Brittle high end since I downsized to 010-048 strings

lauke-lux

lauke-lux

Fractal Fanatic
Hello. Lately I changed strings and tremolo on my strat.
Used to play with 011-052 strings since 2005 on a strat and tremolo equiped with a brass block, graph tech saddles and lollar SC dirty blonde PU. Great strat sound, nothing wrong there.
I had to go to 010-048 strings as I had the more and more difficulties with cramps during more than 1.5h sets. So far the 010's do relieve me a lot.
In the same time I changed my tremolo to a stainless Vegatrem. The feel and the playability of the vegatrem are incredible and it stays quite well in tune.
Nevertheless sound of high e and b strings in quack positions on clean sounds has lost incredibly in quack and intensity and some high end sizzle is there that I never experienced before.
Experienced a bit string sizzle on the frets but heightening the action did not change a lot. I suspected the FM3 to be the cause but no it's exactly the same on my axe fx 2.
Tried extreme amp setting (mid to 10, treble to 0..) but nothing really helps.
Any suggestions would be welcome. Next weekend I'll throw in the old tremolo to see if that helps..
The Vegatrem block is half the weight of the brass block, but as it's the springs that link the strings mechanically to the body I don't think that would be the cause.
I use Addario strings.

Any suggestions to solve this are welcome.

PS : heightening the PU did close to nothing, just a little more harsh sound
 
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You only mentioned the string gauge changed but did you also change brands or string type (pure nickel vs stainless steel, for example)?

Otherwise, I also suspect it's the bridge...
 
Thanks. Yesterday I untightened a bit the thrussrod, which slightly made things better, 'but'. Will be difficult to lower PU, like you I tend to have them quite low at base.

Hope it's not the Vegatrem as this vibrato really has an incredible control and makes the guitar like butter to play !
 
lauke-lux said:
Hope it's not the Vegatrem
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I guess any hardware could just be the wrong tonal choice for a particular guitar, but I’ve read so much incredible stuff about that trem, honestly, I’d try some electronic options first to prioritize the trem. Like a lower pot value: that has a massive effect on the high end, more than you’d suspect. You may already be using 250k pots, but if you’re using 500k, I’d switch. But if you’re at 250k already, can buy a very inexpensive pack of resistors and experiment until just enough high end is gone! But a good trem can be tough to find, so my instinct would be to keep it first.
 
State of Epicicity said:
I guess any hardware could just be the wrong tonal choice for a particular guitar, but I’ve read so much incredible stuff about that trem, honestly, I’d try some electronic options first to prioritize the trem. Like a lower pot value: that has a massive effect on the high end, more than you’d suspect. You may already be using 250k pots, but if you’re using 500k, I’d switch. But if you’re at 250k already, can buy a very inexpensive pack of resistors and experiment until just enough high end is gone! But a good trem can be tough to find, so my instinct would be to keep it first.
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So much ideas.
Admin M@ said:
I'd put everything back how it was and make the changes on a 2nd guitar.
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I'm quite afraid it will end up like that haha ! But thanks for confirming how I feel about it deep inside of me; genious !
 
lauke-lux said:
I'm quite afraid it will end up like that
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Just be wary of the cramping, Man. I stopped playing for six months in lieu of surgery due to carpal tunnel. Not that you're that bad off, but cramping is a warning sign that something ought change. Regardless of what route you choose, I hope you're able to find a good solution that doesn't hurt your hands; that's the most important thing. This is making me wonder if Vega Trems are better in darker woods, like a mahogany body and mahogany neck. Fingers crossed for you!
 
State of Epicicity said:
Just be wary of the cramping, Man. I stopped playing for six months in lieu of surgery due to carpal tunnel. Not that you're that bad off, but cramping is a warning sign that something ought change. Regardless of what route you choose, I hope you're able to find a good solution that doesn't hurt your hands; that's the most important thing. This is making me wonder if Vega Trems are better in darker woods, like a mahogany body and mahogany neck. Fingers crossed for you!
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I don't think it's that, for the cramps, as I still can spread out wide and backwards my left hand fingers. But you're right, I might have that checked. For anyone in France who suffers that, I strongly recommend dr Mouton of Bordeaux hand hospital who's a national champion on that here. This guy helped my oldest son in 2009 for a nail problem after a sad accident with his right index finger in 2005. A magician this guy. That man repaired hands no man on earth would expect to move one lid ever again. Regrets we didn't know him in 2005.
For the sound problem, it was an error to change 2 variables at the same time ! Should have downgraded strings first before changing the trem. Point is the change is so easily operated with this Vegatrem, that you don't even think before you've done it !
 
