OK, a bit out of date since this happened five or six months ago, but that means I’ve at least had the chance to form a proper opinion. I wanted an HSS strat with a nice neck joint, and I was going to go for a reasonably priced one, like a Sire Larry Carlton S series, but I thought, “you know what - I’m going to be doing this until I croak, so I might was well spare no expense”. I was lucky enough to have recently retired, so had some spare cash. Anyway, in the end I opted for a strat made by Feline guitars - a small UK builder.
It was a very nice experience working with their owner, Jonathan Law, to spec out the guitar. I hadn’t played many guitars, so I wasn’t able to provide much direction on the build. Here are my thoughts:
When I the guitar arrived, it looked and felt great. Super build quality, lovely looking wood and paint job. BUT… it wouldn’t stay in tune after any action with the whammy bar. This was not dive bombing or anything extreme - I’m a fairly gentle trem user - down by a tone or so max. After this, maybe 50% of the time it wouldn’t return to where it was. This could only be:
Sticking in the trem itself
Binding at a string tree
Binding at the nut
First I applied some nut sauce to the string trees and nut. No difference.
There were 2 Graphtech string trees originally. I removed the one on the D and G. No difference.
I replaced the one on the E and B with a roller type model (in the photo). Better, but still stuck occasionally. At this point I thought “let’s just play it and see what happens”. Anyway, the problem disappeared in a week or so! So, I’ve just left it this way, because TBH I can’t see that the string trees make any difference. I could put the Graphtech ones back (to fill the hole!), but meh, I can’t be bothered. The extra break angle from the trees is supposed to stop strings slipping out of the nut, but I can go all Gilmour on it with no problems. It also is supposed to help dampen any ringing from the string between the nut and the tuners, but I’ve never experienced this issue.
One other thing I didn’t like was the angle of the whammy - it was sticking out too far for my taste. I drilled a hole in a block of wood, put the bar in, and bent it to where I wanted it. Perfect now.
When I had the problem with the tuning, I kept thinking that it might be due to the 6 point vintage style trem, because allegedly the 2 point ones offer better tuning stability. However watching some pros whammying away with 6 point trems convinced me that this wasn’t the case.
Anyway, it plays perfectly and I love it now, I wouldn’t swap it for anything!
