Hey guys,

The other day while using my whammy, the tremolo system twanged and I think it locked/dpressed a bit. My top E string is now at 3mm, and my bottom E is at 2mm (all measured on the 14th fret)!

I play mostly 80-90's rock and ofcourse as much Satch/Vai as I can, so before I go changing the saddle to fix my action, I want to know what action you guys have your JS guitars (or any others) set at?

Cheers
Andy

My low E string is a tad higher then my high E string so a bit like yours.
(because of the thickness, the lower E string is closer to the hums then the others.)
My action is low and even, the lowest I could get it. Lower than this and my E string will buzz and make unwanted noises.
I tried to get the action even on every string, from the neck all the way to the 22th fret.

How many mm is your action set at?

I'm not sure what the factory setup was when I recieved it, but I took the guitar to a shop to get it re setup again and the tech there changed the action so it was a bit lower. But now I'm sure its gotten even lower, at 2-3mm. I've definitely noticed a loss in sustain.

Sustain is a combo of many things. you can have your strings pretty low, and then you have your amp all the way up.

I think you might want to take a look at the gauge of strings, people prefer the lighter ones, however I have found that the heavier ones sustain more, and a higher action give it more space and sustains better.

you seem to know what you are doing, and have some feeler gauges. So just experiment and see what suites you.

What exactly do you mean by this? Did one of the springs pop off of the claw? Was it still in tune after it "twanged"?

no the springs didn't pop off, that 'locking' sound is hard to describe, but its the same sound you get if you unwound the fine tuner screws... you know that sound when the saddle makes when it depresses down a bit.

I've been using 9-42 strings on the JS1200, so I'm not too keen to change strings to a higher gauge because I'll need to get the guitar setup up again.

I thought about bumping my action up to 4-5mm to get more sustain. I know its all personal taste, but if you guys think 2-3mm action is fine, I'll probably just stick with that.

I have the same action height so no worries :)

Here's more reading stuff...


http://www.satriani.com/2000/about/gear/

Cheers

If you switch to a higher gauge string, you would just need to adjust the spring claw on the back of the guitar. I know that making adjustments and even routine maintenance on a floyd style trem can be scary if you have never done it before, but if your technique requires that you have a guitar equipped with a locking, floating trem it's something you really NEED to learn how to do. There are plenty of sites on the net that are pretty in depth and can educate about almost every aspect of your trem.

P.S. 2mm-3mm action is pretty typical on a JS guitar.

thanks for the tips guys.

I'm definitely keen to learn more about the technical aspects of the floyd rose trem. For now I'll stick with my current action.

cheers

the action can be low with no loss of sustain
first thing is the neck shouldnt be perfectly straight.... a very slight bow to allow for large string vibes at center neck area(8-14)...gl

Yup, good point. The only thing more difficult than learning all of this guitar set-up stuff yourself, is trying to find a good highly skilled, reasonable and trustworthy person to do it for you. IMHO you are much better off learning to do it yourself rather than paying someone else.

Low and even, that's how Joe likes his string height. The measurement from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of each string is just over 2/64". There are reasons for this (See Joe's Set-up Ideas)
This is low!

The final setup goes like this:

I arc the bridge saddles so the string height matches the fingerboard radius. Now strung to pitch I tighten the truss rod until the neck is perfectly straight.

At this point I adjust the bridge as low as possible and still allow 2 things: clean string bends above the 10th fret and a clean low e from the 10th fret up to the 22nd fret. Joe's touch is light so low works out fine.

Next we loosen the truss rod to create a very slight bow in the neck. I cannot say how much, each guitar has its own place that it wants to be. What we are trying to do is clean up the low strings from the 1st to 7th fret. I find this out by playing and experimenting.

There is a very tight tolerance in adjustments for the guitars to play well. Before the final intonation the nut must be lowered to the correct height. In Joe's case very low about .010 on the high e string to about .013 to .015 on the low e string.

http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/index.htm Everything you need is here

Another great point that probably gets overlooked quite a bit. When I bought my JS1000 the string height at the nut was really high, and since there is very little string vibration here is should be almost nothing. Getting this right really helps to get the action lower and makes chording at the top of the neck soooo much easier.

