Ok, a friend of mine has a fender strat 68' re-issue that he wants to sell. He let me barrow it to see if I like it and I had to put new strings on it. Now I'm tring to tune it and I don't know what I'm doing because the bridge keeps raising up when I tighten a string and throwing the rest out of tune. I'm still tring to learn electric but need to know how to tune it first. What do I do?
go on line and find the guitar tuner site.
from low to high (fat string to thin string) you tune E A D G B E.
since you have a strat remelo the bridge will move up and down.
just concentrate on gettin in tune first.
Dogbite's advice to tune from low to high is right on and will make it go a lot faster.
Tuning a Strat with a floating bridge takes a while. Not all day, but you'll have to go through the tuning several times. When you tighten a string the bridge will rise up a bit and throw the rest of the strings out of tune, but each time you go through the strings you'll get closer to being in tune and the amount that the bridge throws the others off will be less.
So don't worry about getting it EXACTLY in tune the first few times. Just quickly go through all six strings, bass first, getting them pretty close, then do it again, then do it again, then do it again, then when they're not drifting much get serious.
I keep my Strat tuned to standard tuning most of the time, but sometimes I drop it a half step, and when I do I have to go through this process. Usually it takes 6 or 7 rounds before it's to where I can really get critical about being in tune. Takes 3 or 4 minutes, and it goes quicker now that I don't get critical until I'm almost there. First time I did it it drove me nuts and took half an hour.
so the bridge moving up is normal? the first time I got it in tune a friend of mine said that the bridge is supposed to be flat.
your friend's advice :bridge being flat is wrong. generally there is a small gap between bridge plate and body. actually, it is an angled gap.
A small gap is how they are meant to be, but I don't use my trems at all so all my trems are tightened dow flat for tuning stability and added sustain. Mind you I wouldn't advise this on a borrowed guitar even if you didn't want to use the trem. Your friend might not want it that way. :wink: Besides tightening them flat I add extra springs. I'm just not a trem guy. I agree with the above advice. You just have to keep retuning until you zero in on it. It will take a few passes but you will get there.
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grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
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thanks for all the advice. I'm going to try again today and see if I can get it. About how much of a gap should be the bridge and the body?
Ok, a friend of mine has a fender strat 68' re-issue that he wants to sell. He let me barrow it to see if I like it and I had to put new strings on it. Now I'm tring to tune it and I don't know what I'm doing because the bridge keeps raising up when I tighten a string and throwing the rest out of tune. I'm still tring to learn electric but need to know how to tune it first. What do I do?
This should help you out
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
