you may find that slight variations will be more ideal for your playing style. Teardown 3. Snug up machine head screws . Still very much an attentive & focused build, the guitar once done will be setup and ready to play as per the course guitars.. Additional costs apply for humbuckers, gold hardware and custom colours etc but as per the build course send us your ideal … Warning: Do not use string gauge 0.13 if your guitar used standard tuning (EADGBE ). We would love you to be able to attend one of our 3 day build courses but we totally appreciate that time away from work or family is difficult and as much as you’d like to know how to make the nut, dress the frets, install all of those fancy electrics maybe you just want one of these terrific guitars, options specified as per our build course and built here by … A proper nut is critical to the tone, feel, and tuning stability of your guitar, and there really is no substitute for a well-made bone nut. A neck with too much relief can suck the tone out of a guitar, and when the neck is straight the action stays more uniform as you move up the frets. If for some reason you play a lot of chords up the neck, this may not work for you, but in my experience, most players fret chords toward the nut and play single notes as they get to the end of the neck, and nothing sours a chord more than sharp notes. By understanding this we are then in a position to start making adjustments with the overall goal in mind. Bend notes in the upper frets if you’re setting up an electric to be sure nothing dies out at the top of the bend. In order to do your own guitar setup, you need to know how these three things work and how they relate to one another but firstly you will need some tools.eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'midlifeguitar_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_1',108,'0','0'])); If playing guitar and or maintaining them is something that you want to do on a regular basis then I would recommend buying quality tools. For the purposes of this set-up guide, I am assuming your nut is functional but too high. Tip: Some people just cut the strings at full tension with a heavy duty snipper, but there’s a lot of people who think it’s bad for the neck to endure such a rapid change in tension. 3/32″ on the bass side and 2/32″ on the treble side for humbuckers. Modulation Effects. eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'midlifeguitar_com-leader-4','ezslot_14',117,'0','0'])); I believe the best playing and sounding guitars have the straightest necks. Check neck surface, including … Tip: You may need to use a pair of pliers (a Leatherman is the best) to gently hold the potentiometers/output jack in place from the back whilst turning your wrench on the outside of the guitar. Some bridges have a lock position and at this poin… Ultimately, we want the bridge assembly to sit such that we have a range of adjustability over the bridge saddles, so that we can dictate the preferred string height over the fretboard. *Not applicable with Floyd Rose locking nuts. Your personal preferences in playability and sound quality should always override any rules and guidelines. You can use the under string radius gauge instead of these but you will need to move the strings out of the way. If the nut turns but seems sticky, it may need to be cleaned and oiled. If you loosen the nut and you are able to see that you are exposing thread on the rod you are working with a single action.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'midlifeguitar_com-mobile-leaderboard-1','ezslot_16',116,'0','0'])); You will need to know what the proper adjustment tool is and never force a rod that doesn’t want to move as this could cause serious issues and a costly repair. Assess instrument for work needed. Assessment 2. When a guitar is tuned to pitch it exerts pulling force at the headstock and bridge, and downward force at the nut and saddle. In theory, the nut is just a zero fret that is always fretted…so given that, the height of the strings over the first fret should be pretty close to the height of the strings over the second fret when you have a capo at the first. TIP: Doing this step properly requires some tools. It is important to understand that as you tune the guitar the amount of tension on the bridge changes and will cause it to move, and conversely, as you adjust the tremolo your tuning will change. Remove old strings. Adjusting your intonation takes quit a bit of time so you will probably only want to do it once and be done with it. TIP: If you have to shim much more than about 1/32” it’s probably a better idea to replace the saddle. This is the commonly accepted approach. And learning how to set up your pedal board properly is time well spent. On acoustic guitars, it’s the material in the slot of the bridge, and on electrics, it is the individual adjustment pieces the strings ride over. Tip: It’s very likely that the guitar’s intonation has been set accurately before it left the manufacturer – most of the time you won’t have to do anything here, but it’s not a proper guitar setup if you don’t check. You will need to check both E strings as the amount of curve can vary from one side of the neck to the other. This will cause your neck to bow. You will find many opinions about the amount of relief you may or may not need in a neck, but ultimately it is a matter of preference, technique, and the individual personality of the guitar. Remove the capo from the 1st fret and whilst looking at … You are verifying that it doesn’t buzz under normal playing conditions. This blog and my YouTube channel are