Setups

Hello fellow guitarists, this is Guitar Guru 2 reporting for duty. I'll be another contributor to this blog, and between Guru 1 and yours truly, Guru 2, we should have all of our bases covered in most guitar repair and maintenance topics.

In this post, we'll take a brief look at one of the topics that I've found many-a-guitarist afraid to tackle on their own. The Setup. For now, I'm going to tell you about the basic components of the pro setup, and in later posts we'll break down these individual components in more of a "how-to" fashion.

Most of the guitarists I've known often prefer to take their axe to a luthier or service center, and shell out 50 or more hard-earned dollars to have a "professional" setup done. Little do they know, they could have stayed at home and done the same exact thing with- get this- only a handful of common tools and a new set of strings!

You'll be performing your own setups before you know it, and guess what? Once you've got the hang of things, you'll find that you won't want to take your guitar to anyone else for a setup... 'cause you'll be setting up your electric guitars exactly how you like them! (Bear with me on this post, as I'm only covering the most basic-of-basic definitions and explanations, just so we know everyone is on the same page when we actually get to the adjustments themselves. )

To get the job done, here are the 4 main things you'll be looking at:

• Restringing- this is exactly what it sounds like... (1)take the old strings off (2)put the new strings on. Done. That's it. Unless you have a Floyd Rose or other style floating trem, this is one of the most basic things you can do with your guitar.
• Truss Rod Adjustments- this is simply a matter of adjusting the neck of your guitar to your desired level of straightness. This is generally where most guitarists get a little scared 'cause we're actually bending the necks on our guitars, BUT HAVE NO FEAR!, it is not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. Think of it this way, your guitar neck- most often made of some type of hardwood like maple or mahogany- is being pulled in two directions at the same time. The strings are pulling the neck forward, and the truss rod is compensating for this pull backwards. With a truss rod equipped guitar (which almost every guitar is these days) you have the benefit of not only being able to equalize this tension, but also to customize the specific amount of bow (this is when the guitar head is pulled slightly forward- think of a bow and arrow.) or hump (...get your mind out of the gutter. This is when the guitar head is pulled slightly backwards.) you have in your neck. This one adjustment will make a huge effect on not only the playability and feel of your guitar, but also things like fret buzz and action.
• Bridge adjustments- raising and/or lowering the bridge (or saddles for most Fender style guitars) itself. This will make the most direct impact on the action of your guitar- or, how high the strings are off the fretboard. This adjustment is a pretty easy one, and can usually be completed with only a screwdriver.
• Intonation- often the hardest for most folks to grasp. This is when we adjust the individual saddles (where the strings rest when they are leaving the bridge) back and forth to shorten or lengthen the overall playable portion of the string. Your guitar fretboard is designed to a general "scale length" which is the general length of the playable portion of the string (from the nut to the saddle). The problem is- not each string is meant to have the general scale length as an exact length to be playable on your fretboard and remain in tune all the way up and down it.

Can I be more confusing? Probably, but I won't try today. Plain and simply, if you don't understand this from here- don't worry, by the time we're done with all of these setup posts you'll know more than you ever wanted to know about guitar setups. Then, you'll be impressing your guitar-player friends with so many setup facts and know-how that their heads will be spinning, and then you will get lots of free beer and all kinds of dates, and then some big record company will be scouting you at your weekend bar gig and offer you a this sweet contract with millions of dollars- all because of this blog...

...just kidding- so don't try to sue us if none of that stuff happens. But, you will be great at setups soon, and that will at least save you 50 bucks!

Please bear in mind that there are some exceptions to the tips in the coming posts- like locking tremolos and nuts, and certain oddball and proprietary parts, etc.- that can pose an entirely different set of circumstances, but I'm sure we'll get to those in some isolated posts later on.

Till next time,

Guitar Guru 2

**If you have any questions about the tips in this blog, or would like to see a post about something we haven't covered, please email us at: guitarguruguys@gmail.com