Andy Eagle ( Guitar repair tech for 30 years )

Eagle said:
I was talking about the neck angle adjuster, this is the reason for the three bolt design.
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Ah, ok (language barrier I suppose). Personally, I never found much use in that and my G&L has always been doing fine without any neck angle adjustments (I always kept it completely flat).
 
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Eagle said:
If you aren't swapping the string gauge you can assess the truss rod with old strings before you take them off. You have to get used to the particular guitar and make a guesstimate ( based on experience ) and this is the first part of the set up.
Vintage style Fender rods can often be quite tight and remember that it's going to take time for an adjustment loose to show it's full effect sometimes.
Once you have the starting point for the truss rod you can go through the set up. Half the thickness of your high E at the 7th fret when you fret the G ( reference string) at the 1st and 12th. In an ideal world then when you fret 10th and last it should be dead flat. Sometimes a slight fall away is present usually around 15 to the end but it varies and this is hard to assess by eye if you aren't looking at multiple guitars all the time.
If your happy the relief is likely to be ballpark string it up and set the action. If it still is out you are going to need to take off the neck again and readjust.
When you remove Fender necks with the heel adjuster you should use a hand driver carefully to reattach it starting the screws with your fingers to feel that they are in the existing threads. Only tighten to lightly grip (no crush the wood and bend the neck plate like you see all the time.) This is very important as this neck is going to need to come off a lot of times over it's life.

Don't waste time with radius gauges use an action gauge or engineers small steel rule, measure top of fret 12 to underside of each string.
Now check the nut hight by fretting on the second fret. You need a hair of a gap over the first fret. Only do this after the truss rod is correct and the action is your hight. Each time you cut the nut slot reset the action before looking at the gap again.

Finally with the relief, nut and action set correctly ( for you ) intonate using the 3rd and 15th frets as reference point.
If you have issues now it is either your action is too low for your pick attack or there's an issue (issues) to deal with separately.
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Do you do anything differently for slide players other than making the saddle height higher? How high do they usually want it? Ariel Posen and the like has me trying out the slide but I’m obviously sucking cus it’s hard, but also wondering if my action’s working against me.
 
yeky83 said:
Do you do anything differently for slide players other than making the saddle height higher? How high do they usually want it? Ariel Posen and the like has me trying out the slide but I’m obviously sucking cus it’s hard, but also wondering if my action’s working against me.
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it depends if the player wants to use the guitar normally as well . In this case I just recommend heavier strings . Ultimately if you only want to play a bit of slide on your regular guitar it's going to need to be set up for what you normally do . I have set up guitars with a higher nut and set the intonation to help open chords sound in tune at the expense of anything over about fret 7 but these really are slide only instruments with a few open chords . You have to decide if you can play slide without raising the nut hight and all the problems that's going to bring to fretted notes.
 
@Eagle

Thanks so much for taking your time to answer questions!!

One more, if you’re up to answer—


I had a Vigier with an infinite (totally flat) radius. I was able to get incredibly low action. That guitar has a zero fret, and a partially graphite neck, with no truss rod.

As per their website:

Action as supplied at 12th fret, treble : 0,7 mm / .0275 "
Action as supplied at 12th fret, bass : 1,0 mm / .0393 "

Is it possible to recreate this incredibly low action on a guitar without a zero fret?

I have a new guitar on the way with a standard bone but, 12” radius, and a gotoh 510 trem.

I would GUESS it would involve cutting the nut, through trial and error, to get the action low enough— and of course, lowering the saddles as much as possible.

Is this correct?
 
12” radius will not work as well as the totally flat one in terms of action but you can cut the nut down to the same height as a zero fret.
 
Thanks Eagle!

Yeah, I assumed I couldn’t get IDENTICAL action without a flat fretboard, but I could get it much lower.
 
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I just cut a small fall away in the frets on my Original 6. I’ve had this for a while and only just got around to doing the frets.
 
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My point in showing this is that modern manufacturing is capable of high quality products practically anywhere in the world as long as the budget is there and the specifications are not budget. Yes I finished the frets off on this properly but it wasn’t worse than a core PRS before.
 
I know Strandberg gets a bad press for building at Cort Indonesia but this doesn’t mean that they can’t make a world class instrument. Increasingly there are companies emerging from “budget “ locations that do premium products. This can complicate things because some of these are more about how it looks than actually doing the core product to a high end specification. Adding roasted necks ss frets that are soft and end dressed but not levelled are snake oil same as flame veneer and pearl pick guards with a thick coat of poly over “mahogany “ that isn’t.
Cheap hardware these days looks like the quality stuff but it really isn’t. It has low melting point soft component’s in the same shape. Hardware needs to be just that “hard” and preferably milled from rolled stock if you want a good tone transfer. The number of locking nuts and tuners that are softer the the strings they are meant to clamp is shocking.
That said there are some incredible bargains out there that give you more than ever. Charvel is stand out so is the Ibanez Genesis range and Mexican Fender. In acoustic and semi acoustic land it’s hard to beat Eastman for value . There are others but often it’s only a few products and you need to know how to assess them from a fundamental perspective.
I have a garbage in glitter category too but I will keep that for another day.
 