If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, don't be ashamed to pay someone to remove and put your nuts to a grinder so they will work properly. >_<

OUCH

Hi guys, could you tell me what 2/64" is ? Is this the number of mm ?

Cause on my JS 1200 I've got exactly 2 mm from my 14th fret to the my e high string.

And I find it too high : !! :D

2/64" is 2x 64ths of an inch 25.4mm to an inch so about 0.8mm

I would not necessarily go by how Joe's guitars are set up though (I think Joe's tech was being quoted in that post). I'm sure that they play great, but I think all of his guitars are re-fretted and have a slight compound radius massaged into the fret dressing. Because of this I would not expect that a typical could be pulled off a wall at Guitar Center and set up with the same action as Joe's.

So is Joe's action around 0.8mm or the gap measured after fretting the 1st and 12th fret ?

I remember reading Joe likes his action a bit higher than most people unless I'm totally off the track

^
I did not get anything from what you have written :P
Action can be measured on various places and it is the distance from a certain fret (top of the fret) to the string. Not from the wood to the string because you do not touch the wood actually. The books I have seen from Ibanez (about setup) talk about action on the 17th fret. Also as the neck is slightly twisted the action does not rise/fall in a linear manner. Others measure it to the 12th fret, or somewhere else.

Now I do not think that I do not understand what I have written as well... probably the fact that it is 3:42 AM has something to do with this...

Uhm
'or the gap measured after fretting the 1st and 12th fret ?'
how do you fret bot 1st and 12th fret and then measure anything... what are you using to measure with? :lol:

I don't really understand myself either it's pretty complicated, I took it directly from the Prestige Manual that came with the RG550 and I couldnt understand what they meant.

I just checked again and they say to Fret the 1st fret and the frets around 12-13th where the neck meets the body visually. Then they say to check out the gap in mm at the 8th fret and that this should be between 0.3 and 0.5mm at best. it's impossible to calculate that without precision tools.

This stuff is complicated :lol:

These sound like instructions for setting neck relief (adjusted with the truss rod), not action.

That is very possible. It doesn't mention it explicitly in the manual other than talk about The neck and the action pretty much on the same page.

I would like to be able to measure that fairly accurately though. I can't seem to find something that can do that.

But this is probably off topic anyways.

I am most curious about how Joe's guitars are set up action-wise

2/64ths is to be reduced to 1/32nd of an inch
Fractional Decimal mm
1/32 0.0313 0.7938


http://www.satriani.com/2000/about/gear/setup.shtml

If I was you I would not worry about how Joe's guitars are set up. As I said earlier, he has a great tech working to keep his guitars perfectly set up, and it's unlikely you will be able to set yours up to the same specs without major buzzing. I would just try to work on getting it set up so it plays comfortably for your needs. All players have different needs, the action Stevie Ray Vaughan's Strats were set at about 1/4 of an inch (almost 6.5 mm I think) and he used 12s or 13s for his string gauge and it did not slow him down too much.

I just checked out the link Axeshredder posted. It's very unlikely I will be able to to play like with such a set up so I am not too concerned about emulating Joe's. My touch is way too stiff and brutal, it would be nothing but buzzing all around.

I'm trying to lighten my touch though. I tire myself too quickly by pressing too hard for nothing.

I'll be concerned about my own comfort and what feels right for me. I don't see a point in emulating Joe's set up. It's his own. I need to find mine.

Man, 0,8 mm ! This should be some kind of magic with that guitar tech ! :o

But as it was said, I think that guitars should have been refreted to get such a low action. Cause I tried on mine and the result was buzz and buzz and buzz. Specialists tell that time passing by, the wood never stops to work so there's still one hope for my neck to find his perfect way.

I'm gonna burn some candles... :P

I think it takes a lot of skill. A very precise fret leveling, then a crown and polish. If your name is Joe Satriani, you have the skill (and money) to afford the best guitar tech out there.

I've reduced my action to about 1,6 mm at the 12th fret and it works ! No buzz, no problem. My action is about 2 mm at the last fret of the neck. If you're patient, you could do that by getting the neck as straight as possible, with the tremolo high enough to avoid buzzes in the highest notes.

I love this guitar ! :D