Required Lutherie Tools
To complete all of the steps in this article, you will require a few specialized tools (listed at each step). If you’re going to continue working on your guitar, they’ll be invaluable to you – you may want to check out the guitar repair tools article too. They shouldn’t add up to much more than the cost of a professional guitar setup or two anyway, no reason not to have them.
Guitar Setup Best Practices
- A clean, well-lit workspace with the guitar properly supported.
- Every adjustment should be done with the guitar tuned to the desired pitch.
- If the guitar is going to have a new string gauge, you should put them on first and tune up to pitch – the tension difference between gauges is going to make a difference to the adjustments.
- When you perform a guitar setup (or any instrument repair) for someone else, you should treat their instrument better than your own.
Workspace Setup First, Guitar Setup Second
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If this is the first time you’re working on your own guitar, you’ll be much better off taking my advice here to make yourself a proper workspace – a neck caul to prop up and support the neck, a grippy rubber or foam mat for the body to rest on, and a nice desk lamp with a flexible neck.
Step 1: Truss Rod
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- Tune the Guitar to desired pitch.
- Sight the Neck – Please read the beginning of this article for thorough instruction on sighting your guitar’s neck.
Tip: Use a straightedge for added assurance (pictured).
- Remove the Truss Rod Cover
- Set the Relief – Capo the first fret and press the 15th fret with your finger, then use your feeler gauge on the 8th fret to measure the height. You want the relief to be .012″. The feeler gauge should just be touching the bottom of the string.
Tip: Make adjustments in quarter turn increments only!
Tip: Use a permanent marker to mark the top of the truss rod’s original position to give you a reference point.
Tip: Righty tighty, lefty loosie ;). Turning left adds relief, right straightens. - Tune to Pitch – spend a couple minutes playing the guitar to test that there’s no fret-buzz.
- Re-sight the Neck and ensure that the action is at a healthy level (pictured) – check with your straightedge again too if you’re still not confident with your eyes.
Step 2: Nut Height
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*Not applicable with Floyd Rose locking nuts.
- Tune to Pitch.
- Measure String Height on the first fret for each string using your feeler gauges. You will want the following heights (starting at the high E string):
E: .012″
B: .012″
G: .014″
D: .016″
A: .018″
E: .020″ - Use Nut Slot Files to lower any high slots. Be careful not to go too low, otherwise you’ll need to make yourself an entirely new bone nut. The nut can be left in place while you’re working on it, just pull the string aside.
Tune the string to pitch when checking on your measurements – play the strings to make sure there’s no open buzzing, otherwise you’ll need to make a new nut. When finished, lubricate the nut slot with graphite (fancy speak for “draw in the hole with a pencil”).Tip: File the slots on a slight downward angle away from the fretboard (about 25°) – if the headstock is pitched back, you can go parallel with that as a guide.
Tip: Shave down in small increments.
Step 3: Bridge Height
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- Tune to Pitch.
- Measure the String Height at the 12th fret using a 1/32″ / 1/64″ ruler. You will only need to measure the High E and the Low E for some bridges:
High E: 2/32″
Low E: 5/64″Tip: The high E string should cross the line on the ruler exactly, while the bottom of the Low E string should just barely allow bottom of the ruler line to show.
- Adjust Each String Saddle, if the guitar has individually adjustable saddles, so that there is a progression similar to the rise and fall of the fretboard radius across the strings.
Step 4: Electronics Check
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- Tune to Pitch.
- Plug the guitar in.
- Test the Output Jack by inserting and removing the 1/4″ cable a few times, then using a little pressure on the side of the male jack whilst wiggling and turning it around. Any crackling, popping, or drop-outs should be remedied with some WD-40 and the same in-and-out motion. I won’t make any stupid jokes here, but you’re welcome to.
- Test the Tone and Volume Pots by turning all the way up and down and wiggling them slightly – if there’s any scratching, you’ll want to open up the back cover and use the plastic nozzle on your can of WD-40 to direct the spray into the slot on the potentiometers (pictured). Then turn the knob back and forth until the scratchiness has disappeared.