dedicated to helping those learning to play guitar. If it is flat, you will move it forward. If the fretted note is sharp when compared to the open note, you will move the saddle back a small amount, retune and check again until you are in tune on both. Ready to do a full coverage setup? It will just cause you tuning issues and whatever you put in there will be temporary at best. Stewmac has the best reputation and the best tools, hands down. take your time and get it right. The six strings of a guitar can be thought of in descending or ascending order. A clean, well-lit workspace with the guitar properly supported. You can find a good selection here on Amazon, Kyser (click here to check price on Amazon). Turning left adds relief, right straightens. You won’t need all of these if you are just working on one type of guitar electric or acoustic. Once the E strings are set, use the under-string radius gauge to set the saddles to the fretboard measurement you took. These Notched Radius Gauge’s save the hassle. Acoustics are very, very different than electric guitars, when you get right down into the mechanics of … You will need to adjust the screws of the claw in to pull the bridge back or let them out to allow the bridge to rise. Tip: File the slots on a slight downward angle away from the fretboard (about 25°) – if the headstock is pitched back, you can go parallel with that as a guide. If you are setting up an electric guitar, all that’s left is to set the intonation. The best saddle material is bone. Once you get close to your pencil line, make sure the bottom of the saddle is square. It may not be easy to tell if you lack experience, but the majority of rods are single action. Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum. Guitar Setup Before Intonation Adjustment This section will deal with the setup of the guitar you will need to do before you adjust the intonation. eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'midlifeguitar_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_9',120,'0','0'])); Through many years of practice, I’ve developed the dexterity to hold the straight edge in the middle of the neck and watch the gap disappear as I tighten the rod. If you’re going to continue working on your guitar, they’ll be invaluable to you – you may want to check out the guitar repair tools article too. important that the gap between the strings and the frets (called the ‘action Cost for the Stratocaster is £999. Check The String Height At The 12th Fret. Midlife Guitar is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Action, Intonation and Fine Adjustments 6.1 Adjust the Truss Rod 6.2 Set the Bridge Height and Radius 6.3 Recut the Nut 6.4 Adjust the Pickup Height 6.5 Check and Adjust the Intonation 7. There are two things that occur to me when setting intonation. Neither are great, but sharp notes are more offensive to most people. Tremolo Adjustments. – Time (Delay, reverb, tremolo) We arrange them in this fashion if we are wanting each effect to operate as close to its originally intended use as possible. There will be a couple more items that you will need on top of this. It’s not a 1 to 1 change here, so we will only remove to the bottom of our pencil line. Every adjustment should be done with the guitar tuned to the desired pitch. A truss rod is a mechanism that counters the pull of the strings. In this lesson, we’re gonna talk about putting your guitar effects pedals in the proper order in pursuit of the holy grail of every guitarist, ultimate tone. This happens because frets are hammered in roughly and not smoothed out with a fret file. Even if the neck already has relief, it is a good idea to loosen the rod a little first to see how tight the nut is and to verify it is working properly. I won’t go into great detail explaining my theory behind this, but decades of setting up countless guitars of every type have led me to this conclusion. Of the many products for guitars available, pedalboards are at the top of the list for best “bang for the buck” guitar gear. There are many reasons your guitar may need a guitar set-up and over my years as a Luthier, I have seen a multitude of issues with both old and new guitars that have not been maintained or set up correctly.eval(ez_write_tag([[468,60],'midlifeguitar_com-box-3','ezslot_10',106,'0','0'])); High action, stiff action, buzzing frets, dead notes, poor tuning or intonation…they are all symptoms of an instrument that needs a setup. Hi, I’m Luke and I am the founder of Midlife Guitar. I will focus on properly made saddles that are just a bit high or low, but first let’s talk about issues that may require the help of a repairman. 2. I could take up an entirely new article with the techniques necessary to make a good saddle, and reshaping the top of one to match a radius crosses into that territory too much for our purposes here. If yours is plastic or some type of synthetic material and you want the best tone possible, have it replaced with bone. You can find a good selection here on Amazon once you know what size you will need. Built to Order.. We’ll build you a Tele, Strat or Jazzmaster…. in order to do a good job of setting up your guitar you will need patience. Adjusting relief, action, and intonation is the groundwork for getting the dream playability out of your guitar. Angle the file with the approach of the string from the tailpiece, and use a file of the same gauge as each string. If you are experiencing fret noise then make a note of where it is. Home Forums > Main Stratocaster Guitar Discussion Forum > Stratocaster Discussion Forum > Custom setup order advice please Discussion in 'Stratocaster Discussion Forum' started by codemonkey, Mar 22, 2020. Age: 59 Messages: 3. This step by step guide will cover the basics of setting up your guitar. *This step is lower on the list because the strings and truss rod should have time to … I am not one of these people, but I don’t mind spending an extra minute unwinding the strings to be safe. If the guitar seems to play well at the higher register, but you are getting buzzing in 3rd-7th fret range, you may need a little more relief in your neck and you can loosen the truss rod a little. You need to know what the fretboard radius is so that you can set the underside of your strings with the saddles to match. 