What exactly is Guitar Setup?

[sdallen24]

Sorry for the newbie question. I've heard people talk about "professional setup". What exactly does that mean? I have a guitar that has some buzz in the low E string. I would like the guitar taken care of, but I'm not sure what to ask for or who to ask.

 

[Sonic Misfit]

If you have a good guitar technician or luthier, they can make adjusments to your guitar that will make it play better than the day you bought it.

Some of the things that they can do include:

1. String changes along with adjusting the bridge and intonation.
2. Neck alignments
3. Setting the action to suit the player
4. Cleaning the guitar, including the electronics. (pots get dirty and can cause some noise problems.)
5. Identifying problems that may need extensive repair. (things like fret damage, bad wiring, neck warping, etc.)

The downside is that there are a lot of the guitar megastores who will let just about anyone do a "set-up" on the guitar. The best thing is to find someone in the know and ask for references.

You can learn to do your own set-ups. A couple good books are:
"Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewine and "Guitar Maintenance" by Dave Burrluck. There are probably a lot of other books on this that can help you out.

I hope that this helps.

 

[Light]

Some people enjoy doing their own setups, but do not imagine you will ever do it as well as a professional. My families shop does about 2000 guitars a year, and almost all of them involve a setup. We have more experience, and that means we can do it better and faster.

A setup is just making all of the small adjustments to the guitar so that it plays and sounds its best. On an acoustic, we adjust the truss rod (if it has one), adjust the nut, adjust the saddle, clean and oil the fingerboard, tighten all of the hardware (tuners and such), and clean and polish the rest of the guitar. On an electric, we do all of that, and also adjust the intonation, and if it has a tremolo, we adjust the spring tension. It is by far the best idea to do all of this with new strings on the guitar, as old strings will throw off the intonation. A setup should cost you some where between $50 (for an acoustic) to $125 (for an electric with a locking trem).

If you are having a buzz in one of your guitars, it probably needs a setup, but this time of year, you could be having problems with humidity as well. Any good guitar repair person should be able to tell you if you have humidity problems.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[faderbug]

Some people enjoy doing their own setups, but do not imagine you will ever do it as well as a professional. My families shop does about 2000 guitars a year, and almost all of them involve a setup. We have more experience, and that means we can do it better and faster.

people who do their own guitar setups (or record their own music for that matter) spend A LOT MORE time and attention to what the're doing than the pro who does 2000 guitars a year. and just because you're not a pro doesn't mean you're a drooling idiot.
you CAN get the same results as a pro it just takes the right tools, knowledge and dedication. (being handy helps )

 

[c7sus]

You're new around here.............

This place is over-populated with drooling idiots!

Stick around and you'll see what I mean.

 

[crazydoc]

If you know what you're doing you can set it up for yourself better than a "pro", just maybe not as fast, because you can adjust for your own playing style and feel for the guitar until it is optimal for you as an individual guitarist.

Unless you're a star and have a personal set up man.

 

[crazydoc]

Here are some sites that you can peruse to see if you want to try it yourself. Personally, I like to try to do anything possible myself (in general), because if somebody else does it, you don't know how bad they fucked it up: if you do it yourself, you at least know how badly it was fucked up.

http://www.gibson.com/magazines/amplifier/1997/10/tipfile.html

http://www.mrgearhead.com/ghad/Guitar_Setup.pdf

http://www.21frets.com/setuptips.html

http://www.bryankimsey.com/setup.htm

 

[c7sus]

Personally, I like to try to do anything possible myself (in general), because if somebody else does it, you don't know how bad they fucked it up: if you do it yourself, you at least know how badly it was fucked up.

That's the credo I try to live by!

 

[onlyfingers]

I'm with sonic misfit. Ask around for references. When I had intonation problems, I e-mailed my former teacher and asked him.

Indulge me for one story. Before I got a real job, I had to work on my cars myself. I did the brakes, and never stopped worrying that I might have messed it up, and I worried almost every time I took my foot off the gas.

IMO, there are a lot of interrelated adjstments on a guitar in good repair. If there is something wrong with the guitar too, that makes the set-up problem even worse, maybe impossible....

For me, a professional setup is $50 well spent. I'd rather play the guitar than tinker with it. If I did my own set-ups, I might be tinkering with it forever.

 

[crazydoc]

I'd rather play the guitar than tinker with it.

I guess my problem is I'd rather tinker with the guitar than play it.

 

[Light]

If you know what you're doing you can set it up for yourself better than a "pro", just maybe not as fast, because you can adjust for your own playing style and feel for the guitar until it is optimal for you as an individual guitarist.

