Burns Marquee – Fret Dress and Setup

A lovely guitar, just not quite as good as you would hope… The nut slots have been widened out and then repaired, rather badly.  The only real way to fix that is to replace the nut. Some of the frets are a little un-even, so I’m going to dress them to get a common level. […]

Problematic Gretsch

Had a bit of a problem with a Gretsch this week.  The owner wanted a setup to cure some fret buzzing, sadly it needed a bit more than just that.  The frets were quite uneven so they needed dressing to get the most out of it. Rather uneven frets….Grinding the frets to level the tops…Once […]

Fender or Gibson which do you prefer?

Most people stand in one camp or the other, Gibson or Fender, but this one crosses divides. It just came in for a once over, service and setup.  A classic Fender? No, from the Gibson stable… Not a great deal wrong with it, just in need of a little TLC… The electrics were a little […]

Fender Jaguar – Full setup

Always had a soft spot for the Jaguar. I don’t think it’s ever really received the credit it’s deserved, always in she shadow of it’s big brother, the Stratocaster, pity really. There was nothing much wrong with this one, it just needed a little TLC and  tweek here and there on the setup….As always I […]

Gretsch setup

I rather like these, I think they’re great value for money.  This one just needed a few tweeks here and there to optimise the playing action, apart from the neck pickup that is, which was dead… It’s so new it’s still got the plastic under the bridge…           I thought it was most likely the switch […]

Squire Stratocaster – Setup

A nice new guitar.  They can be good guitars but, sadly, they don’t seem to have the time to set them up properly in the factory.  They just need a little work to make the most of them. While I’m at it the owner wants all the protective plastic removing, not actually as easy as you […]

Epiphone Hummingbird – Setup

A nice new guitar, just in need of a tweek to make it play a little better… The action was rather high making it difficult to play.  First I reduced the set in the neck… Then reduced the height of the saddle a little… That’s much better… 

Broken Jazzmaster Nut

A fairly simple repair although setting up some guitars is a little more difficult… The bottom of the nut blank didn’t quite fit the slot.  It’s a 7½” radius rather than the 10″ of the fretboard. While the strings are off it’s always worth giving the fretboard a good clean and oil. Here is the […]