Guitar Setup Information
With many years experience repairing, modifying and setting up guitars Scott is glad to offer his services as a guitar technician for your guitar. Have a look through some of the services available and then contact Scott to book your guitar in.
General Setup
Like a basic service for a car a general setup tweaks a few areas of the guitar to get it back into good playing standard. This setup can also be used for new guitars which haven't been given a proper setup when leaving the factory or in the shop.
The elements of a general setup are outlined below:
- The string slot depth is adjusted in the nut for each string - this can be done with great accuracy using the special measuring devices Scott uses
- The string height over the saddles is adjusted and the saddles are adjusted to match the radius of the fretboard.
- The neck's truss rod is adjusted to change the relief (the amount of upbow or bend) on the neck which can help even out the distance of the strings in the middle of the neck and account for the elliptical shape a string makes when vibrating.
- The fretboard is cleaned and oiled, if necessary, and the rest of the guitar is cleaned.
- Electric components are tested and sorted/replaced as needed.
- Hardware parts are checked and loose parts will be re-tightened/fixed
Price £25 incl. new strings (doesn't include price of replaced parts) Book in Guitar
Fret Dressing
The frets on any guitar will have little pits or grooves worn in them over the life of the guitar and fret dressing simply reshapes the fret back to the way it was when new. Fret dressing is also sometimes necessary as a secondary element to the general setup above, when in order to lower the string appropriately the tops of the frets must first be set to the same height to stop the string buzzing off a high fret. This requires filing the frets down to the same height and then reshaping them and polishing to finish off.
The steps involved in a fret dress are shown below:
- Fret ends are checked for any which may be loose and are re-seated and glued if necessary.
- All frets are checked and high spots are identified.
- Guitar is set into a jig which holds the neck perfectly straight whilst frets are levelled.
- Frets are then reshaped to be rounded on top again.
- All frets are then polished until glass smooth.
- Guitar is re-strung and checked for buzzes to ensure all buzzing has been eliminated.
Price £30 incl. new strings Book in Guitar
The Full Works
If a guitar has first a fret dressing and then a general setup it will come out the other end being in the best possible playing condition, improvements that can be found include:
- easier playing action
- more consistent action throughout the neck
- more accurate tuning throughout the neck
- zero buzzing
- smooth frets for easy bends
- no crackling or intermittent volume or tone controls
And if you go for the full works a £5 discount will apply.
Price £50 incl.new strings Book in Guitar