Setup

Is your Beloved Guitar in need of a little TLC?  Is not quite performing as it should?  Is it just plain worn out?  Then I can help.  The first thing to consider is the Setup.  A cheap guitar with a good setup will play much better than a very expensive one with a bad setup.

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A full 5 or 6 point setup includes the following…

No.1  Neck set, (the amount of upward curve in the fretboard)

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What if the truss-rod adjustment is on the heel of the neck?  Quite simple, it just takes a little longer.  By taking the neck off the guitar and bolting it on to the neck jig.

With strings at full tension I can still get to the adjustment.  Once it’s back on the guitar it’ll return to the proper curve.

No.2 The action at the 12th Fret.

Adjusted by raising or lowering the bridge saddles, starting with the outside “E” strings.

Once they are set then adjust the other saddles so that the radius across the bridge matches the radius of the fretboard.

Along with the action height the height of the tremolo also needs to be taken into account and adjusted.

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It’s adjusted by screwing in or out the 2 screws holding the trem’ claw.

No.3  The action height at the first fret.  If it’s too high then the nut slots can be cut a little deeper.

 

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No.4  The Intonation.  Very important if you want it to sound in tune all the way up and down the neck.

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No.5  The Pickup heights….

Not necessarily in that order!

If you want to see more examples just type in Setup in the search box at the top of this page.