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Featured Guitar Setup Article:

How To Set Up A Guitar

"You should play so that if your mom hears you on the radio, she knows it's you."

- Les Paul

Being able to express yourself fully is also a matter of having your guitar set up so that it allows you to do so. Knowing how to set up a guitar, whether for yourself or for compensation, is like most other skills; a matter of time, experience, and good guidance.

Typical Guitar Repair Problems

A few common problems we all deal with at one time or another as guitar players:

• Buzzing, rattling
• High action
• Tuning issues

And many more of course.

Before you begin buying setup tools and tackling the job with new found wide eyed zeal, let's make a couple of things very clear:

Above all, you must realize when you’re in over your head, call in the cavalry, admit defeat and get your guitar into the hands of a pro. A tail between your legs is preferable to having your head up your own butt. Know your limits.

That being said, you CAN do it. With the right mindset, guidance and working environment, which can be incredibly modest, you can achieve remarkable results. There are three rules of a guitar setup that represent the basic principles of an organized, educated approach to achieving your ultimate goal – setting up your guitar to its maximum potential.

Three Rules Of A Perfect Guitar Setup

1. Use Fresh Strings

2. Use The Right Guitar Setup Tools

3. Use Your Head!

Those three little phrases work as a team, they depend on one another, if you neglect any one of them I guarantee your final result will be sub par. Number three is by far the most important as it leverages knowledge, logic, procedure and technique.

So, is this article also about guitar repair? In a word - yes. Guitar setups apply to every instrument and can include common elements of repairs such as fixing small cracks, dings, replacing broken hardware, fretwork etc. These normal wear and tear conditions are part of every instrument's journey therefor they are an absolute necessity, and the primary focus for tutorials on this website.

Rule 1. – Use Fresh Strings

While this may seem mundane, I can’t stress how important it is to use fresh strings as the very first step to a perfect setup.
Simply put, if you try to do a setup with old strings you will fail. Aged strings will give you all kinds of grief as they can mask underlying problems and are virtually impossible to calibrate.

How Old Is New?

New strings will start degrading virtually from the moment you put them on. Sad, yes, but that’s not to say it’s a hopeless chase for shiny string perfection, it’s just the nature of renewing your guitar’s consumables.

PRO TIP: As a rule of thumb, strings with more than a couple of hours of continuous playing time need to be chucked to guarantee setup accuracy. They’ll be degraded to the point of being a question mark in the finished product of a perfect guitar setup.

Rule 2. - Use The Right Guitar Setup Tools

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Featured Guitar Setup Video:

How To Set Up A Fender Telecaster: