lol, just send me the neck, not the whole friggin guitar....

INSTALLING FENDER LSR ROLLER NUT

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Installing the Fender LSR Roller Nut can be done either with conventional tools (razor knife, file, and hand saw) or with an electric router.

There are 3 tools you absolutely can't install without. You need:

An actual #0 Philips screwdriver (any other size will strip out the screw heads)

A #51 drill bit (that's a hair bigger than a 1/16")

A digital Caliper ($10 at Harbor Freight) http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-digital-caliper-47256.html

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Unlock the tuners, detune, and allow all the strings to pop off the neck.

Using a #2 Philips screwdriver, remove the 4 screws from the back of the guitar's neck plate.

The neck is fitted into the body pocket snugly. If you are used to those old 3 bolt Fender necks, you are going to be very happy with the fit on this guitar.

Separation anxiety:

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I wonder how many Pinsiders got the same April 21 2014 birthdate?

Since there will be fine dust in the air of your shop, I'd suggest you slide the retention clip off the LSR and pour the bearings into a zip lock bag. No sense in getting the nut full of dust and crap.

This will also allow you to polish the nut to a high sheen. It's stainless steel, so buff like you would any pinball guide.

I read many people online lost the bearings and "had to buy an entire new nut".

These are just standard 2.4mm (3/32") Stainless Steel bearings, and are available at any local bike shop; 25 for $3. Do NOT buy a whole new nut....

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Using a 1/2" socket, remove the tuner retention nuts from the face of the headstock. Note that the tuners are staggered and get shorter as the strings get lighter. label them 1 through 6 if you think you will forget during reassembly.

Using a #1 Philips screwdriver remove the string tree (you won't be needing that ever again).

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The old nut has to be removed. It is just glued in with white glue.

If a player ever switches to lighter gauge strings, the nut has to be replaced, so this part of the job is easy "everyday" guitar owner stuff.

The urethane coating on the headstock touches the nut itself, so you need to score a line between the coating and the nut. If you don't, you might chip off a big chunk of clearcoat while taping out the nut.

Use a razor and score along the nut. Don't worry about cutting into the nut, you are throwing it away anyway.

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Here you can see the neck in a vise.

Put the nut as close to the vise jaws as possible. You don't want to put a lot of leverage on the entire neck.

I used a hard rubber sheet to protect the neck from the wood jaws. Yes, I know the wood jaws are supposed to be a nice soft surface, but there is always odd trash embedded into the wood, and we don't want that imprinting into our fine neck.

Find a piece of wood to drive out the old nut. Don't use anything metal, because if you slip, you will be buying a new $570 neck.

I used a paint stick that you get when you buy a can of paint.

The first tap breaks the nut free, the rest easily push it out.

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Here is the old nut free of it's neck.

The old nut has a radius to it's base. The new LSR has a flat base; this makes fitment much easier!

You can see the white glue in the old slot.

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Here is where you are going to need that digital caliper.

Fender gives all the dimensions in decimal inches, no easy metric measurements on this one (Hey, it's made in USA, right? Who needs silly Metric? ).

We need to make the nut slot wider (towards the bridge), and we need to make it deeper.

You can use the new nut to lightly score a line where the wood will be removed. Remember to score the line just slightly INSIDE the desired width - you can always file out a little wood, but you can't add it back in.

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The new nut, although it has a radius on the top, has a totally flat bottom. This makes it easy to route a nice flat slot for the new nut.

Measure the depth of the new slot from the center of the fretboard, because the fretboard has a radius of it's own.

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You can use a regular hand saw, and file for this part if you want to.

Rosewood cuts like butter, so it's not like chiseling through some rock hard wood.

The new nut slot needs to be parallel to the frets and flat to the fretboard; so that's a job for an electric router if there ever was one.

There are 100 ways to skin the router guide cat, but to me, the easiest is to just use my dovetail jig.

It already has a clamp to hold the neck in place, and it's super easy to "square up" to the frets, insuring a squarely cut slot.

Here you can see the neck clamped in place, ready for a pass:

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The dovetail jig has a scale on the side so you can "sneak up" exactly on the .219" size.

The router itself has a scale to let you plunge into exactly .115" depth.

It took longer to clamp up the neck than it did to actually do the routing.

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Press the nut into the slot.

Make sure it's not too tight (if you have to tap it in with a mallet, it's going to be too tight to shim it if you need to do this latter).

Make sure the mounting holes are facing the headstock.

Center the nut, and drill 2 pilot holes with the #51 drill bit.

Remove the nut, and drill the pilot holes down 1/4" into the neck.

The slot is too narrow to use a collar stop on the drill bit, so I used a piece of tape to mark my depth. You don't want to drill all the way through the neck, if you know what I mean.

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Unclamp the neck and vacuum up any dust.

Put the tuners back on (remember you need to install them back in the correct order).

Put the neck back on the guitar.

Push the nut back into the slot, but leave a 1/32" gap underneath.

Dip the nut screws into auto wax (they are so small that they might break if you have to drive them too hard).

