New guitar setup

T

That_Abbott

New member
Hi everyone,
I recently bought a new Godin SDxt guitar. I've read about people having their guitar professionaly setup and I wonder what this entails? If possible I would like to save some money and do these things for my guitar myself. I do know that the strings on this guitar are higher from the frets than I would like. How can I lower them and are there things that should be done regularly to maintain my new guitar? Thanks

The first guitar I bought was a used gibson epiphone. I don't know what the model is but it has a strat body style. When I first bought it the bridge was being pulled too much by the strings so I put another spring in the back. That is my only experience in altering a guitar hehe.
 
My attitude about pimping out a guitar *as i like to call it* is this.

Buy stuff, take the other stuff off. and if it doesnt work, cry for a long time and then get help.

freak

:D
 
Once you have set up a dozen or so, you get the hang of it. But you can screw things up quite quick if you don't know what you are doing. My feeling is, take it to a professional, tell them what you want and get it done. You have someone to go back to if it's not right then.

There is a lot more than just the action that needs to be considered, like the intonation, fret buzz and pickup spacing. I have been setting up guitars for 25 years now and I still take mine to a profesional.
 
There's also neck releif to consider, which could make the guitar difficult to setup just by adjusting the saddles. If your action is too hgh the neck's probably overbowed. Cranking the rod isn't for the faint of heart or inexperienced, you could very easily damage a good neck.

That being said, with a couple of tools and some good books, it can all be done. Personnally, I do all the day to day setup on my own guitar because its quick and cheap. I like to give it a fresh lease on life from the shop once in a while.

However, I've stripped all the allen threads on my saddles by not having the right sized key, so theres a case in point.

Doug
 
Wait!!!! Abbott said that he bought a new guitar, so he does not have to do any critical adjustments I think.
Abbott, if you have floating bridges like the Floyd Rose, becareful...change one string at a time....if you mess up it can take a week to learn how to put it back the way it was(in case you did not know this already!).

Now, since the guitar is new, I would assume all you have to do is lower the 2 screws(alan wrench) holding the bridge. Let us know if this helps.
 
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