Strat Setup back in the day?

[marcg71]

How were strats setup back in the day?

I have googled and read a ton of info but was wondering how were strats setup in the 60s? Did they float them or block the trem? As I understand most would have been setup with 9s as there wasn't a ton of options then.

Reason I ask is I have carpal tunnel and I have been experimentiing. Is there a standard distance a claw should be away from the cavity? Mine is about 1/4 inch away, 3 springs and the trem sits flush with the body.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[ES350]

Seeing as they came from the factory floating, guys prolly left them that way (Strats came stock this way well into the 80's, at least based on the 3 or 4 AVRI's I bought new in that period). In the early 60's they were factory strung with a .012-.052 set with a wound .026 G string. I doubt they adjusted the trem, pickups, action or intonation very much; most people just didn't mess with their guitars very much back in the day...

[Diego]

Yeah, I understand strings were super heavy back in the day.

In the "It might get loud" outtakes, Jimmy Page tells a cool story on how strings were so damn heavy back then, that he used to buy a banjo string for the 1st, then he swapped the guitar's 1st as the 2nd, 2nd as the 3rd, etc, and he threw the 6th away.

[marcg71]

wow, 12s....that would ill my hand.

[the guy who invented fire]

On the string issue there were NO light strings until the 60's...factory Fender strings were heavy gauge (by todays standards) and used a wound 3rd.

As for trhe tremolo if you read up Leo always talked abotu the Strat tremolo (as he called it) as a floating system...

On the issue of set up the location of the claw and number of springs will all depend on the strings you use and if you set it up to float or not...

[ES350]

Yep---that was an old hotrod trick; throw away the 6th, and use a E9 pedal steel G# for the high E string.

[the guy who invented fire]

Yep---that was an old hotrod trick; throw away the 6th, and use a E9 pedal steel G# for the high E string.

Yep...Johnny Winter used to buy a set of 11's or 12's and toss the low E then add a banjo string on top...

The Rock-n-Roll Lights were born!

[Funkfingers]

Yep...Johnny Winter used to buy a set of 11's or 12's and toss the low E then add a banjo string on top...

The Rock-n-Roll Lights were born!

James Burton was one of the very first. Eventually, Ernie Ball got into manufacturing the blighters for us.

[Fender_Punk]

Yep...Johnny Winter used to buy a set of 11's or 12's and toss the low E then add a banjo string on top...

The Rock-n-Roll Lights were born!

The guitar tech at the shop I work at has told me that "back in the day" there was only 1 set of guitar strings, which were .12s and he and most other guys would do like Johnny Winter did; toss away the low E and add a banjo string to the set.

[the guy who invented fire]

The guitar tech at the shop I work at has told me that "back in the day" there was only 1 set of guitar strings, which were .12s and he and most other guys would do like Johnny Winter did; toss away the low E and add a banjo string to the set.

Thats the idea but there were more than one size set...

However I think 12's were about the lightest in the 50's...maybe 11's but most stuff was like a 12-54 with a wound G...