Part 6: How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul. Beginning Fine Adjustments.

What’s Covered:

• Adjusting pickup pole pieces

• Preliminary truss rod adjustments

• Setting the string height

• Stop tailpiece adjustments

In the last segment, How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul Part 5, we tackled the rather menial but very necessary task of housekeeping. With that out of the way, we can now begin preliminary adjustments that bring the guitar to a state of maximum performance and dependability.

Video: Les Paul Setup Tutorial Part 6

Transcript:

Adjusting Pickup Pole Pieces

While trying to adjust the pole pieces here I noticed that this last screw head is just destroyed with corrosion. I’m going to dig that out a little bit with a small screwdriver, a jeweller’s screwdriver, of course being careful not to scratch anything in the process. You’ve got to be careful that you don’t damage any of the surrounding area.

I’m going to take that screwdriver again and go around and knock off any of the junk carefully that is any of the wax that popped up and what not. It’s pretty clean actually, I’ve seen a lot worse.

Adjust the pole pieces so that when you look across that pickup face you see a nice gradual arc that would match the radius of the fret board.

On to the next step, we’re going bring a little bit more tension into the instrument by tightening up the strings. Not up to full pitch, just inducing some pressure on it. Then we’ll look at the look at the end geometry.

Preliminary Truss Rod Adjustments

First we’re going to set the height after giving the neck a quick read. It doesn’t look too bad, I’m going to straighten it out just a hair.

We are in a bit of a hurry so I’m going to bring the truss rod adjuster towards me to tighten up the truss rod. There is a separate video I did about this that explains how that little mechanism works for you.

Just a small movement, not a quarter turn or anything, just a little judgment turn. You can feel the stiffness of the truss rod, whether it is engaged or not.

If the adjuster is loose and going chatter then you have got to snug it up to the end. If it is really, really tight, you might want to try backing it off and put a bit of 3in1 Oil on the threads.

Set the neck relief as it should be for the player. Different people want their strings at different heights. I’ll give you a bit of information so that you’ll be able to do that correctly for your own playing style.

Setting the String Height

I’ve set the truss rod in what I’d consider a good median position. At about the 15th or 17th fret on the bass side, in this case, its the 16th, I want to see is that the height is about the height of two dimes or 3/32″ (.085″ or a hair over 2mm). If you’re not sure, get two dimes and look at them. That’s your gauge. In our case here, the current height is going to come down a little bit.

And then on the treble side, I am going to look around the same area where the neck meets the body. It’s just an arbitrary point that works for me. You can tinker with this and try to figure out some way that may be more specific to the way that you like to get things done.

The 15th fret area works well as a general rule. On the treble side here, I am going to re-situate the string height by adjusting that thumb wheel. I want to see the thickness of a nickel or just a hair over a 16th of an inch (.075″ or 1.8mm).

Keep in mind these are guidelines for setting a starting point, and that point is pretty low. My approach is to start from an ideal low-action position, then compensate for the player’s tastes and the instrument’s limitations as I finalize setting up the action.

So I have adjusted the truss rod. I haven’t talked about the neck yet, but I will get to that. I have made some preliminary adjustments to the truss rod.

The strings are at a nominal pressure. It is not up to pitch or anything. If things are tight and bound up it makes it very hard to adjust these things properly.

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Stop Tailpiece Adjustments

Now the tailpiece, I have a preference for where I like to see these things. This is ballpark to the fine point. I might make a small incremental adjustment down the road. But this is very much where it is going to wind up as a final position.

Now there is a certain amount of angle break here where the strings transition from the bridge to the tailpiece. That amount of angle. If you tinker with this you will find a sweet spot that works really well for your playing.

Some people want the studs right tight to the body, That’s great because the theory is you’ve got the studs tight to the body and you get maximum transference.

That’s awesome. I personally don’t notice too much of a difference either way but what I have noticed is that the amount of angle over the saddle that angular break there to the tailpiece can make a really significant change to the overall feel of how the strings play under your fingers.

