"strat-itus"??????

[Bolero]

I read somewhere about strats suffering from magnet pull on the strings, this guy called it "strat-itus".

has anyone ever run into this? if so, how far away from the magnet poles do you have to keep the strings?

I don't know if I've ever noticed it......& can't think of any reason why it would be limited to strats??

or is this another urban myth?

thx

[bjoel]

Never experienced it myself, but according to my understanding, it only affects single coil pickups, especially in the neck position. So no, shouldn't be limited to strats, but the strat is the most common guitar that can have this fenomenon...

[curtisstetka]

I've never seen this myself, but as I understand it, strat-itus could affect any guitar, whether single coil or otherwise.

It's caused by the pickup's magnet interfering with the vibration of the string to such a degree that the pitch is affected. The remedy is to move the magnet away from the string.

I'd guess that since the output in single coil strat pickups is relatively low, people put them closer to the string and thus, the magnet gets close enough to warble the pitch.

[mrhappy]

It does indeed exist. The main offender is the neck pu and to a lesser degree the middle pu.

It sounds like a ghost note beneath the fretted note and makes the lower strings sound out of tune. It's especially noticable when playing bar chords when you get up past the 5th fret.

The solution is to lower the bass side of the neck pu and to a lesser degree the middle pu until the prob goes away.

The reason (I believe) that it occurs most noticeably in Strats is because the magnets are in such close proximity to the strings. On a humbucker type pu the magnet is actually on the bottom of the coils.

On my old strats I've had to install longer screws on the bass side... as the stock screws aren't very long and would have a tendancy to lose their grip.

[chaz498]

Check out the Kinman pickups site. he has a detailed description of the cause and cure for this. It's in the tone workshop section I think. There is also a ton of other useful info about setting up strats. Oh yeah, his pickups rule!

[Marcondo]

Here is how I fix this or set the pickup height.

Its a 2 person job.

Start by raising the neck pickup 1 turn at a time and watch what happens on a good tuner with a needle. When it goes out of tune the pickup is too high so back it off about 1/2 1 turn.

The pickups end up being pretty low in the pickguard lower than you might think for a good clean sound.

[Zhangliqun]

It happens on any guitar where the pickup's pole-pieces are magnets themselves, rather than just magnetic metal extending the magnetic field from a bar magnet on the bottom, as is the case with vast majority of humbuckers. Strats and strat clones make up the majority the guitars that have such pickups, hence the term "Strati-itis". (I don't know if this is a problem on Tele's because I don't know of the neck pu of a Tele has pole magnets or a bar magnet on the bottom. Plus they don't typically have middle pu's to add to the problem.)

I have very definitely experienced this, and for some reason it seems to affect some Strats more than others. I had one that I couldn't raise the neck pu more than 1/16" above the pickguard without a single note on the 5th or 6th string sounding out of tune with itself. The one I have now, there seems to be no limit to how high I can crank the neck and middle.

[60Strat]

First of all "-itis" is a medical term and means an inflammatory process. Like meningitis, tonsillitis.....

When I got my `62 Strat some month ago I was in heaven from the first moment I played it. But after a while I noticed something strange: When I tried to to set up the intonation, there was always a strange sound of the low E-string, fretted on the 12th, 13th, 14th fret. It just sounded like being out of tune and with some strange overtones. I moved the saddles back and forward and got no right intonation.
I called my friend Nik Huber, a German guitar manufacturer and described him the problem. He just said "Stratitis" and I knew what to do. I lowered the neck pickup on the bass side and the problem was solved.

[Bolero]

interesting, thx guys!!