Basic set up from - £35

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Overview

A guitars set up describes the adjustments necessary to make the instrument playable and/or suited to a players style. This particularly applies to brand new guitars which have a rudimentary set up in the factory as well as neglected old loft dwellers! The adjustable parameters are the nut, neck relief, bridge, the saddle, the frets and where applicable the neck angle, pickup height and the tremolo. Finally, we adjust the intonation so that the guitar is in tune with itself.

Ideally, for the perfect set up, the player's style needs to be taken into account in order to determine the optimum set up - after all every player asks me for virtually the same set up! Action? - as low as possible. However, if the player has a heavy fingering style, ultra low action with light gauge strings often results in tuning problems; whereas a player with a heavy picking style will have excessive buzz or fret noise. Also, it is not often appreciated that the holy grail of all players - good tone - is very dependant on sufficient string height and gauge.

Cleaning

The first step in an MGR set up is a thorough cleaning. Where necessary individual parts are physically removed from the guitar and cleaned ultrasonically. The whole guitar is thoroughly inspected for faults - loose braces in the acoustic? Crackling pots? - to identify the work that needs to be done. The lacquerwork is polished, the fretboard cleaned (where did all that gunk come from?) and reconditioned with lemon oil, the frets are polished and everything is tightened up - especially the output socket and the strap buttons.

New Strings

The first thing to do is re-string the instrument with the correct gauge and brand of string. Here at MGR we aim for two turns around the machine head post, locking the tail end of the string between them for optimum stability, with the tail trimmed short. Now for a good stretching to take out the excess elasticity in the string to ensure tuning stability. We find that we need to stretch each string (careful of that 009, Eugene!) four or five times, bringing the tuning back to concert pitch each time, to achieve this.

All of the adjustments interplay with each other so, despite the linear nature of this description, we often need to revisit each part several times to achieve the optimum.

The Nut

It is easy to overlook the significance of a well adjusted nut. The guitar just 'feels' right when this is done well. The string slots are cut to an exact depth using specialised nut files along the lie of the string to the machine head. The slot is then polished to give a precise snag free fulcrum for the string. If you requested the premier set up, the nut is removed and the height lowered so that exactly half the string lies in the slot and the nut is polished before refitting.

Neck Relief

Here at MGR we shoot for as straight a neck as we can. If we can set the guitar up with a flat neck with no buzzes, we do it. However, in most situations a little bit of relief is necessary and this we determine with a correct length straight edge and feeler gauges - this also a good time to do a quick truss rod health check, remove the adjustment nut, check the thread and give it a spot of oil. On some guitars we will encounter back-bow or twists - this is not a set up any more, it's a repair! We will definitely return to the relief later on for a final tweak so we'll leave a small amount of relief for now and proceed.

The Bridge

How we look at the bridge is obviously very dependent on the style of guitar being set up! An arch-top is very different to a Strat!

As we have already determined the string height we want from an analysis of the players style and preference, we can compare this measurement with the actual guitar. Is there sufficient adjustment on the saddle(s) to enable this string height to be achieved? As we reckon string height measured at the 12th fret, so we have to remember that any change in height is doubled at the bridge (you remember trigonometry? Really?) In determining any adjustment to the bridge height, we have to consider the break angle of the string over the saddle and plan accordingly. This is especially important on flat top acoustic guitars. As an illustration, imagine that to achieve our string height, we lower the saddle in the bridge so that it is flat to the bridge. What would you have? A sitar! The string would have no fulcrum point and would therefore flap around giving a buzzing, indeterminate note.

So, you require a break in the string's angle from the bridge to the saddle. if our trig calculations would lower the string height below the optimum, this is not a set up anymore, it's a repair involving a reduction in bridge height or even a neck reset.

Having determined the string height, we adjust the bridge accordingly and move onto the saddles.

The Saddle

The saddle allows us not only to set the string height, but also the intonation of the guitar. We set the intonation of the guitar at the last operation. once the set up is optimum - see below. The adjustment of the saddle differs wildly between guitars - a Strat requires an Allen key; an arch top your fingers; an acoustic, a file and sandpaper! Whatever the process, the end is the same; to achieve the best playing height at the 12th fret. In the case of individual, adjustable saddles, each string height is adjusted and the playability checked to achieve a buzz-free, fluid playing experience. This may involve adjusting the neck angle of a bolt-on guitar like a Strat. The method is simple - a thin shim is inserted in the neck pocket to minutely adjust the angle of the neck to the body so that the lie of the strings over the frets is optimised. You have to set up a lot of guitars before this art is mastered!

