Guitar adjustment feats and fears: A life lesson

So, without boring you with my life story, i'll begin by saying that despite playing guitar and bass for about 12 years i have only recently learned what "being a serious musician" means. In other words, for my teens and early 20s i had the childish belief that things would happen TO me. In other words, if i just was in the right band my check would write itself. Suprisingly, that actually worked for a time....i spent years with a really good band as a bassist. We toured the east coast, played with some bigger acts, made some coin, recorded albums and sold t-shirts and got laid and everything was as i thought it should be.

Fast forward a few years, a band fight (actual fight) a lost drummer and a move cross country and i find myself in another band as a guitarist (which is what i wanted to be when i started at 14)

Sprinkle in some life lessons and a healthy dose of "real word" and a smidge of maturity and i have learned that i cant just "play" and expect things to happen. I have to work on sounding good. playing better, and keeping my gear in tip top shape to ACTUALLY achieve musical satisfaction.

So i got with the business of sorting out gear that sounded good, and hashing out MY sound. I also purchased a guitar i had LUSTED after in my ratted torn and rolled up bible of fantasy land i had when i was 15. You remember those free musicianfriend catalogs right? I had one in high school, just one, and i kept it with me, rolled up in my bookbag for years. read that one front to back....anyway....

Its a Jackson RX10D with a floyd rose and the "eerie dess swirl" paint job. Snagged it off craigslist with a hardshell case for $240.00. Pretty screaming deal.

Upon receiving it i find that its all out of whack. The body is in great condition, but it had been played and probably sat for years in this dudes shop (he couldnt even remember where, or when, he got it). The neck is out of whack, the trem is out of whack, E,D,G,B,E strings are super high, and the A string is so low it buzzes everywhere. The fret board is dryer than the Sahara, and it wont hold tuning at all.

So, and here is teh point, i know i need to adjust everything but, and this is me being honest, i realize i have NO IDEA what the hell im doing. None. At all. I never learned. I just picked up the bass or guitar all my life and just played it without conern to anything set up wise. I never thought i needed to know so i never learned. Foolish i agree. So i need your humble advice on getting going. What are some good resources for learning HOW to adjust everything? When adjusting the neck (truss rod) does it help to bow it out or in? how do i tell how far out it is? How the f@#$ to you intonate a floyd rose trem? How do you get it to hold tune?

As im now older and actually getting serious about being a musician and not just a dude in a band, i realize how little i know. Teach me.

Put the ass end of the guitar against your cheek and sight down the neck. Is it straight or is there a bow so the strings are way high in the middle especially? Is it reverse bow so the strings are too low in the middle? Need to know to tell you what to do. (tighten truss rod for a bow, loosen for a reverse bow)

Your comment about 5 strings too high and one too low sounds like a saddle issue, couldn't be a neck one. You adjust string height on the bridge.

Now, don't know Floyd Rose at all, never had one, but it's a locking nut deal I do know. So get your neck straight, get your bridge in tune using a tuner putting open strings against chime at 12th fret and then tune with the locking nut not engaged as close as you can get it in tune, then lock down the nut and use the fine tuners to achieve perfect tune. It's not rocket science, but give a shout if you need more particulars.

Right, i figured getting the neck in line would take 1st priority, then intonate it. I know the A string being low is a saddle issue, but it did seem weird that it was set up that way.

The only thing with "sighting down the neck" is that its an offset flying V design...so thats...difficult...lol.

Pretend it's a lady...

Get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electric-Guitar-Great/dp/0879306017

I have it - it's really good.

js

its relatively cheap, i think i'll pick it up

First, build a few guitars.

Do not check your intonation using the "chime" at the 12th fret, use the fretted note. It doesn't matter if the string is intoned correctly or not for the harmonic to ring, as long as you are close. Use a tuner for this.

Sight down the neck, not the strings. You want to see how much bow is in the neck. Looking at the strings won't tell you anything until you fret them at the 1st fret, and the fret where the neck meets the body, and checking the clearance in the 5-9 fret range. You would want somewhere around 1/64-1/32" clearance there.

Your best bet is to read that book, and set the guitar up for you . Everybody has their own preferences.

Not necessarily. It could indeed be a neck issue. Necks can slightly twist over time if the heat and humidity are just right. I've had two of them do that in the last 38 years. There is no fixing them when they do this. It's more common on maple necks with no laminated fretboard but even necks with glued on fretboards can twist enough to ruin them.

Nah, get Erlewine's book instead..or also, I suppose

You could take it to a shop for set-up. I mean, not every race car driver is also a leading mechanic, so don't feel bad about spending a little money on repair.

But if you do go the DIY guitar rehab route, consider that these things made out of wood take time to settle in if you make drastic adjustments, and at some point you will think you have things perfect, and then the next morning the wood has settled some more and you need to tweak again. But it is possible. And hey, if you only spent $240 bucks, it's not a bad test mule for your repair skills.

And those Floyd Rose thingies are a massive PITA to set up.

+1 Within a few hours of reading this book, you'll know everything you need to know. By the way, for Billster, this IS an Erlewine book too.

For ordinary adjustments, including truss rod and bridge intonation issues, you should never need to pay somebody again if you have this book and a few simple tools.

Krypter, you can get plenty of advice out there. The only thing I'll add is that is really is not rocket science. You will do fine with it. I always tell people, If I can do it, anyone can do it, and I can do it.

Oh, I didn't notice that. I like the classic guide because it covers acoustics as well.

Nah, get Erlewine's book instead ..or also, I suppose You could take it to a shop for set-up. I mean, not every race car driver is also a leading mechanic, so don't feel bad about spending a little money on repair. But if you do go the DIY guitar rehab route, consider that these things made out of wood take time to settle in if you make drastic adjustments, and at some point you will think you have things perfect, and then the next morning the wood has settled some more and you need to tweak again. But it is possible. And hey, if you only spent $240 bucks, it's not a bad test mule for your repair skills. And those Floyd Rose thingies are a massive PITA to set up.

Oh i know i can take it to a shop. That's what i've been doing all my life. The whole "Its not working! Uh..here, YOU fix it" and i've since come to realize thats not really the kind of guitarist i want to be. If something is off, i want to know how, why, and what to do about it. Used to be i would just plug and play, and now i realize there is so much more to it than that. So, the last few years have been a slow steady process of learning all the tech/hardware stuff i skipped.

Those books look like a solid bet. Im going to order one.

Also, for those interested, i purchased a cheap Hondo for $25.00 at the local pawn shop. Its ugly as sin, was red, and looks like someone TRIED to paint it gold....OVER the original finish. They just went spray happy. Needless to say the paint all rubbed off on them and now its sorta gold, sorta red and all ugly. The electronics are f'd but suprisingly it didnt play too bad. So im going to use it as a learning tool. I tore it apart and COMPLETELY dis-assembled it. Im going to order all new stuff from GFS and use it to learn with. I dont trust myself working on the Jackson just yet as its one of my dream guitars. (i traced it as much as i could last night and found out its a pre-fender RR3 NOT an rx10d. So its like an $800.00 guitar new.)

Thanks for the help! keep the advice rolling in.

I read the rightfully recommended book and decided that for things like neck adjustment and fret work, it is best to have a pro do it. I don't want to mess up my guitars with my learning process. But there are many things reasonably easy to do yourself.