Sounds Sour

Hello all great site. Recently bought a Squier Deluxe Strat. My problem is that the E & B strings sound sour when played open. They sound fine when fretted, intonation is dead on. Could this be the strings or possibly the pu's ?

Did you adjust the intonation yourself? Because if you didn't do it right... you could have just detuned your guitar. Just tune your open E and B strings to their respective tones and leave the intonation alone.

I would see if my saddle on the bridge had enough pressure on the last part before air. Then I would check the arch of the neck. Books Iv'e read tell me to put my left #1 finger on fret#1 and your right #T finger on the 15 fret. Then take the middle finger of the right hand to the 7 fret and you should have 15 thousands of a inch or 1/64 inch play between the string and the fret. Once this is cool only fret filling and or string raising is hip with respect to the lowest string action posible with out buzzin.

If there's any way you could make a recording and give us a link where we could hear it, it'd make it easier to figure out.

Originally Posted by: Brian H.I would see if my saddle on the bridge had enough pressure on the last part before air. Then I would check the arch of the neck. Books Iv'e read tell me to put my left #1 finger on fret#1 and your right #T finger on the 15 fret. Then take the middle finger of the right hand to the 7 fret and you should have 15 thousands of a inch or 1/64 inch play between the string and the fret. Once this is cool only fret filling and or string raising is hip with respect to the lowest string action posible with out buzzin.

Basically all that tells you is how to measure the relief... Relief is the bowing of the net to allow the strings to vibrate freely enough without buzzing. I suppose if the action is set too low it could make the string buzz and make it sound bad... but The way that I understand the problem is more in how the note sounds... A buzz would be easier to diagnose becuase you can hear a buzz pretty plainly. But I don't think that will help you at all...

I think you have out thought your self. Buzz is the bottom line. With every thing and how you play it. No one wants to sound sour. Did you try my hint or not? Understand I live in a world of 440 tuning,9ga strings and incredibly low action guitars I've ever seen. If I'm wrong why is the proof in the puddin? Peace with mississhippy.

Originally Posted by: Brian H.I think you have out thought your self. Buzz is the bottom line. With every thing and how you play it. No one wants to sound sour. Did you try my hint or not? Understand I live in a world of 440 tuning,9ga strings and incredibly low action guitars I've ever seen. If I'm wrong why is the proof in the puddin? Peace with mississhippy.

Congratulations... do you want a cookie? Your advice for him was to measure the action and file the frets................. which you read in a book somewhere. The basis of my suggestions was that anybody who has to get on a forum and ask a tech question: 1. probably doesn't know enough to go about fret filing, 2. doesn't feel comfortable taking care of it themselves, and 3. wants to save money if at all possible... If you're telling a guy that fits into these criteria to go out and buy fret files, fret crown files, extra fret wire (incase he messes up)....and also encouraging him to do something that should be left to a professional. Then you're defeating the whole purpose of him asking the question... Acoustics are sensitve instruments. This stuff may work for you and your self proclaimed "low action" set-ups... but I wouldn't suggest it to a newbie, or even someone who knows a little about luthiery. The last thing I want to see is someone taking bad advice and ruining their guitar...

I never ment fret filing as a start off to low action. Only as a last effort if other means diddent work. You are correct no one should file unless they know exactly what thay are doing. But I diddent assume he would arbitraily start hacking away at his frets. So why did you? I think I have been taken out of contects. Back to the problem at hand. The original guy said that only his E&B strings were buzzin. And only when he hit a open note. Perhaps his nut is too low causing his open note only to buzz on the first fret. I say this assuming that the first fret note F is cool like he said. Another possibility is that his first fret is too high, causing the buzz. The need for slight neck bow and or the proper pressure on the last point of the saddle before pickupville may not be needed to be taken into consideration at all at this time. Have we both out thought ourselves? Maybe. Anyway all of the tricks of lowest string action before buzz are quite grounded in physics and therefore not much fun to argue about. By the way try my advice and then tell me I don't what I am doing. I can be cool with that. I am the second best guitarist around because everyone else is #1. Peace with mississhippy.

I find this a really interesting thread. I still don't know what "sour" means, maybe you will get us an example.

It is really easy to offend someone on message boards. When you have to disagree with someone, please be careful to be respectful.

He never even says that his strings are "buzzing" maybe they're just not souinding right... maybe they're getting deadend. But nevertheless, I apollogize if I offended your intelligence on guitar set-ups... Truth be told... the guitar in question is a Squire Strat..... A number of things could have happened that have caused the "sour" sounding strings. If he takes it to a tech, they will be able to identify the problem in a few seconds.

Originally Posted by: aschlemanHe never even says that his strings are "buzzing" maybe they're just not souinding right... maybe they're getting deadend. But nevertheless, I apollogize if I offended your intelligence on guitar set-ups... Truth be told... the guitar in question is a Squire Strat..... A number of things could have happened that have caused the "sour" sounding strings. If he takes it to a tech, they will be able to identify the problem in a few seconds.

I think I know what you're talking about. I've got a squier strat too and some frets on the D string I think it is just don't sound right. They sound kind of limp. But that's all I know, I'd gotten a better guitar at about the same time so I wasn't too worried about it. Since then it's been sitting in its bag not being used. I consider it retired.