Guitar Gear Forum

I was thinking of investing in some of the tools and start practicing doing my own setups. What element(s) of setting up a guitar requires lots of experience that mystifies simpler people like me who just call it "magic"?

I do my own because I have very specific string heights that I like. I also dont like waiting on a shop to to do it. I dont have any special tools any longer except a good tuner. I used to measure everything with feeler gauges for every aspect but no longer.

The biggest magic is intonation and it's not really magic.

I'd start simple. Watch a tutorial on how to set up, say, a strat(?) Then see what tools the person uses. You'll need basic hand tools like screw drivers and Allen wrenches, ruler. Then just fret board oil (for not maple), guitar cleaner, micro fibers, etc. Someone sells a set up kit, I'm sure.

Yes, I do. Setups are usually simple, just action, intonation and maybe the truss rod. If it's anything more complicated than that I take it to my tech.


But basically:


1- check the neck and adjust the relief if needed. I like my necks completely straight but a bit of relief is fine too.

2- check the action and adjust it to your liking.

3- check the intonation by comparing the open string to the 12th fret with a tuner.
If the 12th fret is flat, shorten the string length by moving the saddle forward [towards the nut).
If the 12th is sharp, move the saddle back (towards the jack).

That's basically it. You may have to cycle through these steps a few times to find the right balance since every step affects the next one a bit. But you get the right balance quickly.


Also, if it's a floating Floyd Rose, just set the guitar on fire

What Billy said.

With the amount of vids out there today, basic set ups are not hard to do on your own. If fretwork or soldering is involved, that goes to a tech for me.

I like to play Floyd guitars here and there, but hate everything else about changing strings and setting them up.

Thanks to Endtime, I even do my own fret leveling, now, though I don't really consider that an every time kinda thing. I am trying to get into the habit of checking intonation every time I change strings, but I don't change strings very often these days, so it happens relatively infrequently. Though sometimes my necks will need a bit of a truss rod adjustment to keep them playing optimally. But yeah, no special tools, really. Allen wrenches, screw drivers, string height gauge, I have one of those plastic trem blocker things for when I'm working on my FR guitars. For fret leveling, there are a bunch of tools you would need, but you'd probably wanna practice on some guitars that you care about a little less than your favorites.

I do pretty much everything minus cutting but slots since good files are not cheap and once your nut is set up there's no need to touch it really... short of going up in string gauge and often I've found even then that's not really necessary



for basic set ups... the Ernie Ball kit will get you 75% there IMO



to supplement that, assuming have gibsons, you'll need the right wrench for the truss rod, i use this and it works great... though.. it's for Gibson and not Epiphones




to adjust your truss rod you'll want a set of feeler gauges to makes things easy to measure and for string action I hate regular metal rulers since they are hard as fuck to read so I recommend this guy, the white writing the black back ground really makes a massive difference IMO





assuming your frets are level.... you really shouldn't need anything more than those tools to dial your guitars in....

For the longest time, I had a friend of mine (who used to work in guitar shops) set up my guitars. But he's 2+ hours away now, so I picked up a Music Nomad guitar tool kit. Really handy and they have videos on how to use their tools to set up nearly any guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/@MusicNomadPolish/videos

yes. You can't trust anybody to mess with your guitar.

Learn how to adjust your truss rod, saddle height, and intonation, and you're 80% there.

Get some nut files, and you're 90% there.

If your frets are sticking out in a funny funny, watch some Dan Erlewine vids, and get some fret files, sanding blocks, etc.

If your frets need to be replaced, call somebody.


EDIT: FWIW, I've never measured anything re: string height. Get the truss rod close to straight. raise your bridge saddles, and make sure your nut isn't fucked. If it plays great and doesn't buzz, then you have the correct height.

BroSlinger wrote:yes. You can't trust anybody to mess with your guitar.

This has really been the motivation for me doing a lot of this stuff on my own. Really hard to trust people to work on your guitars.