So it is really worth tinkering at, but be careful because you don’t want to wreck the studs, use a proper screwdriver. You can even use a coin that’s the right size for a pretty significant slot in this stud.

The treble side it looks good to me and I am going to work on the bass side actually. I am going to be very, very careful with this thing.

Control it. The stud can be under a lot of tension unless you loosen the strings. And watching a flat end screwdriver skate across the top of a guitar is no fun.

There are tools out there that you can use to make sure that you don’t slip off and what not. I believe if you are careful enough you wouldn’t have that problem to begin with.

I have those slots are in line with each other laterally. It is a nice finish. It just looks pleasant that way. Looking from the end of the guitar I want to see the same angle of the studs to the thumb wheels.

So I can actually see the bottoms of the studs of the tailpiece. I see the same amount of reveal on each side looking straight down the middle of the instrument so that I know that this plane is exactly in line with this plane.

That’s just the way I prefer to do it. I have never, ever had any issues with that. I think it works very, very well.

I am going to take a little break and we will come back and we’ll look at getting the strings up to pitch. We are going to address the nut and we are going to deal with setting the pickup height, okay. All right, I will be right back.

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The post How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul Part 6 (Preliminary Adjustments) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 5: How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul.

What’s Covered in the Video:

• How to save time cleaning the body

• Detailing the body and headstock

• installing a new set of strings

• How to batch your processes and save time!

Previously in Part 4 of How To Setup A Les Paul, we began the process of prepping the guitar for the next all important process. In this segment we carry on towards our ultimate goal – a clean, perfectly set up guitar that plays beautifully.

Video: Les Paul Setup Tutorial Part 5

Transcript:

How to Save Time Cleaning a Guitar

Well, not the most fun job in the world but absolutely necessary. Dunlop 65 polish, this is good stuff. This will help pick up the dirt and fingerprints. This guitar’s not really dirty so we don’t have to worry about getting really crazy with it.

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The cleaning process described in this video segment is organized and should save you a bunch of time with housekeeping.

I have a ’79 Les Paul Custom, it was in rough condition finish wise so one day I took it apart and spent four hours getting that sucker polished up like new, and it looked spectacular! It was awesome. That was a deep clean which was long overdue.

Detailing the Body and Headstock

I’m actually going to get tight to these sides of the headstock. That’s where a lot of finger junk builds up around, where your hands are always touching the side of the headstock when you’re tuning, so you want to get at that.

Again, back to my little wooden stick, it helps me get right tight to the corners all around. I keep shifting this thing around so I’m not just pushing dirt into the same spot all the time. I keep using different parts of the paper towel here.

We want to get around that pickup selector switch, and we’ll get around the bushings. Again, I’m not too worried about these bushings here or the adjusters/thumb wheels in this case and the end screws because the instrument’s in fairly decent condition to start.

But there is a little corrosion on them for sure. I’m going to hit that again. I will be making some adjustments down here, so I’m not worried about the position of them.

Now, I’m going to be handling this instrument quite a bit, so what I’m trying to focus on here is just getting the majority of the junk off, the real garbage, the stuff that’s been caked in for a while.

To begin with, the guitar’s fairly clean so I’m happy about that. If it was nastier, then of course we’d spend more time accordingly and whatnot.

Tell-tale sign of a pick guard on Les Pauls; that nut on the back always leaves a mark on the face. If you see that you’ll know what it is.

That is if the pick guard’s not on it. I’m just gonna do the face for now, because I’ll come back to the rest of it when we’re close to being done. And as far as strings go we’re going to put on some D’Addario 10’s. Get those bad boys ready.

As for the dirt, junk goes in the junk.

Installing New Guitar Strings

Now we’re going to start throwing some new strings on and have at it.

Starting with number six, the saddles of the bridge are canted forward. I’m gonna put the fifth string aside there for a second. let’s get this sixth string installed. Note, there’s more than one right way to install strings, and I’ll do another video series on that.

