setup question

[Guitarplay]

so i recently purchased a new guitar and plan to take it to a local guy for a setup, but I want to adjust the guitar a bit myself first, just to see what i can do and get a feel for how various tweaks change the guitar. can you think of anything I should be careful with? I don't want to pose any danger to the instrument, so what specifically should i be weary of doing? not trying to irreversibly damage my guitar in the name of curiousity.

 

if your going to tell me to let the professional do his job, don't bother. i will take it to the professional, but i want to learn the mechanics of the instrument so that eventually I will be able to do my own setups. I know many of you do setups on your guitars, you got to start somewhere, right?

[Freeman Keller]

First thing to do is go to the Annex (pink thing in my sig) and click the Tech tab. There are two little articles about Sick Guitars - the first is how to evaluate it and the second how to fix easy things (mostly setup stuff)

 

Second thing is that the forum is about to give away a guitar and I'm going to do the setup on it tomorrow. I've already taken the measurements and I will document what I do. With luck I'll post that on sunday along with the VOM.

 

A lot of setting up a guitar involves understanding the relationship between different parts of it and there are some great links at, guess what, the Links section of the Annex. Be sure to read the one by Bryan Kimsey on the interrelationship between relief and action.

 

Before you even consider "setting it up" make sure it is totally stable and structurally sound. I promise that you can ruin a perfect setup by a radical change in humidity.

 

Last, and far from least, measure several times before you change anything. Write it down. Do the changes systematically and one at a time. Go slowly, make a small change, string it up and find out if that is enough (some of these things are hard to reverse).

 

Not rocket science, and good luck

 

Oh. last piece of advice, when you take it to your tech ask her to show you what she does.

[Guitarplay]

thank you for the great advice, that is the kind of response I was after. I will follow what you said and am looking forward to observing the guitar setup you plan to document as I am sure it would be of great help to those of us new to the process.

[Samilyn]

Yup. FK is our resident git setup guru. You can trust what he says 100%.

 

And just remember, if you decide to mess with the truss rod, a little goes a very, very long way. Do your homework first and remember to document all that you do.

 

Secondly, don't do anything that's not reversible (such as sanding down a saddle) until you're absolutely positive that you'll achieve the desired results. Some experiments can be expensive!

[outdoorgb]

Yup...the annex is the play to go play. I've picked up a few cheap guitars on CL and played around with the "how to's".

 

It's a kick to fiddle...but being a noob as such...I play with the cheap ones and leave my better guitars to those who know what the hell their doing.

 

Have fun!