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the-trooper said:
Not really, maybe at "Cork sniffers gentleman's countryside guitars and wine lounge society".
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Yes it's the first thing people moan about $2k+ for an Indonesian guitar. Maybe you will prefer my "Garbage in Glitter" article. :rofl
 
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Eagle said:
I know Strandberg gets a bad press for building at Cort Indonesia but this doesn’t mean that they can’t make a world class instrument.
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I don't think that's an issue. I've got an Indonesian made Schecter Coupe hollowbody that is damn near perfectly made and same for an Ibanez BTB33 bass. Both cost about half of what typical Strandbergs do.

The absolute worst instrument I have bought was a Strandberg Boden OS 8 LE. It should never have left the factory but the company was totally ok selling it, that's where they deserve flack.
  • Fretwork was so bad that low action was impossible. I tried adjusting the height and truss rod only to realize that nope, it was the fretwork that was just that bad.
  • The limited edition quilt top (a premium, extra cost feature) was barely quilted, like huge patches that were just plain maple. Worst quilt top I've ever seen. Even on their standard models a common complaint has been "meh" quality tops. Just use a solid finish if you can't put in a nice top!
  • It was missing a chunk of wood behind the nut, like there was this rectangular hole there as if someone started making a nut slot there but then realized it was the wrong spot.
  • The neck profile was very inconsistent where it was uncomfortably thick at the first few frets and then tapered off to a more normal profile. Haven't encountered this on other Strandbergs I've tried.
  • The finish from the bridge was flaking off right out of the box.
  • The tuners were so stiff they could not be turned with fingers but needed an allen key. Now headless tuners can be a bit temperamental unless adjusted and lubed right but they should not have been like that.
  • The gig bag was missing all the tools. And a gigbag on an over 2000 euro instrument? Come on!
Of course they would have replaced it but I was soured by them having shipped it to me in the first place. At least returning it was easy. But I think they just put it back for sale because I saw it pop up about a week later as the only one of the same model/color in stock.

I've played some very nice Japanese made Strandbergs but still don't care for them because I feel the Strandberg design has some fundamental problems:
  • The bolt-on heel sticks too far up the neck so it gets in a way on a supposedly "ergonomic" guitar. The NX series solves this at least.
  • The action adjustment on the bridge is awful. It's imprecise and a lot of work to adjust for each string. Its design solves nothing compared to e.g ABM saddles with grub screws.
  • The Endurneck is a gimmick. I have a similar profile on my Skervesen but more smoothed out and it works so much better - less obvious, more comfortable.
Overall I feel Strandberg is too expensive for what they are and the cheaper manufacturing countries sure don't show in prices.
 
laxu said:
I've got an Indonesian made Schecter
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The indonesian Nick Johnston (HSS) I more or less recently (around half a year ago) bought 2nd hand is now pretty much my #1 (rivaling a Tom Anderson 6-7 times the price). Sure, I was replacing the SCs with Fender Noiseless and then even exchanged the vibrato (in favour of a Gotoh 510), but the former was just because I hate noise live and the latter was because I'm an absolute sucker for vibratos, so they need to be perfect in all aspects (and mind you, I'd have to do that on a USA made model, too). Both the original pickups and vibrato system were absolutely fine otherwise.
 
laxu said:
I don't think that's an issue. I've got an Indonesian made Schecter Coupe hollowbody that is damn near perfectly made and same for an Ibanez BTB33 bass. Both cost about half of what typical Strandbergs do.

The absolute worst instrument I have bought was a Strandberg Boden OS 8 LE. It should never have left the factory but the company was totally ok selling it, that's where they deserve flack.
  • Fretwork was so bad that low action was impossible. I tried adjusting the height and truss rod only to realize that nope, it was the fretwork that was just that bad.
  • The limited edition quilt top (a premium, extra cost feature) was barely quilted, like huge patches that were just plain maple. Worst quilt top I've ever seen. Even on their standard models a common complaint has been "meh" quality tops. Just use a solid finish if you can't put in a nice top!
  • It was missing a chunk of wood behind the nut, like there was this rectangular hole there as if someone started making a nut slot there but then realized it was the wrong spot.
  • The neck profile was very inconsistent where it was uncomfortably thick at the first few frets and then tapered off to a more normal profile. Haven't encountered this on other Strandbergs I've tried.
  • The finish from the bridge was flaking off right out of the box.
  • The tuners were so stiff they could not be turned with fingers but needed an allen key. Now headless tuners can be a bit temperamental unless adjusted and lubed right but they should not have been like that.
  • The gig bag was missing all the tools. And a gigbag on an over 2000 euro instrument? Come on!
Of course they would have replaced it but I was soured by them having shipped it to me in the first place. At least returning it was easy. But I think they just put it back for sale because I saw it pop up about a week later as the only one of the same model/color in stock.

