I’ve tried here to compile all that I’ve been able to learn regarding classical and acoustic guitar setups into an article for my students at Hart’s Guitars Co. Ltd. You may not need to read the entire article because you only need to fix one issue. Below, I have color-coded simple questions that can help you navigate quickly to the part of the process you need to jump to. Welcome to Hart’s Guitars’ classical guitar setup guide!
If you’re going to go through the setup process, chances are you also want new strings. I wrote a little piece about string choice recently. Believe it or not, your choice of strings can make a yuge difference in the guitar’s playability. Do you have one guitar that is much more of a joy to play than the others. You might wanna think about trying a different type of strings on the instruments that aren’t fun to play (obviously, in addition to the setup itself). Strings by mail is a great website rabbit hole of all things strings. Find your string type suggestions there (and learn a lot about strings)!
If you’ve changed your guitar strings and only need to check/adjust your action (string height at the 12th fret) afterwards , skip to section 3.
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If your guitar plays well at higher frets, but chords are harder to play in the first 3 frets, you may just need to adjust the action at your guitar’s nut. Skip to section 4
If your guitar plays like a dream, but is out of tune when you play notes and chords in the higher frets, skip to Section 5.
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Part of developing as a musician is forming a bond with your instrument and understanding how it works. What's more, cheap, beginner guitars are usually set up poorly, which makes playing them more difficult.
Here, using my friend’s old $100 Fender Squier as a model, we break down the essential components of a guitar setup, hoping to encourage guitarists to start tinkering. These steps aren’t really linear. It’s all about how each part interacts, so you’ll have to circle back a couple of times.
An Ultimate Guide To Guitar Set Up
Ideal action is a subjective matter. If you’re a metal or jazz player, you probably want a pretty low action so you can play lightning fast licks and fret complex chord shapes with ease. If you’re a blues player, you probably want a slightly higher action for intense string bends and to really dig into the notes with pronounced dynamics. Regardless of your playing style, the strings should be close enough to the fret board to be comfortable but not so close that they buzz.
If you’re a beginner and aren’t sure what measurements to set the action at, you can reference an online guide like this Fender owners manual for factory specifications. A 6-inch metal ruler with 64
Inch increments comes in handy here to measure the space between the fretboard and the bottom of the strings. This distance at the 17
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Fret is typically set around 4/64 inches. On a Strat-style bridge, you can control the height of each string individually by adjusting the corresponding saddle, which is helpful because each string has a different thickness. To lower the action, simply turn each saddle screw clockwise with an Allen wrench. And to raise it, turn the saddle screws counterclockwise.
If you’re feeling ambitious, you can improve your guitar’s overall feel and get a more consistent action throughout the neck by filing down the nut, the part where the strings meet the headstock. A lot of cheaper brands err on the side of assembling nuts that are too high up. Keep in mind—filing can’t be undone; if you file down the nut too much, you’ll have to buy and assemble a new nut, thus making your setup a lot more complicated and laborious.
Once you find a comfortable action for your playing style, you may be good to go. But it’s likely if you’re playing a cheap guitar or there’s a change in seasons and thus humidity, you’re going to have to tweak your neck.
How To Set Up A Guitar
The truss rod is a steel bolt that runs through the neck of the guitar to reinforce it and prevent warping. You realign the neck by tweaking the rod, but you must use caution because if you crank the rod too far clockwise, increasing the compression, you can snap it and destroy your neck. So only make adjustments when necessary. I find I make them about twice a year, when the humidity changes.
To check the straightness of the neck, hold your guitar up and look down the neck with your dominant eye like you’re sighting down a rifle. Necks should upbow ever so slightly to produce resonance. If they were completely straight, you’d get fret buzz, and if convexed, the fret buzz would be severe. More often than not, especially if there is a drop in humidity, the necks will upbow.
On the headstock there’s an adjusting nut where you insert an Allen wrench to turn the truss rod. Always err on the side of caution, so I’d recommend never doing more than 1/8 to ¼ of a turn before testing out the guitar and sighting the neck again. In the Squier, there was too much relief so I tightened the rod. If we had fret buzz and the action at the bridge was set at a reasonable height, there’d be too much tension and we’d crank the truss rod counterclockwise to increase the relief. Besides sighting the neck, a good way to gauge neck relief is to do a tap test.
Should You Have Your Guitar Or Bass Professionally Set Up?
The Squier has a single-action truss rod with the nut oriented at the headstock, but the nut could be flush with the body. In a lot of acoustic guitars this is the case, and you’d access the truss rod through the sound hole. Or you could have a double-action truss rod (e.g., Rickenbackers), which can be adjusted from both directions for extra precision and neck stability.
It’s important to keep the strings on your guitar when tweaking the truss rod and to keep them at least roughly in tune. The steel strings exert tension on the neck, which causes the neck to upbow. Tightening the truss rod reinforces the neck with a compression force to offset this tension. Feel free to change your strings before you tweak the truss rod if you’d prefer. Just don’t tweak the truss rod with your strings removed.
Just like adjusting the action, you can adjust your intonation without changing your strings, but if you plan to change your strings, you should do that first.
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If your open strings are in tune but as you play up the neck you notice that the notes are a little flat or sharp, your intonation is off. The notes on the 12
Scale length is the distance between the inner edge of the nut to where the string meets the saddle in the bridge and the midpoint is the center of the 12
Fret. The Strat I’m setting up has a scale length of 25½, which is very common. The other most common scale length is 24-3/4, which is what you’ll find on most Gibsons.
Pick The Best Acoustic Guitar Strings For You
On a Strat-style bridge, the intonation of each string can be adjusted individually. Using a small Phillips-head screwdriver, you can elongate the scale length by turning the saddle adjustment screw clockwise. You would do this if the fretted note at the 12
Fret is sharp. If it is flat, you need to shorten the scale length and turn the screw counterclockwise. If you feel considerable resistance when you turn the screws, it’s probably because gunk has built up on the saddles and you should clean them out with a microfiber cloth and polish.
Fret by lightly depressing your finger on the middle of the fret and letting the note ring out. The fretted note should be the same pitch as the harmonic. If it’s sharp, the corresponding saddle will have to be moved back, and if flat, it will have to be moved forward.
A Basic Understanding & Guide To A Guitar Setup — Earthquaker Devices
Once your intonation is set correctly, it most likely won’t falter terribly, but it’s still a good idea to check intonation periodically because the
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