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[JJ 10 Easy Wishes]

hello

it was set up for guage 9 strings, but i play 10s, so i raised both the bridge things so that they were equal height and jsut low enough so that they dont touch the pick ups and dont fret buzz. on our little tour thing though i kept breaking a string in every gig. usually the d or a string. any tips? i dont think i set it up very well :s

help!

[craig deadenstereo]

well, where about do the strings break? If they always break at teh bridge, try greasing her up! I put vaseline on my bridge saddles. More proffesional would be graphite or something. Maybe rub them with a pencil.

Same goes for the nut. Although it may be too tight for the 10s.

You can try these, but I'd probably recommend getting a proper set up done on it.

Craig

[betamax]

Unless you are dead good at setting up a guitar (senses from your tale of many snapped d strings this may not be the case) - you are really better getting it set up by a shop. All the ones in Ab seem to do it well.

Its probably to do with the bridge saddle thingy cutting into the string a bit where the string sits on it, since you upped the gauge. A bit of gentle filing should sort it out, but yup, mention it to a proper guitar setter-upper and they will fix said problem easier (and without wrecking anything) than you or I could.

I had exactly the same thing (same string too) when I went from 10s to 11s. And the nice man in the shop fixed it for 25 notes and got the intonation spot on too.

[JJ 10 Easy Wishes]

Which shop did you take it too? I used to have the exact same problem with my Epiphone SG. I filed down the saddles a bit because the strings cut into them (according to r and b) and leave little grooves which in turn tear new strings into broken strings. The advice was to then take a pencil and sort of colour in the saddle so the graphite filled in the gaps.

How should the saddle bridge and the other bridge bit look on the guitar? At the moment I have them sitting at the same height so that there is only a small raised angle from the back bridge bit to the saddles. is vaseline a good temporary solution?

first you should set up the neck.

i was once told that to do this you need to hold down the string on the 12th fret (any string buts e's easiest to see and its the biggest etc), then hold down the string on the first fret, and that gives you a straight line, so you should adjust the neck so that its straight compared to the string youv got helpd down.

[N.M]

Kinda not really any help here, but I don't see why you would need to get your guitar set up for heavier strings if it's only going up by .1.

As I said, I've got no advice as I've never had a problem with this, and I've even once had a hybrid of 52 - 48 - 42 - 18 - 14 - 11 which is pretty unbalanced tension wise, but it worked somehow.

stick it into pro sound music on holburn st

i had the same problem with one of my guitars, now its fine

neil did a great job on both my guitars

[David]

i think what might be happening is that there is a small burr or sharp edge in the saddle of the d string, so when you stick the string on, it cuts into it and the string snaps...

first thing to do is have a look at the bridge saddle, see if you can spot any sharp edges or burrs in the area the string touches, then you can get a small file (or sandpaper, but this is less accurate) and file oway the problem

as for the two parts of the bridge, the stop tail (the bit that the ball ends sit in, the tuneomatic is the part the saddles are on) should be lower then the tuneomatic, how low depends on how you want the guitar to play, the lower it is the more tension the strings will have (and they will break easier) i would set it a little lower than the tuneomatic

David

[Tav]

I'd take it into a shop and get it done. You've got your usual suspects in Aberdeen. RnB, Bruce Millers and Pro Sound music. The later being recomended by quite a few people. RnB have a really long waiting list just now. So long infact that I took my guitar down to Sound Control in Dundee <where I bought it> and the had it repaired and set up the day the tech came in. They then phoned me up to let it know it was done. I don't know what their prices are like because I got it done under warrenty but the service was fantastic...though perhaps going all the way to Dundee is a little far.

[soundian]

Originally Posted by lime ruined my life

first you should set up the neck.

i was once told that to do this you need to hold down the string on the 12th fret (any string buts e's easiest to see and its the biggest etc), then hold down the string on the first fret, and that gives you a straight line, so you should adjust the neck so that its straight compared to the string youv got helpd down.

I think it should have a slight curve away from the strings.

If it's dead straight you'd buzz on every fret.

File it and use graphite (I think you can buy stuff from music shops, otherwise get a soft pencil, the softest you can find), and remember to do the nut as well.

Small files and soft pencils can probably be found in a craft shop. I think Square one on George Street has stuff that small.
Intonations dead easy, don't pay to sort it, a good tuner and patience are all you need:


Tune the string, play the harmonic (12th fret), tune the harmonic with the saddles.

If it's sharp, move the saddle back (longer string means flatter note) and vice versa.

It's normally better to slacken the string before adjusting the saddles cos the string puts a lot of tension on it and you could round the head of the screw (not that I've ever done that. Hrrrmm)