Bridge from Hell :: 1994 Fender Strat Plus Deluxe [7.8 lbs]

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Bridge from Hell :: 1994 Fender Strat Plus Deluxe [7.8 lbs]

Here is an interesting Strat that was in last week for a setup.  It has a set of the Lace Sensor blue, silver and red pickups along with a LSR roller nut, locking tuners and Fender's Deluxe Floyd Rose-style locking bridge.  The fret ends on the maple fingeboard needed to be dressed as they were extremely sharp.  I also removed a couple shims from the roller nut to lower the action over the first fret.

Oh boy, the bridge though.  This design is a pain in the ass to set up.  The string ball ends need to be clipped off and then locked into the saddles - no problems there.  But in order to adjust the intonation, you need to make your adjustments through the rear cavity in the back.  There are two adjustments for each saddle, one to lock it down and one to act as a stop for the intonation.  I found that making these adjustments was much easier with the bridge removed from the body, so I would string it up to check the intonation and then have to remove the bridge to make my adjustments.  Then reinstall and string up to check.  Further complicating things were the too-short intonation stop screws on the low E and A.  They were so short that I had to fabricate shims to keep the saddles from creeping forward under string tension.  These shims had to be precisely fitted as they dictate the intonation for those strings.

I've worked on quite a few Strats and Fender threw me an unexpected curve ball on this one.

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1992 Fender Jazz Plus V 5 string [9.3 lbs] :: new bone nut and setup

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1992 Fender Jazz Plus V 5 string [9.3 lbs] :: new bone nut and setup

This features a Kubicki preamp and Lace Sensor J pickups.  The controls are top to bottom:

stacked master volume :: pan between pickups

stacked treble cut/boost :: bass cut/boost

4-way rotary with standby (mute), active with mid boost (internal trim pot to adjust mids), active and passive

The bass came into the shop quite neglected.  It was really grimy (especially the fingerboard), only strung with the A, D & G strings and missing the nut.  The low B saddle screw was bent and missing the set screws that adjust the height.

I first cleaned the guitar and replaced the saddle screws on the B.  A new bone nut was fabricated and a fresh 9V battery installed  The bass was set up with a set of  D’Addario EXL 160-5 round wound strings.