Andy Eagle ( Guitar repair tech for 30 years )

Eagle said:
The Kauffmann stuff I have seen is nothing like custom shop Fender quality, think Nash with the same philosophy and cheaper pickups . I would not recommend them . Poor relic work and budget everything except the Gotoh parts. If you want a vintage style instrument around £2k there is nothing even remotely close in core materials and build to either American Original 9.5” radius and for the full 7.25” experience American Vintage 2 from fenders and the come with a £300 G&G case .
They also hold value. The price can not be even approached by small companies because fender manufacturing is large and efficient. The same quality from a small business would cost double of close.
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Thanks mate! You saved me a miss buy
 
I recently changed string gauge on my SG. I went from 9s to 11s. I couldn’t get the thing to intonate as it seemed required length on the string was more than was available on the bridge. After some investigation, it seemed that the low E and G strings weren’t set properly in the saddles and the nut. And none of the strings were all the way into the nut slot. I very gently widened the slots on both ends and that did the trick. However, it seemed that when the strings were tuned, the first fret was very sharp. So i deepened the nut slots for each string until the open string and first fret was in tune. Is this the proper way to get nut slot depth?
 
HomespunEffects said:
I recently changed string gauge on my SG. I went from 9s to 11s. I couldn’t get the thing to intonate as it seemed required length on the string was more than was available on the bridge. After some investigation, it seemed that the low E and G strings weren’t set properly in the saddles and the nut. And none of the strings were all the way into the nut slot. I very gently widened the slots on both ends and that did the trick. However, it seemed that when the strings were tuned, the first fret was very sharp. So i deepened the nut slots for each string until the open string and first fret was in tune. Is this the proper way to get nut slot depth?
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Not really . You should set up the guitar paying particular attention to the truss rod and set the relief at around half the thickness of your high E .
Then fret each string at the second fret and observe the gap over the first fret. It should be same as your typical next fret clearance when fretting the same string.
 
Eagle said:
Not really . You should set up the guitar paying particular attention to the truss rod and set the relief at around half the thickness of your high E .
Then fret each string at the second fret and observe the gap over the first fret. It should be same as your typical next fret clearance when fretting the same string.
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I usually adjust the truss rod so that there is a little a little “tink” at the 5th fret when it’s fretted at the 1st and last fret.
 
mercifulfuzziness said:
Yes it’s at the store now.
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The quality of the level and the geometry of the relief matters most then you don’t get buzz even if the action is too low , you get a percussive slap on the next fret then it rings out according to the clearance available.
This is the perfect example though and most guitars are not capable of it whatever you do. The relief curve is at the mercy of how the wood flexes under tension. You can compensate in the frets with a plek but not really by hand because all work must be done under string tension and the string tension jigs are universally not representative of actual string tension. The tolerance required to reach this “perfect “ state is incredibly tight so guesstimates are not going to work.
 
Thanks for the explanation.

The G string was buzzing. That was fixable. But the guy at the store explained how Strats are a bit more loose in general. Not sure what’s that meant.

He did mention that the neck is very straight. That can also have a negative effect. And that is changeable with the rut(???)

Finally the neck position is super muddy. Apparently the pick up there is in a less than ideal hight

So all in all.. the player is probably fine but the set up was less than optimal when I bought it.
 
mercifulfuzziness said:
I’m not sure I like Strat
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Snl Season 47 GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
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