Help me with electric strings!

[perttime]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Neck relief is great, flat and plays better than it did with 9’s. I don’t know how to assess the intonation or make a comparison. Sounds good to me. Open to any info or feedback.

You are almost certainly in tune when playing near the nut. But are you still in tune near 12th fret or higher?

Here's a couple of links I found with a quick search:

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare...-3-intonation/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muDCsdgM0Q4

[Dirk Hofman]

Ok cool thanks. And I thought changing strings would take 5 minutes!

[perttime]

On electric guitars, you can adjust intonation with a screwdriver.
If you make a major change in string gauges on an acoustic, and want good intonation, you need someone who can make a new bridge to compensate.

[Richard_H]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Somewhere early in the game I settled on .009s. I later learned that Billy Gibbons says when he was first getting started, B.B. King tried his guitar, which had heavier strings on it. B.B. said, "Why are you working so hard?" Billy sez, "Huh?" B.B. sez, "Why have you got heavy strings on your guitar?" Billy sez, "That's what you need to do to get a heavy sound." B.B. sez, "That's what amplifiers are for. Stop working do hard." Billy went with .008s on Gibson scale guitars.

The nickel-plated steel strings tend to sound a little brighter, a little more sparkly and glassy. The vintage nickel strings tend to be a little warmer. Interesting story: in the 1960s when material prices started going up, the manufacturers just started substituting nickel plated for pure nickel, changing the formulation without changing the names. Guys were looking down at their guitars saying, "What happened to my sound?" Finally some musicians got to the the bottom of it, made a fuss, and the string suppliers created string lines with both types.

My ES-335 and Fenders tend to prefer the brighter sound of nickel plated strings. The ES-335 came with Gibson "Brite Wires" nickel plated strings and that's how I came to know it. My Les Pauls tend to want pure nickel for some reason. Fender 150Ls (pure) run about $4.89.

Bob

I bought my Strat back in 1976. I have never been able to get the floating bridge to work. I just tighten the springs until the bridge is flat against the guitar body. That way you can use the tremolo arm to flatten the notes, but not to sharpen them. That's alot better than having your guitar go out of tune every time you use the tremolo.

Just don't tighten the springs too much - you can break the tremolo arm.

You can use a block - which disables the tremolo arm entirely, but why disable it? It's part of the whole 'Strat' mystic.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by perttime

On electric guitars, you can adjust intonation with a screwdriver.
If you make a major change in string gauges on an acoustic, and want good intonation, you need someone who can make a new bridge to compensate.

There really are a lot of setup variables on an electric. Going to see if my local tech will do it and give me a few pointers as he generally does.

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

There really are a lot of setup variables on an electric. Going to see if my local tech will do it and give me a few pointers as he generally does.

Of course that might be the best route for you, but just to reiterate: there is a ton of good info on this stuff. Try Phillip McKnight on Youtube as a starting point, he has all kinds of videos on common setup /maintenance operations. And this stuff is actually VERY easy. Truss rod adjustment, setting string height, opening up nut slots, setting intonation, dealing with a floating trem: It's all out there.