Guitar Setup, Maintenance & Gear Archives

Giving Your Guitar A Routine Checkup

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It’s currently the beginning of spring as I write this post and that prompted me to write about a really important topic and that is why it’s important to give your guitar a little checkup.

So just like you would give your car an oil change every 3000 miles, It’s important to give your guitar some routine maintenance as well.  This is important for both acoustic and electric guitars.

Acoustic guitars will sometimes need it more though because they are effected more by climate change.  Whenever a new season comes in, the climate and weather change. You also change the conditions that your guitars are in.

For example when the sun starts shinning and the warmer weather cracks, your probably going to be opening windows and getting more fresh air in.  Remember that your guitar is also going to be enjoying that fresh air as well.

This can sometimes have a negative effect on how your guitar plays because the changes in humidity will cause your guitar to adjust ever so slightly. Usually the change happens so slow and gradual that you won’t even notice it at first.  What happens though over the course of a few weeks or months is that your guitar might seem to be more difficult to play.

The reason for this is usually because the neck has warped a little bit and the action is now higher.  To fix this, you should adjust your truss rod accordingly to straighten out the neck. If you are unsure on how to do this, take it to a qualified guitar tech in your area.

Other things to look for are excessive wear and tear on your frets.  If you play your guitar a lot, eventually the frets get worn down.  You might notice the guitar buzzing more or you might find some dead notes.  To fix this you should have a fret level down. This is something that you should not mess with so take it to someone who knows what there doing!

One last thing to look out for is if the frets are protruding past the fretboard. This is very common because when wood dries it shrinks and when more moisture is around, it expands. If you run your fingers down the side of the neck where the frets meet the end of the neck, see if any of them are sticking out and catching on your finger. If so, you should have them filed down a little so you don’t feel this.

The Different Types Of Guitar Adjustments

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Last post we talked about guitar setup and maintenance.  Now I am going to talk about the various adjustments that are made to guitars to keep them playing well.  Let’s have a look!

Changing Strings:

This is certainly the most basic and common type of adjustment to do to your guitar to keep it playing well.  When setting up a guitar, I will usually put a fresh pair of strings on to keep things consistent.

How often you should change your strings depends on how much you play and how you treat your guitar when you’re not playing it.  The two most important things that you should do is to #1 wash your hands before you play and #2 wipe the strings down after you are done.

All of the oils and bacteria that are found on your fingers are probably the biggest creator of dirt and grim that collects on guitar strings.  If you don’t pay attention to this, your strings will get old and grimy very fast, but if you do take care of them, they should feel and play like they are brand new for quite some time.  I recommend Dr. Stringfellows as a good guitar string cleaner to use.

Adjusting the Truss Rod:

Just about every single type of steel string guitar has what’s know as a Truss Rod.  This is a long metal bar that goes through the middle of the guitar neck.  It is used to keep the neck straight and even.

When a guitar is tuned up, there is a very large amount of stress that is put on the neck.  Sometimes the neck will bow, creating a dip around the middle of the fret board.  This leads to higher action and more tense playing conditions.  The truss rod can be used to correct this bow and keep the neck straight.

It’s usually a matter of preference as to how straight to make it, but most guitar players will keep just a tiny bit of bow in the neck to prevent buzzing.  The adjustment for the truss rod can either be found on the headstock, usually under a little plate, or lower down on the guitar where the neck meets the body.

Setting the action (string height)

The action is the measurement of how high the strings are from the fret board.  This is probably the most important aspect of a guitars setup that a beginning student should check because it can make a huge difference as to how comfortable the guitar is to play.

I have seen and played many guitars in my teaching career and I always start off a new student with checking their guitars action because it’s usually something that they do not know about.

The adjustment for setting the action depends on what type of guitar you are playing and what type of bridge it uses.  You will most likely see either two main adjustment screws to set a general height on all of the strings or an adjustment screw on each saddle to set each string individually.

