Hey Steve. You think one of these might affect adversely the tone of my ‘56 strat or do you see these neck plates as only adding benefit. Also do you notice that they thicken up the high E string at all on the bridge pup. Thanks!
Hyram, Hastings on Hudson. Ny
So far, every guitar I tried the damascus steel neck plates improved.
The caveat seems to be more of an improvement on instruments where more improvement is possible.
Or, you won’t see as much improvement on a really together instrument.
I’ve only ever had the stock number plate on my 1960 Strat until I tried Scott’s.
There’s no way i would have left the new plate on if it had anything other than a positive effect on the guitar’s performance.
I wasn’t really expecting to hear much diff, but it was an obvious “more everything” change.
i think the deal is the stock plates bend at the corners after they’ve been torqued down for a while, maybe not the most solid contact between plate and body over most of the plate, just “bite’ at the corners.
So the stiffer plate essentially gives you a bigger, more solid neck to body joint area.
Anyway, that’s what it looks, feels, sounds, and behaves like to me.
The high E string bridge pickup issue might be related to the neck/body structural stuff, but I sure wouldn’t bet on it.
I’ve seen weak high E strings on every kind of guitar, it’s not exclusively a bolt-on problem.
Misalignment of a light gauge string to the corresponding pole piece, sure.
High E string saddle with f’d up witness point and only one height adjustment screw contacting the bridge plate, yup.
I’ll bet you would see some improvement even with all the above working against you if your neck screws were genuinely loose, but I’m guessing you’re already in the “tight is right” Fender club with a ’56 : )
It’s a common complaint, weak E, the two big factors are you’re out on the end of the coil and you want your thinnest wire loud.
All the interior strings have a pole on either side, much less likely to have drop-out.
That’s the issue I was addressing with Scott and Lollar with the “8-string blade Jazzmaster” pickup Scott used.
Plenty of blade extending beyond the high E, no drop out, drop off, etc.
Same deal as the lipstick tubes on my white Strat, no poles, and the pickup’s sticking out an inch past the high E.
To seal the deal I’m using .014 for a high E.
the combination of big string and not being falling off the edge of the pickup keeps the high E proud.
On steel they used to call the top string the melody string, its gotta be proud!
I’ve dealt with the weak E on a bunch of guitars, some just never respond, but most of the time careful examination of the bridge saddle and string/pole alignment along with brute force string gauge raise does it.