57Strat777
Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2015
- Messages
- 347
A great setup that is tailored to you is the most important thing you can do to extract maximum tone from your guitar. You'll never experience that unless you learn to setup your guitar for yourself.
I have taken many guitars to different luthiers over the years to get a refret and other work, and the setup provided by any luthier I've ever dealt with is never suited to my preferences. Most luthiers leave too much relief in the neck adjustment and then adjust the bridge to compensate for that, which makes the strings too close to the higher frets and causes buzzing. The best setup for an electric is achieved by adjusting the truss rod until the neck is nearly straight, then you adjust the bridge until you get no buzzing when you hit the strings the hardest you'll ever play. Every player hits strings differently, so the right string height is different for everyone.
Pickup height is another thing you can easily adjust yourself and it makes a HUGE difference. Most luthiers leave pickups too far from the strings for players that like to drive their amp into distortion when they hit the strings hard. Here's an example: My brother recently bought a used Les Paul Classic and he took it to a luthier to set it up and install some Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups. He lives out of state but I recently went to visit and he offered to let me play the guitar thru his Marshall 18 watt clone with no master volume. The signal from the pickups was obviously weak because it should have been driving that Marshall into some sweet distortion. Also, the volume balance between the two pickups was way off. I looked at the pickup height and they were both way too low. I raised both pickups quite a bit which made a HUGE difference, and then fine tuned the two pickups heights to get both pickups about the same volume. My brother could not believe the new sounds he was getting and he loved it.
When you're working on your guitar, don't forget to check and make sure every screw and nut is properly tightened, especially tuners which loosen up frequently. Loose screws and nuts can affect tone in a negative way.
Use mineral oil on the nut, string trees, saddles, and tremolo pivots points (if applicable) after changing strings to add a little lubrication. Mineral oil can also be wiped on the strings and neck to make sliding your fingers across the strings silky smooth. Mineral oil is food grade, so no worries about it harming you. You can get a big bottle at the grocery store for a few bucks.
I also wanted to add that if I can't get good unplugged acoustic tone from an electric guitar, I sell it. If the unplugged acoustic tone isn't there or achievable, then nothing you do to the electronics is going to make it into a sweet guitar.
I have taken many guitars to different luthiers over the years to get a refret and other work, and the setup provided by any luthier I've ever dealt with is never suited to my preferences. Most luthiers leave too much relief in the neck adjustment and then adjust the bridge to compensate for that, which makes the strings too close to the higher frets and causes buzzing. The best setup for an electric is achieved by adjusting the truss rod until the neck is nearly straight, then you adjust the bridge until you get no buzzing when you hit the strings the hardest you'll ever play. Every player hits strings differently, so the right string height is different for everyone.
Pickup height is another thing you can easily adjust yourself and it makes a HUGE difference. Most luthiers leave pickups too far from the strings for players that like to drive their amp into distortion when they hit the strings hard. Here's an example: My brother recently bought a used Les Paul Classic and he took it to a luthier to set it up and install some Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups. He lives out of state but I recently went to visit and he offered to let me play the guitar thru his Marshall 18 watt clone with no master volume. The signal from the pickups was obviously weak because it should have been driving that Marshall into some sweet distortion. Also, the volume balance between the two pickups was way off. I looked at the pickup height and they were both way too low. I raised both pickups quite a bit which made a HUGE difference, and then fine tuned the two pickups heights to get both pickups about the same volume. My brother could not believe the new sounds he was getting and he loved it.
When you're working on your guitar, don't forget to check and make sure every screw and nut is properly tightened, especially tuners which loosen up frequently. Loose screws and nuts can affect tone in a negative way.
Use mineral oil on the nut, string trees, saddles, and tremolo pivots points (if applicable) after changing strings to add a little lubrication. Mineral oil can also be wiped on the strings and neck to make sliding your fingers across the strings silky smooth. Mineral oil is food grade, so no worries about it harming you. You can get a big bottle at the grocery store for a few bucks.
I also wanted to add that if I can't get good unplugged acoustic tone from an electric guitar, I sell it. If the unplugged acoustic tone isn't there or achievable, then nothing you do to the electronics is going to make it into a sweet guitar.
Last edited: