.. perfect!

about a month ago , on went a new set of ernie ball super slinkys , no apparent problems there,

about a week ago ,i picked up the guitar and noticed some damage(not done by me!!) , there is an imprint of the low E string in the fretboard, and the string has two small dents in it. i checked the neck , and it appears to be still straight , so that was that.

recently i spent a few hours playing loads of 70`s rock tunes ,involving mucho string bending, and began to notice a lot of difficulty trying to get a 2 semitone bend on the high E string. so i checked the intonation ,and as i said already , its WAY OUT!

i have tried to correct it by moving the saddle towards the neck(all the way) , its got better but still ridiculously bad.

any ideas ? would i be right in saying that the nut may be the problem?

or

a bent neck?

i checked the neck relief against my friends mexican fender strat , and realise i have a slight bit too much but that could`nt be the problem , could it?

i really appreciate any help on this matter, blush

thanks,

john. B)

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I'm no expert here, but it sounds like the guitar got knocked over and hit something hard.

I would suspect that the neck may have shifted, not bent. Neck shift was (and is) a problem on the 3-bolt necks that Fender used back in the 70's. Not that you have a 3-bolt neck, but it could happen with 4.

Anyway, do the strings look too close to one side of the neck? If so, the neck may have shifted and not be in line correctly. You'll just have to slack the strings, loosen the neck bolts a little and straighten it up before tightening the screws back up again. It should just need a little nudge.

Any other ideas guys?

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no i thought about that ,but the gap about looks right , the neck joint is very tight so i cant really imagine any movement.

bear in mind , this problem is only with the high E-string , the B and the G are perfect so it could`nt really be down to movement

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You could just have a crappy 1st string. You should change it out and see if that fixes it. Intonate again with a new string.

When the strings get old and stretched a lot (from a lot of bending) they have bad intonation problems like you describe. Plus, a new 1st string should only cost you about $1. It's a cheap fix.

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You could just have a crappy 1st string.  You should change it out and see if that fixes it.  Intonate again with a new string.

When the strings get old and stretched a lot (from a lot of bending) they have bad intonation problems like you describe.  Plus, a new 1st string should only cost you about $1.  It's a cheap fix.

I agree, also you said there was an imprint in the wood and the string has 2 spots on it, its possible that the string is strecthing because of those stress points, metal when bended if funny sometimes, its integrity sounds like its been compromised, i would replace the string like he said and see what happens, is it possible that if the guitar got hit hard that the saddle or the tuner key got knocked as well, your problem could be there also, make sure the tuning key is nice and tight and not loose, or that the saddle is where its supposed to be, thats one thing i have always disliked about a strat type trem is the saddles can be bothersome, at least for me they have been

good luck and no, its an ok question, its part of the learning process, building your own gear and or fixing it/modifying it/discovering a new trick is all part of the fun, so its not a bad question but a good one and it falls right into place with this forum because its what were all here for to help each other out, take care

jeremy

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i seriously doubt its the string at fault to be honest, because of the ones i was bending hard, it was one of the least used ones, and i have regularly kept the same set on a guitar for more than six months at a time. Thes ones are barely two months.

plus i havn`t had the time to go out and get new strings.

what way should the nut be cut on the high E ?

am i right in saying that it should be done at an angle in such a way that the string just touches the highest point(nearest the bridge) ?

i dont know what to do. i`ll change the string and see what happens, but until then im very puzzled!

thanks for the help anyhow!

(p.s the description should read, intonation problem (big!) not (nig) ... oops!)

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sorry , just noticed you post there jeremy, no its the high E string thats causing trouble, not the one that was dented, but thanks for your input :D

the saddles seem fine to me, they aint moving at all, and they are right were they should be.

The leg bones connected to the, hip bone , the hip bones connected to the something. the somethings connected to the wristwatch...... oh oh!

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well, u said there was damage done to the guitar, im just going off your info, sadly a strats trem system is kinda an all inclusive deal, what ever you do to one string affects the rest, thats the only thing i dont like about them, a floyd rose trem is a little more sophisticated when setting up and tuning but once you get it where it needs to be, that age old addage, LITHA or leave it the hell alone works wonders :D but i keep going off what you said, an imprint, it sounds like it got dropped and doesn't go hand and hand with the LITHA concept, so yea, the neck could have shifted, the trem could have been depressed and when the trem snapped back could have really strecthed the strings, those little slinky e's can be nasty, i would try a new set of strings and go through the setup again, id bet what ever caused those indentations is your culprit, good luck

jeremy

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yeah , suppose your right. i`ll call around to a friend of mine and "borrow" an e string or 2!. i have a bit of distance to travel if i want to get a new string!(into dublin city centre), ah well

thanks for all the help guys hopefully a new string sorts it out!

john.

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i seriously doubt its the string at fault to be honest, because of the ones i was bending hard, it was one of the least used ones, and i have regularly kept the same set on a guitar for more than six months at a time. Thes ones are barely two months.

The most important lesson you can learn about life:

new does NOT equal good. :D

Glad that it was just a bad string.

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