5. Then note the gap between the string and the top of the fret in the middle of these two points. Tune the guitar to pitch. Hi, I recently … Different gauges have different tensions and will affect all of the adjustments we make, as well as needing wider nut slots (or a new nut in some cases). These are included individually or in the StewMac setup kit, and also easily available on Amazon. When the saddle fits properly you should be able to grip it and lift the guitar up off of the bench a little, but it shouldn’t be so tight you can’t remove it easily with your fingers. Remember, "the lighter the string, the weaker the tone". The one in this link is for medium gauge for an Electric guitar but you can get light and heavy gauge files also. Now set the height of the two E strings, and just like the truss rod adjustment, check these measurements in the playing position. TIP: Do not sand back and forth, I find that pulling the saddle in one direction only (towards myself) is the best way to keep control and ensure the base of the saddle stays flat. Do not move the claw the full amount all in one adjustment. If not you can always go back and lower the saddle some more later. 4. Lower the slot in small amounts with the corresponding gauge nut file at the angle of the approach of the string. By now, everything should be in its right place (as Radiohead puts it), so get your screwdrivers out one last time. A guitar setup is a series of adjustments that achieve a balance between three components: the neck, the nut, and the saddle. I use 120-220 grit unless I have a lot to remove. TIP: Make small adjustments incrementally, and after changing one you will need to go back and readjust the other…it’s circular and can be very frustrating if you don’t understand the relationship. Keep in mind, you can make any string buzz anywhere on the neck if you want to. Set Intonation. However, I often do it differently. Use the quick links below to jump to any section you’re interested in: 1. If you are setting up an acoustic, this will require shimming. Gravity has a significant influence on the neck, and the amount of relief will look drastically different when the guitar is laying on it’s back as opposed to sitting upright. Tip: Use a straightedge for added assurance (pictured). It’s a good idea to check the neck starting at the second fret to see if it looks any different. If the guitar is going to have a new string gauge, you should put them on first and tune up to pitch – the tension difference between gauges is going to make a difference to the adjustments. Place a capo at the first fret or hold the string down with your finger, and fret again around the body joint where the neck starts to thicken, this is usually around the 12th to14th fret. To check the tension on the neck, first make sure the guitar is properly tuned. If you have a tune-o-matic bridge you will need to use nut files for this, and if the middle strings sit below the radius you will need to use the thumbwheels to raise the E strings up higher and then lower them to the 3 and 2 measurements with the files in order to set the radius of the middle strings. For general purposes, I use an 18” edge. Carried out on a regular basis, a setup will help maintain the health of the guitar through its seasonal changes. It keeps positive tension at the truss rod nut, and it’s easier to read a neck while straightening. Small adjustments to the rod can make big changes. After doing a few setups though you may feel differently, I know I did. 3. Remember…we are getting the neck as straight as possible in this step, we may add some relief later on. … You need a smooth surface in order to play the guitar comfortably. The only difference here is that you will want to start a little higher than an electric. When you tighten your truss rod nut clockwise it will straighten your neck (or force it into a back bow,) and when you loosen it counterclockwise the neck will relieve with the pull of the strings into a forward bow. Take a look at the height of your strings over the first fret. Regardless of the manufacturer, the correct position for any bridge, under string tension, is going to be parallel to and essentially flush with the top (or up to 1mm, or so, above the top). If your saddle is loose in the slot it should also be replaced. If your guitar has a floating tremolo, then it will require some additional setup … … Like this one for iOS or this one from google play. experimenting can help you zero in on the best setup for you. You’ll still need to do a fair amount of work to fit it properly, but much of the shaping work has already been done for you. Just remember, a change to one of these three key factors usually means a change to one or both of the other two, so always recheck and adjust as needed. The most important thing to consider is that the wrench fits the adjustment nut with no slop.

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