When somebody tells you got to do it this way, some stuff yes, but other stuff, it’s common sense. There’s more than one right way to do many things, so I want to keep that in mind. Anyway, a little quick instruction on this,

I’m keeping the slack end of the string under control, otherwise it will control me and that doesn’t exist in my guitar world, okay. I am the person in control of such things.

Batch Your Processes

Okay, so now all the guitar hardware is locked down and, that is it’s not going to fall off anymore. I’ve put the sixth string on just to hold things in place, you know. Again, I refer back to batching your processes.

In this case, when we have loose hardware, we want to keep it under control. So I put one string on to control the environment. Now I’ll go back and do the rest of the strings, just get them installed.

Some people like to install the strings backwards. That is, top wrapping the strings over the top of the tailpiece. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, it’s a matter of preference.

You have to experiment with different things, because it comes down to the angle at which the string hits the bridge. And there’s a trick to that.

There’s a sweet spot. I’ll give you some direction on that, but ultimately, it’s going to be what you prefer. Anyway, I’ll get back to this area in a second.

I’m just going to get the rest of these strings installed. Measure off about an inch and a half or so of string which will equate to about three wraps around the tuner post. In this case, one post to the next is a good indicator.

Switch my grip, pop the string through, give it a right angle bend that locks the string in place. Now again, there’s ways to get the string locked down and whatnot. I prefer to let the string induce it’s own pressure from one wrap under the next.

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I’ll deal with the specifics of re-stringing at a later date. With the first string I make an exception with because it’s fine and prone to slippage. So I’m actually gonna do a tag end wrap on that. I took the tag end of the string and wrapped it under the string itself, which locks it in place. That’s a very common thing to do.

One of my little things is that I only do that on the first string. I’ve found that the rest of the strings, there’s no real benefit to it in my opinion.

So we have all our strings on. Nothing’s really out of joint or down here, all the working guitar hardware is in the ballpark. It’s not sky-high or goofy or anything. Everything’s kind of within tolerable range.

I’ll get rid of that the excess string ends, I’m gonna give it a haircut. These freshly installed strings are not coming off. There’s no reason that they’re gonna have to come off again. I’m going to use side cutters. Using the flat face on top of each post, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Remove the garbage all in one shot, nice and neat.

Once again I’m going to take a quick break and we’ll get down to the business of finessing the rest of this out. Okay, All right. Back in a second.

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The post How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul Part 5 (Cleanup And Reassembly) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 4: How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul.

What’s Covered:

• Cleaning the pickups

• Cleaning the hardware

• Cleaning the neck

• Polishing the frets

• Reconditioning the fretboard

Transcript:

Cleaning the pickups

We’re going to deal with pickups first. I’m going to use a little bit of polish on this piece of paper towel.

There’s other polish products and whatnot that we can use, and I’ll deal with those at a later date. I have some other videos that will discuss that. But you’ve got to stay tuned in order to see that.

This guitar hardware has got a gold finish on it and I’m not going to try to take off any of that gold or anything, obviously.

People will get a little concerned about the condition of the finish, such as rest and whatnot around pole pieces and stuff like that. And it really doesn’t hurt the sound or anything like that, it just looks ugly. Right?

And to tighten this up a little bit, I have a little wooden dowel. You can use a bamboo skewer or something like that, preferably wood instead of metal.

You don’t want to use metal. This will help me get tight into some of these corners and places. This pickup is not so bad, so the polish is helping to pick up some of that junk and whatnot.

There’s a lot of corrosion here which I could deal with, with a number of different methods. But in this case, I’m not going to get really hard-core with this. The purpose of our video here is to do basic housekeeping and whatnot.

This hard edge here really helps to get tight into the nasty bits. You’re not going to have to worry about scratching it or anything like that. So if that were metal, it would poke through.

You’d have a problem, you know what I’m saying? To get some of this extra junk off you’re going to use that tip there, and just nibble at it.

