Partscaster re fret and set up

This lovely partscaster was one of three guitars that John brought me for set up. From first touch I loved how the big fat MIJ Silver series Squier neck felt and - unusually for me - I also loved the refinish / relic'ing that had been done to the body. John wanted the guitar re-fretted as he was struggling to get enough 'push' against the strings to do bends and his specified gauge of wire was Dunlop 6150 or equivalent. This is more a medium jumbo LP-style wire than the thin original wire on the MIJ neck but that's what I re-fretted with. There were a couple of curious aspects to this re-fret and set up; the first being that on refitting the neck (after re-fretting) I noticed that it now sat noticeably lower in the pocket than it originally had - without any bridge alteration. There were no shims to lose / misplace to have caused this... so the only conclusion I could come to was that the heel / body had been tightened up with a tiny gap. This can happen when a neck heel fits tightly and friction prevents it from seating that last fraction of a mm. It only takes the thickness of the subsequent tin shim that I used to raise it back up (0.25mm) to make a surprisingly big difference. I initially tried winding the bridge down to its stops but it still wasn't enough; the shim puts it back at a configuration with plenty of room for adjustment in both directions - a more ideal situation from a set up point of view.
The second curiosity - but perhaps more easily explained - was the fitted Brenner piezo saddle unit. The bridge on this partscaster has clearly evolved from the original fitted (which originally was a 6-screw tremolo unit). The two outer posts were converted to brass bushings to upgrade the bridge to a 2-point Wilkinson tremolo. Then the 6 individual saddles of the Wilkinson bridge were replaced with the Brenner piezo unit (and wiring for that fitted to the guitar plus a separate output for the piezo signal). The issue with this experiment is simply the mis-match between the neck's radius - a tight, distinctly vintage 7.25" - and that of the saddles on the bridge which is difficult to assess but which appears to be very flat indeed. The result of this mis-match is that you have to set the last fret action on based on the two lowest strings (the D and G) which leaves the outer strings progressively higher - to the point where the outer Es are 'flying' high above the fingerboard. If you set the action based on the outer Es then the A will be too low and the D and G even lower still causing immediate buzzing and choking so the 'flying at the edges' is the only approach you can take with such a mis-match. The effect of this mis-match is amplified by the fact that, thanks to the geometrical limitations of the 7.25" radius neck, the lowest possible playing action is already higher than 9.5" and above guitars. On this guitar I've actually gone a little below the ideal minimum action on the D and G (for a 7.25") to try to reduce the effect of the high flying Es.... You can tell from the above detail that a 7.25" radius is normally quite a challenge to get a low-ish action with; with the flat bridge radius this becomes more difficult still. My recommendation to John is that if the piezo aspect of this bridge is no longer needed to revert to standard saddles and 'dial in' the correct 7.25" radius to mirror that of the neck.
All of that aside, I love how this feels, sounds (thanks to the noiseless Fender pickups) and looks. I think with the bridge schizophrenia corrected it will be even better.

Видео Partscaster re fret and set up канала Sam Deeks