The Malmer Gets New Strings and a Setup

Ok. After 5 days with the YJM Strat it was time to go ahead and do the inevitable. It needed to have those Fender Bullets removed and replaced with a set of Ernie Ball Hybrids, a truss rod adjustment, some work on the tremolo and final intonation. So, I got work on the string replacement, first, and all went smoothly. I now prefer a hybrid string set that is one half .009s (on the unwounds) and one half .010s (on the wounds). I like these because you get the ease of bends and light feel of .009s for solo stuff and the heavy solid tone of .010s for rhythm and chords.

Note: Despite my initial inclination of replacing the original tuners with locking vintage style tuners, I have changed my mind. I plan to keep this guitar 100% stock except for the strap buttons, which I changed to locking Schallers.

Stringing up a vintage "F" style Kluson design tuner is not easy for someone who's never done it before, that's for sure. ;) I went with the Fender factory wrap technique, but there are many ways to wrap the strings on these tuner types. The simple two kink factory method seems to work just fine and provides flawless tuning stability for tremolo use in my opinion, and it's easy to do. Just look at those wraps! Perfect.

After the string change I tuned up and made my first truss rod adjustment, then made my necessary tremolo angle adjustments due to the heavier bass strings in my new set. I also adjusted the six synchro screws... raising the middle four above the plate and keeping the two outside screws flush. This increases the accuracy of the return and no tone is lost because all six screws remain in contact with the bridge. After my final truss rod adjustment, I then adjusted the intonation to compensate for the newer, larger gauge bass strings and I was done. ;)

She now plays and sounds better than ever. The action is a little stiffer with the new strings (which I like), mainly due to the tremolo spring adjustments (I had to crank the claw in more, thus adding a little more tension to the bridge). It plays great and sounds phenomenal! :)