Settling in time?

[mullyman]

Yep, I'm with Cagey on this one too. If you're using locking tuners pull the string through tight, lock it down, tune. If I'm using non-locking tuners I do 5 to 6 winds on the unwound strings and 2 to 3 on the wound strings.
MULLY

 

[Patrick from Davis]

There's one simple issue that may seem like a silly question, but is your nut still glued down?

Yeh the nut was installed by Warmoth and is well seated in the slot. I took the advice given on here and widened the nut slots, then applied pencil lead in each. Saturday nights gig was a big improvement and the guitar barely lost tuning all night. I did notice a "ping", when I was tuning again on Sunday and it wasn't from the nut but one of the bridge saddles. They're the Fender powdered steel type. I've never encountered this in all my years of playing and I had a Strat Plus with the same saddles for 23 years. I'll persevere with them for now and see if they wear in,  but a set of Callaham bent steel saddles may well replace them if I have any more tuning issues.

When Warmoth installs a nut, they do a good job of it.  However, they have to consider you might be using the smallest gauge strings on the planet.  So the slots will most likely be left so that there is material to remove rather than have to replace the nut.  Glad to hear it worked out for you and the monster stays in tune.
Patrick

 

[Maka491]

There's one simple issue that may seem like a silly question, but is your nut still glued down?

Yeh the nut was installed by Warmoth and is well seated in the slot. I took the advice given on here and widened the nut slots, then applied pencil lead in each. Saturday nights gig was a big improvement and the guitar barely lost tuning all night. I did notice a "ping", when I was tuning again on Sunday and it wasn't from the nut but one of the bridge saddles. They're the Fender powdered steel type. I've never encountered this in all my years of playing and I had a Strat Plus with the same saddles for 23 years. I'll persevere with them for now and see if they wear in,  but a set of Callaham bent steel saddles may well replace them if I have any more tuning issues.

I tend to go with Graph tech String Savers. Reasons include minimal string breakage with a huge amount of bending, sustain, tone and tuning. If you ever get a chance try them. They have worked wonders for me.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

The powdered steel saddles respond well to either scribbling over the groove with a soft pencil, or a speck of 3-in-1 oil applied with a q-tip.

 

[mystique1]

I tend to go with Graph tech String Savers. Reasons include minimal string breakage with a huge amount of bending, sustain, tone and tuning. If you ever get a chance try them. They have worked wonders for me.

I have looked at those and am quite interested. My only reservation is some say they rob the guitar of treble. What's your experience?

 

[Cagey]

I have looked at those and am quite interested. My only reservation is some say they rob the guitar of treble. What's your experience?

Quite the opposite here. I find they give the instrument a bit more presence (read: high end), which is usually a Good Thing. It seems counter-intuitive, as they're a composite material vs. metal, but if you take a handful of TUSQ nuts or saddles and drop them on a hard surface, it's a "tinkly" sound like you're dropping a handful of glass shards, while the metal parts will sound a bit clunky. They're very hard and very light, so they conduct vibrations much better than you might imagine. They're expensive little rascals, but it's money well-spent in my opinion, and in the grand scheme of things, a very small percentage of the cost of the instrument.

 

[Cagey]

I should add that the difference is subtle. Don't pay any attention to the marketing weenies who'll tell you you're going to have a whole new guitar. It's just an improvement in one of the 9,459 variables that make a guitar sound the way it does.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

When I built my bender I used an American Standard bridge because the off set intonation screws would allow the b string to pass through the bridge to the bender behind it.  I used a dremel to cut the back of the B saddle (and the bridge) for the string to allow it to pass through that part.  The saddles are the powder steel looking things, sparks when cutting!  The odd part is, if you don't put a touch of oil on where the string goes over the saddle, you can hear a very creaky spring noise.  A bit shocking at first, but the oil is the first thing that they tell you to try.  I am assuming this creaking sound has happened to a number of people.  Also, you kind of have to use steel for the saddles because the bender uses the string like a saw on the saddle, so softer materials just get chewed up.  Because of this, I stayed with the powdered steel saddles all around, also it keeps everyone the same on the bridge.  So after all of that, even with the bender, it stays very nicely in tune.  So I think it might be a revelation for some, and nothing much for other as far as what the saddles are made of.
Patrick

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I worked on a friend's Strat Plus once (circa 2003), which was completely dead in terms of tone. I did as much I could to brighten it up: changed the pickups from Lace Sensor Golds to EMGs (I suggested some vintage-style single coils but he was after an active setup), put in Tusq saddles, changed the string gauge from 9 to 10, added springs and removed the Tremsetter. It more or less worked, as in, it made it not completely horrible to play any more.

Looking back, it had a rubbish neck. Wouldn't have needed to do any of that if we'd just put a better piece of maple on there. It was like a sponge.

Well, whaddya know, still got a couple of pictures.

Yeah I know. Don't ask me why there's a string retainer on there.

Anyway, just looking at the neck you can see it's a pretty crappy piece of wood. Shame really, it was a lot of fun to play. The two mini toggles switched the bridge and neck pickups to single coil mode, the two tone controls were an SPC and en EX-G, and the volume control was a push/pull to turn on the neck pickup in any position. All kinds of mucking around.

He never, ever plays it.

 

[Cagey]

Some guitars are haunted in a good way. Others... not so much.