Unless you're a star and have a personal set up man.

And then he said

Personally, I like to try to do anything possible myself (in general), because if somebody else does it, you don't know how bad they fucked it up: if you do it yourself, you at least know how badly it was fucked up

But you see, if you are getting a setup by a good shop, adjusting to your playing style is part of the job. When we do a first setup for someone, we start out with what we consider "spec." For probably 90% of the people out there, this is what they want. If something is not quite right, you bring it back and we adjust for the problem. We keep doing that until it is right. All of that follow up is part of what you pay for when you get your guitar setup by a professional.

From time to time, we have some one come in who does their own setups. They usually come in for a big repair, like a refret or something similar. Part of doing most big repairs is setting up the guitar. In almost every case, they never do their own setups again, because the difference between having done right (by us) and doing it themselves is so vast. They come in thinking that they can do it better for all the reasons you stated above, and they leave realizing they where wrong. Doing 2000 guitars a year does not make us careless. If it did, we would be out of business. It makes us faster, better, and more aware of the things you need to be careful about. And that leads to a better setup. Professional does not mean careless. It means experienced.

Even if none of that convinces you, remember that if you fuck it up, you have to pay for it. If we fuck something up (which is extremely rare), we have to pay for it. And rest assured, at some point, you are going to fuck it up. When you do, it will cost at least twice as much to have it fixed as it would have to have us do the work in the first place, and you may well have caused permanent damage to the guitar (like the guy who called us on the phone today asking about how he could touch up a scratch in the lacquer on his guitar).

And faderbug, more time on a particular job does NOT mean more attention to the job. We have thirty years worth of experience and attention to doing setups, and that goes into every guitar we work on. You will never compete with the amount of attention and knowledge that goes into a setup in a professional shop.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[crazydoc]

You're probably right, Light. I've never had the privilege of having my guitars set up by anyone but myself. It may be like the difference in beating off all your life, and then finally getting laid. But since guitar is not my main instrument and I do not play it professionally, and my instruments are not high end, it really doesn't matter in my case.

Anyway, I do a little guitar repair and mods on the side - new nuts, saddles, bridges, electronics, bracing, necks, etc., so I don't worry too much that I'm going to fuck something up with a set up.

I'm heartened to hear that you really do take care of the customer who wants to go those extra steps for optimum performance.

 

[Light]

I'm heartened to hear that you really do take care of the customer who wants to go those extra steps for optimum performance.

Well, I know there are luthiers who do not do this, but I can't imagine staying in buisness for long if I didn't make my customers guitars right.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[grinder]

I highly recommend Dan Erlewines', Guitar Player Repair Guide. Even if you decide you're not comfortable working on your guitar, it will give you a better understanding of what's involved in guitar maintenance and repair. If you know what's wrong with your guitar, it's easier to explain to the person fixing it. It will also make it easier to weed out hack repairmen, by getting an overview of how they plan to go about the work on your beloved instrument.

 

[juststartingout]

Sorry for getting in here late, but if someone is asking what guitar setup is, do you honestly think they should try to do it by themselves?

So, getting back to the original question, take it to a shop and get it done right. As time goes on, you will figure out what is what on your axe, but get it setup correctly so you can play and have fun.

 

[jimistone]

I do my own setup (with the exception of a refret, neck pitch adjustment, and cutting the nut)

Setting the truss, the intonation, the saddle height, and the pickup height are pretty rudementry...but I have been playing the same strat since 1976.

Saddle height adjustments and pickup height adjustments are pretty much a matter of personal preferance. I like my pickups pretty low...the quality of tone is much better this way. Alot of strat players have their pickups too close to the strings and are always in a never-ending search for the right pickup (and they never find it). Truss adjustment is dictated by your string gauge.

As far as the refret, the neck pitch, and the cutting of the nut goes. I spare no expense on this....I want the best professionals work in this area.

I don't want an amature to be doing any kind of wood work on my fretboard (including myself).

 

[fldrummer]

It might sound strange but in orlando at Sam Ash their's a really good guy that sets up the guitars. He used to work at the Gibson plant.

 

[gvarko]

Depends

I think it depends on the guitar and the circumstance. I wouldn't pay Light's shop to do a pro setup on a Squire Bullet. However if I had an expensive or vintage guitar I would definetly have it setup by a professional. Do you really want to try adjusting the truss rod on a $3,000 guitar, I think not. A $99 bullet on the other hand may be worth trying. I also picked up a book on setting up guitars, came with plastic gauges and all and was very helpfull. I still can't bring myself to screw with the truss rod though...