Get yourself a nice guitar matt with the neck/headstock cradle https://www.fender.com/en-US/accessories/care-cleaning/fender-work-mat-station/0990502007.html and some painters tape for fret polishing. I pretty much do everything but fret leveling. I could just easier to pay someone that does it on a more frequent basis. Doing your own setups will either make you hate or love the instrument more. It's always a fine line.

ibenhad wrote:Doing your own setups will either make you hate or love the instrument more. It's always a fine line.

Hmm . . .

I take them to a pro these days.

They're way better at it than I am. I thought I could setup guitars when I was younger, but turns out I was just dumb and untalented.

I do everything except nuts and fret work. There's a Floyd Rose intonation tool that is invaluable.

Yes as I can do it better than anyone else I've had try. And I enjoy it.

Dave wrote:I take them to a pro these days.

They're way better at it than I am. I thought I could setup guitars when I was younger, but turns out I was just dumb and untalented.

Tools I use

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... s-tool-kit

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... peg-winder


Gibson Tool, Fret rockers, PRS conditioner and cleaner, string height gauges from Nomad, But this is the secret weapon to keeping my guitars in tune: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -lubricant
Can't recommend this enough.

As far as learning, its taken a few years and many videos to fully understand tremolos, stop tail pieces, truss rod, action and intonation. I recently watched a video where Stew Mac explained saddle position and it was an epiphany on my setups for intonation.

The Gotoh 510 bridge was easier once I watched a dozen videos, I have no trouble with the floating trem, it was the action and intonation that was hard. My PRS 408 trem is a dream to setup, really no problems. My Les Paul I am still learning how the truss rod affects the stop tail piece with string height and not having uneven strings. The Gibson and Nomad Music have great videos on how to set up LP style guitars.

I setup too many guitars to count these days.

My honest opinion is it sucks so many think a good tech isn’t in their area. I see a lot of guitars “set up” by GC and even places like Sweetwater claiming 55 point check lists or whatver nonsense that is. 55? Need like 10. Lol. Anyway, the big name guys are seriously barely doing what I consider a setup. They are cleaning your guitar and MAYBE setting intonation, besides the string change.

Here’s what we provide for $60 as a standard setup. Fret level and polish. That alone is worth more than most people who charge for setups. If we have to take off too much, we may recommend a recrown, but it’s not as often as you think. But I can count on one hand l, out of 1000s of guitars that have had perfectly level frets. So my point, your guitar needs this as well. You may think it’s good, but my experience is every guitar that hasn’t been leveled since you’ve owned it needs a fret level. . Then next , Fretboard cleaning and conditioned. We Clean the guitar. Restring and adjust truss rod, string height and set intonation. If done correctly, which of course I do! I guarentee almost everybody who bring me their guitar to me is not leaving thinking they could make it play better. In fact, most use that term “magic” as to how we get shit playing so good. But it comes down mainly to the fretwork. Even just polishing and smoothing the frets will make everything play much smoother. And that likely is the biggest thing people notice. So my point is, if you aren’t doing any fretwork, you are kinda just doing some glorified string changes. which is fine much of the time but not when you feel a guitar needs a real setup. And I gotta belive their are good techs in most areas. Just have to do some homework and find the good ones. We exist!!

Anyway, to those who don’t measure.,, eh, I get it. “I just go by feel.” Well, youd be surprised how often your “feel” is different from time to time. And maybe that’s how you wanna roll. But I’d say go by feel for the first time you set your guitar up and then take measurements and repeat this setup using tools like that String action gauge. For me, that’s an invaluable tool. I use it BY Far the most of any tool. You can buy the little 6 inch “shop” rulers for way cheaper but I find the credit card shape is better for laying on the frets and taking measurements. And it has a few other metrics on there that are just more useful in reading guitars.

