Joe Satriani's Action

timerunsout · #1 04-27-2009, 08:14 AM

Just curious, how does Joe get such low action on his guitars? The necks have a 9.5" radius which is the same as most Strats. When I got my guitar setup, I told the tech to set it low for 'shred' stuff and when I got it back it was still what I considered to be high (though it played a lot better) [distance from low E to the actual fingerboard on last fret is a hair under 4mm]

I'm not looking to try and lower my Strat's action anymore by the way, I've gotten used to it and actually starting to like it.

Thanks

Homebake · #2 04-27-2009, 08:19 AM

can the bridge go further? if not, you might need a neck shim, but there's more clued up people around here to tell you about that.

nuno · #3 04-27-2009, 08:39 AM

4mm!?! wow, that's silly high. anyway, Rich would provide precise data about Joe's action, but i think we're around 2mm low E @ 22 and 1.5mm high E @ 22. with a 9.5" radius i don't think he could get such bendings without choking the strings, unless he had a compound fretboard (which i think he has).

kotornut · #4 04-27-2009, 10:45 AM

I thought the JS series had a compound radius fretboard, so the area near the nut would be rounder than the area near the pickups. You should be, if this is true, able to set the action pretty low as if the guitar was like a JEM or an RG practically.

But I could be wrong about the compound radius thing.

southpaw_lefty · #5 04-27-2009, 11:56 AM

What type of bridge is it?

**moebius** · #6 04-27-2009, 11:59 AM

I thought action was measured from the string to the fret not string to fingerboard. 4mm from string to fingerboard may not be that high.

Tonelover · #7 04-27-2009, 12:42 PM

This info is posted at http://www.satriani.com/2000/about/gear/

FWIW, I bought a JS-1200 once that the previous owner had set up to these specs. It was ridiculously low, you could fret notes just by blowing on them.

Low and even, that's how Joe likes his string height. The measurement from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of each string is just over 2/64". There are reasons for this (See Joe's Set-up Ideas) This is low!

The final setup goes like this:

I arc the bridge saddles so the string height matches the fingerboard radius. Now strung to pitch I tighten the truss rod until the neck is perfectly straight.

At this point I adjust the bridge as low as possible and still allow 2 things: clean string bends above the 10th fret and a clean low e from the 10th fret up to the 22nd fret. Joe's touch is light so low works out fine.

Next we loosen the truss rod to create a very slight bow in the neck. I cannot say how much, each guitar has its own place that it wants to be. What we are trying to do is clean up the low strings from the 1st to 7th fret. I find this out by playing and experimenting.

There is a very tight tolerance in adjustments for the guitars to play well. Before the final intonation the nut must be lowered to the correct height. In Joe's case very low about .010 on the high e string to about .013 to .015 on the low e string.

nuno · #8 04-27-2009, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kotornut

I thought the JS series had a compound radius fretboard...

you're probably confusing with the multiradius (back of the) neck? for what i know, and what catalogs say, the JSs (and anything from Ibanez), don't have compound fretboards. but i doubt Joe's guitars have factory fretboard specs, as he's able to bend the strings with no string chokes with that silly low action. and it's not that he can do what we can't. it's physics.

kotornut · #9 04-27-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuno

you're probably confusing with the multiradius (back of the) neck? for what i know, and what catalogs say, the JSs (and anything from Ibanez), don't have compound fretboards. but i doubt Joe's guitars have factory fretboard specs, as he's able to bend the strings with no string chokes with that silly low action. and it's not that he can do what we can't. it's physics.

Yeah, you're right. I looked it up. I had it confused with the neck shape.

But I don't know if he uses something different than the factory speced stuff. Joe's big on having things his way and having it available to the public that way. He even designs things to be used by "other" players for different reasons than he would use it. The JSX amps incorperate a lot of that. Oh well, the one JS I played was amazing. I had no worries about bending to the choke point.

But it's cool that the 1600/1200/1000 all are made from an exact digital rendering of joe's favorite guitar's neck. I never knew that.