I have found that I get fret buzz at a much higher action on my strat than on my LP. My action is VERY low on the LP, but the strat's is almost unenjoyably high. Is higher action on strats (specifically MIM strats) just part of the fender character?
It has more to do with the fret finishing on the guitar. You'll notice it more on MIM's because the frets aren't perfectly level. There's no way they would take the time to do that on an inexpensive guitar. Even gibson's fretwork is usually horrific. With a good fret dressing you could lower the strings almost all the way down to the frets and have little to no buzzing. Very low action in other words.
the other part of the equation is the neck relief
i get the worst buzz while playing up around the 12-15th frets, where i assume neck relief is less of a factor. the buzz is on the last and second to last frets
the question now is quot;is a 6 year old MIM strat, with no sentimental value, worth a fret leveling?quot;
Try to get all the saddles adjusted to the perfect height, so that when you bend a whole note up, the note is just a tiny bit short of fretting out.
Adjust the trussrod so that when you depress the 1st and 14th fret, there's just a little glimmer of light between the top of the 7th fret and low E string. Sometimes, I make tiny adjustments with the trussrod, so the majority of fretbuzz on the neck disappears.
Your final step is intonation. Go to Rainmaker's Intonation thread in the Vault. I wrote a detailed tutorial on fine tuning your intonation.
I think Gibson necks mostly have 12.5 inch radius. Strats, on the other hand may have smaller radius that requires the string to be set up higher. Other factors to be considered are fret dressing, neck relief, fret size, string gage and bridge set up. A fatter and lower fret will allow you to set the strings low and thus have much faster action. If you set the height of a certain string too low on the bridge, it will buzz especially when you bend it towards the center of the neck because it is the highest in the middle. It will touch the frets at the low end. That is also the reason why smaller radius necks has higher string settings.
It has more to do with the fret finishing on the guitar. You'll notice it more on MIM's because the frets aren't perfectly level. There's no way they would take the time to do that on an inexpensive guitar. Even gibson's fretwork is usually horrific. With a good fret dressing you could lower the strings almost all the way down to the frets and have little to no buzzing. Very low action in other words.
the other part of the equation is the neck relief
i get the worst buzz while playing up around the 12-15th frets, where i assume neck relief is less of a factor. the buzz is on the last and second to last frets
the question now is quot;is a 6 year old MIM strat, with no sentimental value, worth a fret leveling?quot;
Try to get all the saddles adjusted to the perfect height, so that when you bend a whole note up, the note is just a tiny bit short of fretting out.
Adjust the trussrod so that when you depress the 1st and 14th fret, there's just a little glimmer of light between the top of the 7th fret and low E string. Sometimes, I make tiny adjustments with the trussrod, so the majority of fretbuzz on the neck disappears.
Your final step is intonation. Go to Rainmaker's Intonation thread in the Vault. I wrote a detailed tutorial on fine tuning your intonation.
I think Gibson necks mostly have 12.5 inch radius. Strats, on the other hand may have smaller radius that requires the string to be set up higher. Other factors to be considered are fret dressing, neck relief, fret size, string gage and bridge set up. A fatter and lower fret will allow you to set the strings low and thus have much faster action. If you set the height of a certain string too low on the bridge, it will buzz especially when you bend it towards the center of the neck because it is the highest in the middle. It will touch the frets at the low end. That is also the reason why smaller radius necks has higher string settings.
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