Dank Rain

I ordered and have received a 0.05" Allen key, after reading that it's the right size for a Squier saddle height. Turns out 0.05 is quite a lot too small! Anybody know the size I need instead? They're certainly smaller bolts than any Allen key I've owned before will fit. Maybe there's a trick like wrapping tin foil or tape around the smaller key to increase the size a little? I'm not even sure there's anything wrong with the heights as they are, just want to test the effect.

Thanks for the string-gauge advice, I'll go for Regular Slinky. But it was the length of the slender E which surprised me - seriously inadequate. My new steelwork inside isn't pretty, but it's unseen and it's rigid and I like that, better than springs. It's just a couple of 4-inch M5 bolts through bits of plate. I didn't much admire the dirty screws and half-painted corroded claw that I found holding the springs, either - not one of Leo's finest.

Thanks for that, I will most likely go with the plan to have it looked at. Certainly no point replacing the machine heads if the tremolo is the culprit. Overnight I had a look and went to work securing the bridge in the flat position - I guess it must be the answer if it fixes string lengths. I never use tremolo. I hope getting rid of the springs will solve half the problem. I can't pretend it sounds good yet - various untraceable buzzings as well as the damaged fret, and a rotten volume pot, and a weird tendency for the open G string to play slightly flat while an A played on the second fret is distinctly sharp. I still slightly expect an expert to look and say it's just not a good neck, but I'll be glad to be guided, whichever way. I just attached a brand new Ernie Ball '8' top-E, and it wasn't physically long enough to stretch from the bridge to the top of the headstock. That never happened to me before - is it common?

Thanks Skinnyman, that's understood. Great dog-pic.

You see my thought-processes and predict my preferences, long before they cross my mind. I'll hold off, buying locking tuners for the moment. I will very happily seek out and give a local guitar specialist an hour or two of well-paid employment...but if someone had said "All you need is this £600 Yamaha instead", I would have looked no further. If I ask a specialist to set the Squier up, would it be smart to supply items like a Tusq nut and string trees for him to fit, so they are dealt with at the same time? My doubt about my basic Squier, comes from the fact that I don't ever remember it being wholly satisfactory, even brand new from a West End guitar shop, when it had presumably been properly set up...so if the components were always disappointingly basic, their upgrade may be long overdue. Is there an option to bolt a Squier's bridge rigidly to the body so it cannot trem at all? If it would make it super-steady, I'd request that...unless it's no more than I've already achieved, by squashing beer-mats behind the pivoting section. What certification should I look for, amongst electric guitar technicians/luthiers? And should I invest in a hard case before sending the instrument away in other people's care?

Thanks guys, that sounds like very good advice. I'm in Southampton by the way. I had definitely been hoping I could spend my way to sounding like a better guitarist, but I'll gladly pay for the Squier to be tweaked and set up properly. As you asked about the tremolo arm, I removed it when I first got the guitar home, and packed behind the pivoting section with cardboard so there could never be any movement of the bridge that might destabilise the tuning. Such was (and is) my crusade against iffy tuning...I hope I didn't introduce the problem I was trying to eradicate. At risk of sounding like I haven't understood your advice, everything I've read lately made me think locking tuners represent a real step forward, not just needless trinkets... ...so in the interests of maintaining the improvement a luthier/tech can return to the Squier, would a set of Fender or Grover locking tuners be worth acquiring and fitting in advance of sending the guitar away? I've been haunted by poor stringing/tuning method in the past and I want to leave it firmly and finally there. Thanks again!

Good evening, and season's greetings. I bought a Squier Strat (at Macari's, I think) back in 2008. That was 20 years after my first electric. I'd had a very pretty (but lousy) cheap sunburst Strat knock-off in the 'nineties, and a nice, okay Aria Strat copy before that, which I'd sold for beer-money at college. Others too, barely remembered now. My (still current) Squier Strat didn't impress me much. I never have managed to stabilise the tuning enough to enjoy hearing the sounds I can make with it. So it hasn't seen a lot of use. Now I've noticed the tenth fret has a ding that messes with any string bending. I had it in mind to replace the tuners with Fender locking ones, and maybe upgrade the nut and trees to improve the tuning stability. But if I'm going to persevere with this guitar, I will want to replace or swap the damaged fret with the topmost one...or, maybe just get a better Fender neck? I'd like to know whether upgrading parts of a classic standard design makes a really perceptible difference, or if I'll finally wish I'd just bought a genuine U.S. Strat...or maybe I'm expecting more than even the best Strat can deliver? Maybe as a very basic guitarist, I need something easier to play adequately, rather than something I need to be properly good, to feel proud of. A Guitarist magazine review in the late 'eighties, described a Westone Pantera which sounded like it just didn't have any tuning issues. I didn't have that sort of money at the time. It isn't a financial problem like it was 30 years ago. I still love how the Strat looks and everything it reminds me of, but I don't want another guitar which even I don't like to hear me play... ...so are the costlier Strats instantly, recognisably wonderful, or should I cut loose and try something way different? Tuning stability is my priority. Any popular suggestions? Thanks for reading.