Guitar set up
- Thread starter Session 5
- Start date
Setup!!!! One of my favorite subjects!!!!
My 1987 Stratocaster (Squire) has a vintage tremolo that has been locked down on the body (with 5 springs) since the 1980's.
My only Floyd Rose equipped guitar is the Destroyer II. The bridge is set dead-parallel and I have an adjustable Tremolo Stop....
Now, the very first guitar I put together, under the Von Herndon name (prototype number one) also had a Floyd and it was set up like the Destroyer. This 24.75" scale guitar was only used as a loaner/demo, so it had over-the-top stuff like gold plated brass trim rings, etc., but the Floyd is amazingly stable.
Set up: I like mild neck relief of about .008" to .010" on my guitars. I find that the tone is actually brighter with higher action.
I generally set everything up to around .050" on the Low E and about .040" on the high e string.
The Destroyer, however, is set about .035" on both sides, but I leveled and crowned it, so I could really drop the action and no buzz whatsoever.
By raising the Floyd and altering the first fret string height at the locking nut, the strings have almost dead-parallelism all the way down the neck.
when you play the Destroyer, you feel like this:
In general, setup needs to be buzz-free and a lot if factors will influence this. For example, the fret-to-fret heights were not very consistent on my 2016 Gibson Les Paul 50's Tribute and my 2016 Gibson SG, so it wasn't possible to drop the action very much. The fret height will limit your ability to drop the action.
For this reason, I level and crown everything I have because it dramatically improves the tone and allows greater playability and more comfort.
All the best...
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
My setup philosopy: turn the bits that turn a bunch until you like how it feels and sounds. Where you end up might surprise you but no two are alike and only your fingers and ears will know for sure.
I don’t meassure things because the measurements are arbitrary ideals. I know it when I feel it, and I adjust often as the weather changes, etc.
I don’t meassure things because the measurements are arbitrary ideals. I know it when I feel it, and I adjust often as the weather changes, etc.
I guess I am in the habit of measuring things for consistency and repeatability.
If I do make an alteration for "feel" then those values are recorded.
I have guys bring me guitars I setup 4 years ago and I still hav ed all their specs in my database.
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Does’t work for me. Depending on temp/ humidity and lots of other factors even the same guitar can need a tweak day to day. I reach down and adjust my bridge height all the time while playing. Nicest thing about Gibson bridges IMO.
I've never done that!!! OCD is both a blessing and a curse!!!
Of course, we have very low humidity here too.
I prefer doing it like this personally. It's not the only way, of course, but I like it.
I tech for some local bands. I have guys bring me brand new Jackson's and tell me "set this up just like you did on my ------------."
I guess I'm gonna risk making myself look a little bit like a jerk, but I don't understand it when guitar players never learn to do their own setups. I understand that it may take guitar players a bit of time to get comfortable with trying it for fear they are going to mess something up. Working with a luthier is probably advisable the first few times, to see how it's done. But, there is nothing more personal about a guitar than its setup. That is more personal than mods because it literally affects how the guitar feels to the player. It literally affects how a player plays the instrument. No one can decide better than the player if it's right for him/her.
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Honestly, I don't know how someone can play a guitar for any period of time and not be forced to learn. They are made of freaking wood, they change with the environment and they wear. I'd go broke if I had a take one of my guitars in to the shop every time it needed a truss rod adjustment or the action tweaked.
OP
Session 5
Ambassador of Strings & Wings
I only take mine in once a year, I just got mine back last week after 1 year, said there was very little tweaking to do on it. For me I change my own strings I don't care to do setups don't want to learn, I leave it to the Pro he does what I ask I'm happy with that. I only have 3 guitars all three were purchased at different times of the year. So when their Birthday comes up off they go to the Luthier. I don't think $60 a crack is to bad of a price.
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
No not bad if it was only once a year. I do pretty much constant adjustments to my guitars though - if I am playing one a lot I am probably tweaking the action or truss rod or intonation once a week. Any time I leave a guitar in a case for more than a couple of weeks it needs some sort of fine tuning.
The caveat here is that I live at the beach. The humidity and temperature fluctuates radically from day to day/week to week.
When i was a kid, I wanted to learn how to work on my car so I would not have to pay a mechanic to work on it. I took auto shop in school and worked professionally as a mechanic at auto dealerships for 20 years. Now I wish I didn't have to work on my own cars. When I got into computers 20 +years ago, I learned how to work on my own computer and have been in the computer related business since 1995. When I got back into guitars a few years back, I learned how to do my own setup. I've never done a fret level, but done just about everything else.
Bottom line for me is that if I'm gonna get involved with a hobby, I jump in head first, full speed and do as much work as I can on my own. So if I'm gonna play it, I should be able to set it up.
Bottom line for me is that if I'm gonna get involved with a hobby, I jump in head first, full speed and do as much work as I can on my own. So if I'm gonna play it, I should be able to set it up.
On the one hand, I agree with you. I used to spend a lot having my setup and intonation done. Then, I started hanging out with a Luthier (when I had the Les Paul Custom Replica built for my Mom last year) and learned to do my own stunts. There are lots of guys who do their own setup, and many others who simply have told me they have either no interest in anything but playing, or lack the time to mess with it.
Either way, it's good with me. I will happily tell/show anyone how to do a setup if they like. I stay busy all the time on setups and repairs...
Agreed!!!!
Where do you live??? Cali???
I see the point. Perhaps, I was a bit overbearing in my comment. For me, I don't always mess with my setup, but as often as I goof around with things, I'd go broke paying someone to tweak things for me. Once I started to learn how to do it, it took a lot of the fear factor out of it, and I began enjoying my instruments more.
I'll add that knowing how to do you own setups can help with troubleshooting little things, too. The more comfortable you are with things like setups, the more willing you are to try to find and fix little annoyances on your own.
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