“And I find that more comfortable: it means that the strings can breathe properly and vibrate and that you can hit the bass side a little bit harder without them rattling, that kind of thing. “And then you want to come gradually up with each string until the bass strings are set at about 2mm, so you’ve got this slight rake going on.

“Typically, the way I set the action - assuming a good all-round medium action is required - is to top E string is about 1.5mm above the 12th fret,” says Matt. (Image credit: Future / Joby Sessions) 3. The best Stratocasters: expert advice on the best Fender Strats aroundįor vibrato setups, get your guitar in tune first before making any adjustments to the screws.And because the string has less freedom to vibrate and move close to the bridge, you can have the pickup closer to the strings before the pickup’s magnetic field starts affecting them adversely.” “The reason for that is the string doesn’t vibrate as much at the bridge as it does at the neck, so all things being equal it needs to be closer to the string to generate the same output. Typically, the middle one will need to be a little bit higher than the neck one, and the bridge one will need to be a bit higher still. “Moving on to the other two pickups, you’ll want to set them to produce around the same volume as the neck pickup for balance. Depending on your gear setup and your taste, you might find that you prefer the sound of it a little bit lower, where it’s not putting so much signal out, letting the pickups ‘breathe’ a little bit more. “That is the highest you could have that pickup. So find where that is and then drop the pickup just below until that goes away. So either you’ll hear this wobble in the note or it will have no sustain - it will literally just sort of stop and your intonation will be all over the place. “They happen when the pickup’s magnetic field starts interfering with the vibration of the strings.

Fender stratocaster setup