An acoustic guitar with a single saddle is not an adjustment for the faint-hearted, involving as it does the removal and shaping of the saddle using files and sandpaper. It is imperative that the saddle fits snugly in the bridge slot, and that it's bottom is true, square and completely flat to transfer the energy generated by the strings to the top of the guitar.

The Frets

Often when we are setting up a guitar (especially new guitars with a factory set up) we encounter fret problems when we optimise the string height. Buzzes appear in certain places on the neck; pulled strings 'choke'; notes 'disappear'. We have to determine the cause and location of the offending fret. This can be done with a multimeter, which is great for finding elusive buzzes; with short metal straight edges where we can find the high point by 'rocking' the edge over the high point; or by eye - you can often spot the loose fret that has worked it's out of the fret slot. Lowering the height of the fret is straightforward - we file the fret down to the correct height (or hammer / glue the loose fret into the slot) and then recrown and polish the fret. As you might expect, if we're unlucky we can spend quite some time chasing a high fret around the fingerboard, because correcting one problem exposes another! If a fret is too low, then a partial recrown may be necessary to lower all the other frets to match. Again, this becomes a repair not a set up depending on the scale of correction required.

The Tremolo

So many players clamp down their tremolo in frustration with the tuning instabilities supposedly inherent in them. Now using a trem well is a particular art, and you aren't going to master it if you can't use it! The good news is that a properly adjusted tremolo is completely stable if set up properly. The idea behind a tremolo is simple - the tension of the strings is exactly matched by the tension of the springs at the back of the guitar. That's all there is to it. Achieve that and you have a completely stable guitar. The method is simple. Using a specially shaped wooden wedge under the back of the bridge plate, we tighten the springs so that the bridge is rigidly fixed throughout the set up. When all the adjustments are made to our satisfaction and prior to setting the intonation, we gradually release the springs until our wedge is free to move. At that exact setting the strings and the springs are in perfect juxtaposition. Providing the nut has been adjusted and polished, and the strings are properly stretched the customer should ahve no further problems, provided he sticks to the same gauge strings.

Please note that we charge a premium for Floyd-Rose set ups because all the adjustments to the bridge are fiddly and time consuming.

Pickup adjustment

We use a sound level meter to adjust the pick up heights and angles for the smoothest balance between the pickups for maximum tone. You have to bear in mind that having the pickups too close to the strings can distort tuning due to strong magnetic effects.

Intonation Adjustment

The final step in the process is the intonation or compensation adjustment. This is a straightforward process on an electric guitar. We charge a premium for intonated acoustic guitar saddles - get in touch. Before describing the physical adjustments necessary to intonate a guitar a little acoustic theory is called for. As established by Pythagoras in the 6th Century BC, a string will vibrate at a frequency which is determined by three factors: -

• The mass of the string (the gauge)
• The length of the string (Scale length)
• The tension of the string

Adjusting any one of the above parameters while holding the others constant will effect the frequency of vibration (the note heard or the tuning). For any given string on a guitar of a given scale length (25½" for a Stratocaster for example) tightening the tension will increase the frequency; increasing the string gauge (say from 0.042" to 0.046") will give a lower note for the same tension.

Visualise the 6th string on an unadjusted Strat fitted with a 0.046" string tightened to 17½ lbs. tension. Open the string will play E. If you fret the string at the octave (fret 12) and play you will find that note is audibly sharp (check it with an electronic tuner). What has happened? By fretting the string the energy we pushed into the string to achieve an accurate note has increased the tension of the string thus raising the frequency of the note!

How can we adjust for this? We can't change the string gauge or the tuned tension but we can change the length of the string by moving the saddle to make the string longer to compensate thus lowering the frequency of the fretted note. Provided the player is consistent in his fingering style such an adjusted instrument will be in tune with itself. This is why a very heavy handed guitarist will need heavier gauge strings to allow for his playing style.

Intonation is now straightforward. With the guitar tuned to concert pitch and armed with a quality electronic tuner we fret each string at the octave (emulating the players fingering style, if possible) and observe the tuning. If the note is sharp, we need to lengthen the string ; if flat then we need to shorten the string. This can be achieved using the saddle adjustment screws in the bridge. An acoustic saddle is adjusted by filing facets in a saddle to achieve the offset - fiddly! The process is repeated until the fretted note and the open string are exactly at concert pitch.

As an additional service MGR can fit Earvana compensated nuts. Read all about this stunning product here. Please contact us for a fitting quote!

A final check and a bit of playing (for fun) and we're done..... Another satisfied customer can't believe that it's the same guitar!

©Martin's Guitar Repairs, 2005