- Use a Wrench to tighten loose hardware on the output jack and potentiometers before screwing the back plate back on.
Tip: You may need to use a pair of pliers (a Leatherman is the best) to gently hold the potentiometers/output jack in place from the back whilst turning your wrench on the outside of the guitar.
Step 5: Change Strings
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*If you’re changing to a different gauge string set, you should have done this already. Different gauges have different tensions and will affect all of the adjustments we make, as well as needing wider nut slots (or a new nut in some cases).
- Remove the Old Strings. You can use a winding tool to get this done quickly.
Tip: Some people just cut the strings at full tension with a heavy duty snipper, but there’s a lot of people who think it’s bad for the neck to endure such a rapid change in tension. I am not one of these people, but I don’t mind spending an extra minute unwinding the strings to be safe.
- Clean and Polish the Frets using Nev-R Dull or a tarnite metal polish & Q-tip.
- Clean and Condition the Fretboard with a rag and lemon oil.
- Put on the New Strings, tune to pitch, then stretch the strings outward by individually pulling them away from the body like you would pull back a bow and arrow. Don’t be afraid to stretch them, that’s the idea. Tune to pitch again, then stretch. Repeat until they’re completely stretched out and there’s not enough give for them to get too far out of tune when you pull them. Nobody expects to be going out of tune after they get their guitar setup.
- Play the Guitar to make sure there’s no buzzing and that the action/relief is set properly. It should feel perfect now. If not, then you’ll have to diagnose the error and go back a step or two.
- Clip the Excess String off with a string-cutter or heavy-duty wire snips.
Step 6: Adjust Pickup Height
- Tune to Pitch.
- Press the Low E String down at the last fret on the fretboard.
- Measure the Distance of the pickup using your 1/32″ ruler from the top of the pole-piece to the bottom of the string – the height depends on the type of pickup:
- 4/32″ for single coil pickups.
- 3/32″ on the bass side and 2/32″ on the treble side for humbuckers.
Tip: Passive pickups have a stronger magnetic field than Active pickups – if you set passive pickups too close to the string, it will kill the sustain and tone. Active pickups should be adjusted as close to the string as possible to compensate for their weaker magnetic field (about 1/32″).
Step 7: Hardware Check
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- Tighten and Lubricate all hardware: tuning machines, strap buttons, pots & output jack (if you skipped them before for some reason), etc. For this you can use your WD-40 or 3-in-1 Oil (or any mineral oil really). Mineral oil is excellent but it’s easy to tab too much on – just a tiny bit will work fine.
Step 8: Set Intonation
*This step is lower on the list because the strings and truss rod should have time to stretch and settle in beforehand. By now, everything should be in its right place (as Radiohead puts it), so get your screwdrivers out one last time.
- Tune to Pitch.
- Play a Natural Harmonic on the 12th fret of each string whilst checking against an electric tuner. Each harmonic note should be the same as its respective string.
- Adjust the Saddles forward or backward with a screwdriver (or alan key, depending on the bridge) and tune the string to pitch again before checking your adjustments on the tuner.
Tip: It’s very likely that the guitar’s intonation has been set accurately before it left the manufacturer – most of the time you won’t have to do anything here, but it’s not a proper guitar setup if you don’t check.
Tip: If you’re changing your strings to a different gauge, or a set that uses a plain third, you can expect to make some intonation adjustments.
Tip: The Guitar Answer Guy has a great walkthrough to troubleshoot any intonation issues!
Step 9: Clean & Polish
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- Spray the Body & Neck with a finish-appropriate (or all-purpose) guitar polish and rub in circular motions with a soft cotton cloth. The microfiber cloths meant for television and computer screens are excellent for this.
Congratulations!
You’ve just learned how to perform a professional guitar setup – now you can charge all your friends and make those tools pay for themselves.
P.S. –
- Tune to Pitch.