Did the change to the old tremolo and....there's close to no difference, except that with the Vegatrem I have easily 1dB more output.
Sounds like an enormous stringbuzz, but when I play the guitar dry there I don't hear any stringbuzz, or just the string buzz related to the fingerwork for fretting.

These are EXL110 strings, the same as I used in 011 version before. As far as can see the strings are the problem.

Here are the soundclips, it's MP3 so certainly some loss but to me it's close to identical. Sorry for the poor playing; that's the way it is ;-)



So far for me it is a string related matter. Going back to 011's is not an option. pffff.
 
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@lauke-lux Sorry to hear that. This might seem obvious, but I have to ask anyway: With 11s you can definitely get a lower action that 10s. Did you have your action as low as it would go with your 11s? If not, I'd try that. If it gives you trouble, maybe try a new setup, with the trussrod, etc., or get a great tech to do it. I mean, Vigier's are all over France, and they supposedly get insanely low action with 9s without the buzz. But with 11s that's not a problem. You'd still have bends to deal with, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

The other thing is, for the cramping, another thing occured to me: maybe it's time for a different shaped neck. I have pretty big hands, and one time I put my hands on an enormous neck, by far the biggest I've ever played (some '80s superstrat with a Kahler I found in a shop), and I thought it would be hell to play, but, to my complete shock, it was the most comfortable guitar in the world. I felt like I could go all day and never tire out. This is when my main guitar was a Les Paul with an infinitely smaller neck than this weird superstrat. Anyway, just a change in necks could make a world of difference maybe, either bigger, smaller, or even just differently shaped. Just a thought.

Another option: You use D'Addarios, which I love personally, but you could try heavy core strings, something like the the Dunlop Heavy Cores; I don't know how easily available those are in France though. They may provide less buzz with the same guage of string, i.e., maybe a set of 10s in Dunlop Heavy Cores or even another brand of heavy cores would have a meatier tone than the D'Addarios.

Yet another option: Try a mellower string type. If you're using Nickel Plated Steel Strings that are so common, try Pure Nickel. They might just take that edge off. I used to use the DR Pure Blues on my Les Paul, and I loved the warm tone.

One more, again: Try lowering your pot value, either by changing the pot(s) to lower values or by using resistors to achieve the same effect. Since you know it's not the trem now, this totally could be a good option. I'm telling you, it did work for the Duncan JB I had in my bridge that I thought was too harsh. It completely tamed it when I went from two 500k pots for volume and tone to two 250k pots. I still got rid of it, only because I felt like it didn't have much versatility, but the harshness was gone.

Best of luck, Man!
 
One more thing to consider: I don't know if this might exacerbate the cramping for you, but could upper fret access be a problem? The big reason I moved on from my Les Paul was that my left hand would cramp from trying to access the uppermost frets. I ended up with a Washburn Parallaxe, designed partially to eliminate that problem, and that particular problem went away for me.

And I forgot @unix-guy already brought up the idea to change string type, but that's a huge thing, and the easiest one to try!
 
For the time being I'll reinstall the Vegatrem highen a bit the strings again, and eventually check the pots, but normally these should be 250k standard on a SC strat. Anyway I probably won't get the sound of 011's with 010's.
Upper fret access is not a subject as I don't play very high on the neck that often.
The neck is a Squier VM Indonesia made neck. It's not the worlds best neck for sure, and uncomparable to my G&L Asat special US neck, but up till this string change it played and sounded very well.

Edit : strange enough when playing dry I don't notice that much stringbuzz at all. A schecter LP type I own has no problem at all.
 
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