Top string problems

damonjewel

When playing lead on my strat when I scale up to the top string the sound lacks oomph in the high E and seems to drop in volume.when I play the other strings they sound fine and the balanced with each other.

Could it be the set up? The strings (I use .10)? the fact that I dont use a plectrum possibly is causing a lack of bite? my amp set up even? I use an old peavey 30.

Its driving me nuts and limits my soloing by basically not venturing onto the top string. Any recommendations would be great

tokaitelejohn

You could have a dead string - or a dead spot on the neck of the guitar.
I would move up to 11s - Ernie Ball Power Slinkys are good. You'll get a lot more sustain - especially if you're not using a pick. You may have to adjust the truss rod on the neck though just to counteract the extra tension - it should only take a quarter turn - but probably not. You'll also need to reset the intonation for the heavier strings. You wont regret it, believe me.

hudie mcmenamin

Have you tried adjusting the heights of the pickups? The closer the pickup is to the string, the louder it should be.

Nick Dolan

While moving up to 11s will increase your sustain, it will make the actual soloing and vibrato more difficult . The second poster has the right idea, your pickups should have a downward "slope" with more of a gap between the bass strings and the pickup pole pieces than the treble strings.I would lower the bass side of the pickup rather then raise the treble side as a raised pickup will rob some sustain from the string. Some other things you can do is use decent (Expensive!) leads (including patch leads), switch to the bridge pickup, change string regularly (whole sets), make sure your bridge saddle radius matches the neck radius and remember some strat necks do get buzzy up the dusty end.

-=al=-

maybe a nasty high fret?