I've played some very nice Japanese made Strandbergs but still don't care for them because I feel the Strandberg design has some fundamental problems:
  • The bolt-on heel sticks too far up the neck so it gets in a way on a supposedly "ergonomic" guitar. The NX series solves this at least.
  • The action adjustment on the bridge is awful. It's imprecise and a lot of work to adjust for each string. Its design solves nothing compared to e.g ABM saddles with grub screws.
  • The Endurneck is a gimmick. I have a similar profile on my Skervesen but more smoothed out and it works so much better - less obvious, more comfortable.
Overall I feel Strandberg is too expensive for what they are and the cheaper manufacturing countries sure don't show in prices.
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They are all fair points and I agree about them sending out bad guitars.
I wrote a review of mine over at FAS Forum and make a lot of those points myself about the bridge in particular.
"Too expensive for what they are" Why? They have Suhr pickups and top quality electrics, Jescar frets, carbon reinforcements in the neck. CNC milled aluminium hardware ( yes I agree about the issues) not cheep to make though and good tone transferred premium woods up to the NX wood downgrade . Your issues are quality control (yes unacceptable at times) and the design which you didn't get along with. These points don't really mean one that made it out of the factory without issues (most IME) is overpriced.
The Endurneck profile has changed in the way to be thiner toward the nut since the OS line and the newer ones are way better than the Korean line. I think the problem in manufacturing lowish volumes of product third party and keeping a tight hand on quality control from the other side of the world is what we are seeing.
 
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Sascha Franck said:
The indonesian Nick Johnston (HSS) I more or less recently (around half a year ago) bought 2nd hand is now pretty much my #1 (rivaling a Tom Anderson 6-7 times the price). Sure, I was replacing the SCs with Fender Noiseless and then even exchanged the vibrato (in favour of a Gotoh 510), but the former was just because I hate noise live and the latter was because I'm an absolute sucker for vibratos, so they need to be perfect in all aspects (and mind you, I'd have to do that on a USA made model, too). Both the original pickups and vibrato system were absolutely fine otherwise.
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Schecter is reliably good but I wish they would stop using the utter garbage Floyd rose Special on some models.
 
Eagle said:
They are all fair points and I agree about them sending out bad guitars.
I wrote a review of mine over at FAS Forum and make a lot of those points myself about the bridge in particular.
"Too expensive for what they are" Why? They have Suhr pickups and top quality electrics, Jescar frets, carbon reinforcements in the neck. CNC milled aluminium hardware ( yes I agree about the issues) not cheep to make though and good tone transferred premium woods up to the NX wood downgrade . Your issues are quality control (yes unacceptable at times) and the design which you didn't get along with. These points don't really mean one that made it out of the factory without issues (most IME) is overpriced.
The Endurneck profile has changed in the way to be thiner toward the nut since the OS line and the newer ones are way better than the Korean line. I think the problem in manufacturing lowish volumes of product third party and keeping a tight hand on quality control from the other side of the world is what we are seeing.
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The base models seem to have Strandberg OEM pickups, which are not necessarily bad, but at 1899 euros, for made in China guitars, that's pretty expensive. Once the price goes past that $2000 barrier, the worse they compare to say a US made Kiesel with similar specs.

Obviously country of manufacture does not mean anything as skilled workers are in any country, but it does have a huge effect on the labor cost and for Strandberg it doesn't seem to materialize as a lower cost to the customer.
 
laxu said:
The base models seem to have Strandberg OEM pickups, which are not necessarily bad, but at 1899 euros, for made in China guitars, that's pretty expensive. Once the price goes past that $2000 barrier, the worse they compare to say a US made Kiesel with similar specs.

Obviously country of manufacture does not mean anything as skilled workers are in any country, but it does have a huge effect on the labor cost and for Strandberg it doesn't seem to materialize as a lower cost to the customer.
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They are made in Indonesia and I am looking at the Original 6 as a reference to others. I'm not saying you are wrong but I see Kiesel with issues all the time and their pickups are garbage.
 
Eagle said:
They are made in Indonesia and I am looking at the Original 6 as a reference to others. I'm not saying you are wrong but I see Kiesel with issues all the time and their pickups are garbage.
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Kiesel certainly has their problems and the 2010 Carvin C66 and 2015 Kiesel Aries AM7 I own have some minor cosmetic issues but are built perfectly in areas that matter. Excellent fretwork on both.

I disagree about the Kiesel pickups, I find that the Kiesel Lithiums on my AM7 are great pickups but different from what many other brands do. They have some dip in the low mids and are extremely bright, but that also makes them remain clear even with high gain and makes the tone knob far more useful as there's a bigger usable range on it.
 
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