Long story short, learn to at least to minor fretwork and/or how to smooth and polish frets and then just watch vids about guitar setup. But without the fretwork, I don’t consider it much in a way of improving the guitar to its best. More like “string change +” if you just adjust the truss rod and set intonation. That’s all important too but it won’t play massively better by just doing those things

Yeah, the fretwork stuff you showed me was game changing. I've done a number of guitars for friends (probably about 12 total, including my own, at this point) and they're all significantly better than before. I used my Edwards V to practice the first one, then did my friends', then mine haha. Saved mine for last for when I had a better understanding of the process lol.

NinjaRaf wrote:Yeah, the fretwork stuff you showed me was game changing. I've done a number of guitars for friends (probably about 12 total, including my own, at this point) and they're all significantly better than before. I used my Edwards V to practice the first one, then did my friends', then mine haha. Saved mine for last for when I had a better understanding of the process lol.

Haha for sure do others guitars first before your own!!

Actually, many would think I messed up a good guitar, but my first real test bed for all kinds of shit was my 91 Les Paul studio. I did all kinds of shit to that thing. Some went bad, like my first refret. I replaced the fretboard on that, repainted it. Repaired the neck break and finally did a good fret job on it a few years later. But I fucked up and learned a lot of things on a perfectly good guitar.

Gotta have something to start with!

Are all tuners the same? I mean, isn't 440Hz the same anywhere you go?

EndTime wrote:I setup too many guitars to count these days.

My honest opinion is it sucks so many think a good tech isn’t in their area. I see a lot of guitars “set up” by GC and even places like Sweetwater claiming 55 point check lists or whatver nonsense that is. 55? Need like 10. Lol. Anyway, the big name guys are seriously barely doing what I consider a setup. They are cleaning your guitar and MAYBE setting intonation, besides the string change.

Here’s what we provide for $60 as a standard setup. Fret level and polish. That alone is worth more than most people who charge for setups. If we have to take off too much, we may recommend a recrown, but it’s not as often as you think. But I can count on one hand l, out of 1000s of guitars that have had perfectly level frets. So my point, your guitar needs this as well. You may think it’s good, but my experience is every guitar that hasn’t been leveled since you’ve owned it needs a fret level. . Then next , Fretboard cleaning and conditioned. We Clean the guitar. Restring and adjust truss rod, string height and set intonation. If done correctly, which of course I do! I guarentee almost everybody who bring me their guitar to me is not leaving thinking they could make it play better. In fact, most use that term “magic” as to how we get shit playing so good. But it comes down mainly to the fretwork. Even just polishing and smoothing the frets will make everything play much smoother. And that likely is the biggest thing people notice. So my point is, if you aren’t doing any fretwork, you are kinda just doing some glorified string changes. which is fine much of the time but not when you feel a guitar needs a real setup. And I gotta belive their are good techs in most areas. Just have to do some homework and find the good ones. We exist!!

Anyway, to those who don’t measure.,, eh, I get it. “I just go by feel.” Well, youd be surprised how often your “feel” is different from time to time. And maybe that’s how you wanna roll. But I’d say go by feel for the first time you set your guitar up and then take measurements and repeat this setup using tools like that String action gauge. For me, that’s an invaluable tool. I use it BY Far the most of any tool. You can buy the little 6 inch “shop” rulers for way cheaper but I find the credit card shape is better for laying on the frets and taking measurements. And it has a few other metrics on there that are just more useful in reading guitars.

Long story short, learn to at least to minor fretwork and/or how to smooth and polish frets and then just watch vids about guitar setup. But without the fretwork, I don’t consider it much in a way of improving the guitar to its best. More like “string change +” if you just adjust the truss rod and set intonation. That’s all important too but it won’t play massively better by just doing those things

Thank you!

Yes.

And you probably would have never guessed I do my own amp biasing and speaker swaps too.

Yep, I set up everything and learned how to level frets a year or 2 ago. Makes a huge difference.