These springs are attached to a claw plate with two adjustment screws which increase or decrease the spring tension by moving the claw plate forwards or backwards within the cavity. – Absolutely! Guitar Niche will be here to help you along the way. Because of the uniquely refined nature of locking systems and their departure from traditional guitar setup processes, references to such thoroughbred instruments are kept to a minimum, otherwise this guide would be double its size! The purpose of Guitar Niche is to help people exactly like you. Check bridge pins. If you’re going to service someone else’s guitar, make sure you ask the owner about any issues they’re concerned about, And take notes! Erick Coleman walks you through basic set-up instructions to have your guitar playing great in no time. And yet, even the finest hand made instruments need a setup! After cleaning, apply a very small amount of lubricant to the threads on the inside of the truss rod nut using care not to get any on the bare wood. If you do any of these steps after the intonation is adjusted it will ruin all the work you did to the intonation and you will have to do it all over again. Better yet, get them to play their guitar a little bit while you watch. Enjoy this incredibly comfortable Keep Calm And Solo On Uinsex T-shirt with a guitar player’s twist of support and hope. Get aggressive with string bends and chord changes across all strings to make sure their pitches stay true. All it takes is one little piece to destroy a pickup, or contaminate your cleaning cloth leaving hairline scratches in the finish. This process will likely reveal any loose or uneven frets. Time to make those fine tuning adjustments and tweak out things like: Stretching the strings is a key subject because of how important it is to the guitar’s tuning stability. and always remember those on the front line! It's a matter of personal preference. Hunt them down and kill them. MEMBERSHIP IS NOW AVAILABLE IN ESTONIA! Gather up the dead string scraps and get them into garbage away from your workspace. Your email address will not be published. This slack will eventually straighten out causing your strings to fall out of pitch. Get to it! MusicNomad F-One Fretboard Oil Cleaner &... Music Nomad MN100 Premium Guitar Cleaner for Matte... excellent guide on ear training at StringKick here. Setup bridge float to manufacturer recommended (or customer requested) height. The process assists us greatly when servicing our repeat customers’ high-end or vintage instruments. What youâre looking for are these key points: The output jack. When these are taken care of, you're ready to fine-tune your setup. It’s a matter of adjusting the angle of the strings as they pass from the tailpiece over the bridge. 1) Neck relief at 8th fret: __________________________________________, 2) Low E action at 1st fret: ________________________________________, 3) High E action at 1st fret: _______________________________________, 4) Low E action at 12th fret: _______________________________________, 5) High E action at 12th fret: ______________________________________, 6) Low E action at 17th fret w/ capo: ________________________________, 7) High E action at 17th fret w/ capo: ________________________________, 8) Bridge Float: _________________________________________________, 11) String spacing at nut: _________________________________________, 12) String spacing at bridge: _______________________________________, 13) Nut slot depth: _______________________________________________, 14) Tuning stability variance: ______________________________________, 15) Fret buzz: __________________________________________________, 16) Output jack torque: ___________________________________________, 17) Tuning machines torque: _______________________________________, 18) Bridge pickup height on High E: __________________________________, 19) Bridge pickup height on Low E: __________________________________, 20) Neck & middle pickup height on High E: ___________________________, 21) Neck & middle pickup height on Low E: ___________________________. This superbly comfortable shirt sporting a beautiful Vintage Aged early 50’s butterscotch electric guitar graphic will last year after year, wash after wash. But it’s subjective. For example, the guitar contains so many mysteries for beginners that the replacement of a broken string constitutes a “repair”. Generally speaking, better quality instruments will allow very fine adjustments in relief through their use of better truss rod materials and engineering. Our goal is to enable our customers to have clear documented measurements of setup parameters that affect playability. Check your work and determine whether you should readjust or carry on. Without putting any tension on the rod, reinstall the nut until it is just snug and mark a line on it with a pen. The dangers of ruining a finish are too great, thus we’ll leave it for the separate tutorial mentioned previously. This is by far the most controlling element of the lot. As soon as you touch them, the amino acids of your body chemistry will start reacting with the metal in the strings. That is to say removing or adding a small amount can feel very different once the saddle is back in place. With the guitar on its side, look down the fingerboard edge for overall straightness, back-bow, relief (forward bow) and humps, as well as high or uneven frets. To do so beforehand means you may have to set the pickup height again because the string height has changed. Remember, batch your processes! PRO TIP: Keep a small container handy for small parts like screws. and the only prescription… is MORE COWBELL!!”. How well the neck responds to truss rod adjustments is often dependant on how well the instrument is made. There, all shite and briney! From the point of view as a guitar player, here are a few common problems we all deal with at one time or another: The difference between a repair task and a setup task is a matter of perception. Volume and tone controls. Address any problem frets or nut and saddle issues before proceeding to the next step.