How does your guitar sound? One simple improvement is to replace the existing nut and saddle with bone ones… I’m a traditionalist and I really like traditional bone nuts and saddles. To make sure I get the size exactly right I need to get the action setup properly first. The neck was a little […]
Tag: Guitar setup
Fender Stratocaster – Hard Tail
This is a rather nice US Strat, just needs a little tweek here and there. The basic setup wasn’t far off ,although the intonation was all over the place. The owner also didn’t like the tremolo, he doesn’t really use it so I’m going to block it off. You can just clamp the trem’ claw […]
Epiphone Les-Paul – Fret dress and bone nut
Nothing particularly odd about this one. A fairly standard fret dress to even out a few playing problems. and a nice bone nut. It’s got a lovely colour, I don’t think I’ve seen one like that before. I rather like the poker chip, I’ve never seen one of these either!! For anything else I can […]
Epiphone SG – Bone nut and setup
I’ve rather fancied one of these myself. One of these years. This one just has a few problems though, the biggest one being not staying in tune. Most tuning stability problems come from the nut, bending a string pulls it through a little but when you let go it doesn’t go back fully, leaving the string […]
Epiphone Sheraton – TLC
Here’s a beautiful little guitar, just needs a little attention and an upgrade or 2 along the way… The frets are rather worn for a starter…. and it came with a nice pair of Gibson pickups…… To start with, out with the old, the old nut… off with the volume and tone knobs, so I […]
Gibson les-Paul – Fret Dress
A nice one here, just a little worn… You can see the worn spots here… So off with the strings, level the neck and tape it up to protect it while I’m working. I believe in doing the whole lot together, with adhesive backed sandpaper and a calibrated beam. You can see there were some […]
Gretsch Pro-Jet – Tuning stability upgrade
I love these guitars, the best value out there in their price range but this one has a common problem. It’s common to most guitars with Bigsbys, tuning stability. Use the tremolo and it doesn’t always return to normal. There are a couple of things that can be done…. While I’m at it, why do […]
Gibson Les Paul – Setup
A nice one this. just needing a little work to get it playing nicely. Before anything else I like to start with a good clean. A spot of Lemon Oil to keep the wood in good condition. So a full setup, starting with the neck relief… with a small twist on the truss-rod. Next the action […]
Tanglewood – Lowered action
What if the action on your acoustic is a little high? It can be an easy fix. This one is a little high so I’m going to give it a general setup. Starting with the neck relief. I always start that with the old strings, otherwise I’ll have to take the new ones off and […]
Larrivee – Low action
Does your guitar buzz playing open chords? at the top of the neck? It’s probably because the slots in the nut are too low. The proper answer is to replace the nut but a quick fix can be achieved…. It’s got a nice bone nut, but the action is way too low. As I say, […]