It’s best to use a ruler to measure this adjustment because most string heights are setup to around 4/64ths. This is a very small increment and it is hard to set this accurately without the proper ruler.

Setting the Intonation:

The intonation is the last step that I do when I am setting up a guitar.  This adjustment sets the actual length of the string from where the string crosses the nut to where it hits the saddle.

When you pluck a string it vibrates.  Having the intonation set correctly is what ensures that the string vibrates at the right frequencies.  If a guitar is not intonated properly you will tune each string perfectly but the strings themselves will be out of tune with each other.

The reason why this is a problem is because anytime you play more than one note at a time, it will sound a little bit out of tune.  If you strum a full chord and the the intonation is off, you will most likely get a few pitches that sound like the guitar was not tuned correctly.

The adjustment for setting the Intonation is usually located at the back of each string saddle or at the end of the string before it gets to the bridge.  Again, it depends on what type of guitar you are playing and what type of bridge system it uses.

These are the most common things to look for when setting up your guitar.  If you are uncomfortable working on your guitar, then take it to a local repair shop and have a qualified technician set it up.  I do offer a full set of videos on guitar setup and maintenance that are free with any purchase of Rock Guitar Power so check that out if you have not already done so!

How To Setup And Maintain Your Guitar

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Setting up your electric or acoustic guitar is crucial to having it play well. You also want to know how to maintain it throughout the year and the changing of seasons.

Guitars, being made of wood, react in many different ways to things such as changes in climate, temperature, humidity and moisture.  The two biggest factors to keep in mind are that the air is cold and dry in the winter and warm and humid in the summer.

During the winter month’s when it is dry, wood tends to contract and shrink.  Something that you should keep an eye out for here is the frets on the fret board. When the wood shrinks, sometimes the frets will protrude and you can get some sharp edges sticking out.

In the Summer time, the wood expands again and usually corrects the problem if it does exist.  This is just one example of the things that you want to keep an eye out for.  Another typical thing that happens is that the fret board may start to bow a little bit which creates higher action (string height) and possible intonation problems.  This can be fixed quite easily with the proper truss rod adjustment.

In the spring and summer months, the air gets much warmer and more humid.  This is usually a time when guitars freak out and get a little out of whack. Acoustic guitars tend to get more bent out of shape than electrics because they are more fragile and made of thinner pieces of wood.

I noticed this on my acoustic a couple weeks ago when I was sitting in on a friends gig. I was playing for a little over an hour and I noticed that my left hand was cramping up and getting really tense. I could tell that the neck was getting really bowed and that the action (how high the strings are from the fret board) was getting pretty high.

So what to do…

Electric guitars are typically much easier to adjust than acoustics because all of the adjustments that you typically would make are not permanent.

Acoustics are a little more difficult because you sometimes need to raise or lower the nut or shave down the bridge piece, both pretty permanent procedures.  It of course depends on what your guitar needs.

Sometimes just a few turns of the truss rod will get you back into shape and your good to go.  What I would recommend doing is first of all take a minute to examine how your guitar plays. Does it feel comfortable and easy to play or does it put a lot of strain on your hand when you are practicing.

If it’s the latter, I would suggest taking it to a local music store/repair shop and see what a professional guitar tech thinks.  If you want to do the work yourself, I would recommend checking out the Guitar Setup & Maintenance videos on the RGP website. You can get to them here: http://www.rockguitarpower.com/guitarlessons/guitar-maintenance/

If you don’t have access to these video, you can also find them on my YouTube channel. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/rockguitarpower

If the possibility of making things worse than they already are is scaring you, then by all means take it to a local repair shop and have a professional work on it. You will be amazed at how much of a difference it can make to play a guitar that is fine-tuned and setup properly.

When I got my acoustic back from my repair guy, I couldn’t put it down because it played so good. It certainly gave me some new inspiration to play and write some tunes on it.

If some of the terms and descriptions in this post are confusing to you, don’t worry! Next time I will be talking about all the components that are critical to guitar setup in detail.