Install the screws about 1/2 way, not tight.

Put the strings back on the guitar.

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Tune up the guitar and check out the action.

Lower the strings by turning the nut screws until you find a height that suits your playing style.

Fender includes a bunch of stainless steel shims for you to adjust the action now or in the future (so don't throw the extras away).

Tighten down the screws once you find the perfect height.

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The Fender LSR is great because it's the last nut you ever have to buy.

Normally, players shy away from trying heavier gauge strings for the top strings, because you have to permanently cut the nut for the larger diameter strings.

With the LSR, the strings ride on top of the ball bearings, so there are no slots to widen.

You can experiment, without any commitment, with any gauge strings you like.

You can also experiment with any string height without worrying you cut the slots too deep and now you have to buy a new nut.

A clever system, no doubt.

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Since I had my same model unmodified Srat, I compared it against my niece's LSR, to see if the **tone** had changed at all by replacing the nut.

Obviously, only the open strings would have a different tone, the fretted notes would be the same, fretted tone.

The LSR gives a slightly brighter tone and a bit more sustain over the the stock nut.

To my ear, through my 68 Plexi Marshall, my niece's LSR Strat sounded better than the stock Strat, but the difference is subtle. If you did not have the two guitars plugged in together at the same time, you probably would not be able to notice a difference.

Exactly.

Fender made it easy because you only have to widen the nut slot towards the bridge.

But if you were installing this on a brand new neck that did not have an existing slot, you would have to carefully measure to preserve the intonation.

(Although, if you are ordering a new neck from Warmoth, Musikraft, USACG or whoever, just specify Fender LSR when you order and it will arrive already routed and drilled correctly.)

That sucks.

It lasted a month, that's longer than I expected.

EDIT: it's back

http://www.adorama.com/fe118110710.html?sdtid=9149935&emailprice=t&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_source=rflaid62905

How badass is that!!!!

Deal is alive on this link:

http://www.adorama.com/fe118110710.html?sdtid=9149935&emailprice=t&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_source=rflaid62905

Who knows for how long, but it's on right now.

Why torture yourself?

Get it, if you don't totally love it, sell it at a profit.

Or take it apart and make a franken-strat.

The neck alone is $570

http://shop.fender.com/en-US/parts/necks/usa-stratocaster-neck-with-compound-radius---rosewood-fingerboard/0999000921.html#srule=price-high-to-low&sz=12&start=1&cgidx=parts-necks

I'm sure you will love it.

Like my grandfather always used to say:

"Always better to regret something you have done, than to regret something you haven't"

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Scientific proof that my grandfather was right:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2001931/Why-IS-better-regret-youve-havent.html

She likes the white on violet contrast the best.

She likes the Fender strap that comes with it. She thinks it looks old and authentic, lol.

If you only have $449 to spend with free shipping, here is a closeout Fender Classic Player Strat:

F1120368X-P.fpx (resized).jpg

Super cool bound neck and painted headstock. Dual Humbucker pickups.

I don't think Fender has done a bound neck probably since the 1960s.

Again, odd color (Mercedes Blue), but for about the price of a HH Squire, who can cry?

I might buy one just for that neck.

http://www.adorama.com/fe141120368.html?sdtid=9245503&emailprice=t&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_source=rflaid62905

I know what you mean.

I've got a cool orange Squire Strat that I bought for $50 at an estate sale.

I figured I could set it up and have a cool guitar that I don't have to worry if it gets stolen.

Even with the action and intonation properly set, it sounds like a piece of cardboard.

I can't figure out what part makes it sound so bad.

The Les Paul I want is the mermaid Blueberryburst HP: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Gibson/2017-Les-Paul-Standard-HP-Electric-Guitar-Blueberry-Burst-1500000030042.gc

I know from the Youtube videos that it does not stay in tune (just like most other Les Pauls), but look how cool even the case is!

$3200 (the price of 4 closeout American Strats)

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https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/212774786-How-do-I-set-up-my-Stratocaster-guitar-properly-

Make sure the guitar has been out of it's case for a few days to acclimate to the humidity of your house.

If it makes you feel better, I never had a guitar lesson in my life.

When I was a kid, I found an old tattered guitar chord book. I snuck my grandfather's guitar out of the house and would try to play in the park. A few months latter I was watching gypsy domra players in the street and they nodded me over to join them with my guitar. I was totally intimidated with their lightning fast strumming and strange language. They looked over my guitar suspiciously because it was not tuned at all, lol. One player would push my finger over to the proper position and then exaggeratedly show me when the next change was coming. There I was performing with one finger, rapidly playing single notes and hollering call outs in a language I did not understand.

I was terrible, but the thing I learned was that 'people want a show'. If you can meander into the audience backwards without tripping, raise your eyebrows at the ladies, get down low to play for someone's daughter in a wheelchair, or pretend that you are playing so fast you might have a heart attack (as the drummer laughs manically) - you will make money.

No one cares how good you are, only how good your show is.

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And now for someone who is actually good:

Yngwie Malmsteen - Far Beyond The Sun