Now this is just making me cringe a little bit. The gold is so soft that it will come off very easily if you’re not careful with this, and you can see it’s evident in the top of the pickup.

I could maybe take the pickup out really have at it if I wanted to get it right – super clean again. But again, that’s not what this particular video is after. We are doing a basic set up. So I’m going to be brief about this.

Cleaning the Hardware

That’s a heck of a lot better than it was, for sure. All right, and I’m going to just turn that up a little bit and do a little bit more housekeeping here. While I’m at it I’m going to clean the tailpiece.

Do yourself a favour, don’t hold parts over the top of the guitar when you’re working them because they slip and they can fall down.

And the next thing you know you’ve got damage on the top of your instrument.

So stay away from the top of the instrument, good habit. How do you learn that kind of stuff? Well, let’s just say experience accounts for something, and some of those are hard-won lessons. Okay. That’s good to go. Now this is actually a really good shape.

And yeah, so this is a replacement. Often what happens is the gold is soft and it degrades, and a lot of bridges on Les Paul’s and other instruments will… Because your Palm is resting there so much, they just get chewed out and you wind up replacing the things. I would prefer to see that as being an original part.

You can get it from Gibson, but the price is going to be leveraged by the name. Or you can go directly to Schaller and get exactly the right part. Which is down here. Now, when I took this off it was mounted backwards.

I always like to see the saddles ramping forward. Okay, you can take it apart and turn it around. It’s a bit of a pain in the butt, but it is possible.

I’m just eyeballing this for intonation right now. I’ve got to pay attention to my own advice here, and not stay over top of the instrument.

I’m trying to make a visual point here, so I am expediting some things and not paying attention. Anyway, so here we are. Again, this is totally eyeballed.

What I have is a series of three ramps, and three ramps. Okay? So it’s like this, and then it shifts back about a sixteenth of an inch, and it does the same thing. So we have kind of a staggered sort of thing. Okay.

Three and three. Three wound strings, three plain strings. As to why?, that’s a whole other ball game which I’ll get to in another video series.

I forgot to mention another valuable tool. I have an old toothbrush, good to go. That’ll get right in there. This is thankfully pretty clean.

There are other tools and whatnot you can use to clean house with these bridges because all of those little voids and whatnot, those cavities, they’re just rotten for catching dirt and stuff, just nasty.

Video: Les Paul Setup Tutorial Part 4

I think this is… Yep. It says “Gotoh” right there. As I was suspecting that this was an aftermarket part because it was too clean. And the holes, those would be metric. They’re over-sized. It still fits and all that, but this is not the right bridge. For this era, ’93, it would be a Schaller part. It would say “Made in Germany” on the bottom.

Cleaning the Neck

I’m going to leave that off because we’re going to deal with the neck. This neck is actually in pretty good condition. If it was grungy, really grungy I would have at it more or less the same way.

But I’ll give you a quick lesson on how to deal with that. Okay, these pickups are recessed. I don’t have to worry about setting them to the right height yet.

I’m just going to take some painter’s tape here, and just mask off our work area. Low-tack. It’s got to be low-tack because you don’t want to see the finished coming up, right?

Very, very low-tack. Okay so we’re going to tackle the neck and clean the frets as well. There’s no real specific order to this, as long as the jobs are being performed in a logical sequence, it’s all good.

I have some Windex here. Sorry, if I keep adding some elements and whatnot, but as the situation arises I’ve got to keep using the tools that I need to get the job done.

I’m going to spray this on here. I’m not going to spray directly on the finish. I don’t want to get it anywhere near the finish because Gibson products will have a natural lacquer finish.

You can see the dirt coming off there, not to get it into the finish, like on the underside of the neck and stuff like that. And one thing I want to make really clear is I’m really not a fan of using steel wool.

Not a fan at all because those little bits of the steel get everywhere. They can get into your pickups, they can get on the finish, and create problems, and get on your work surface. It’s just ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly.

Anyway, there’s alternatives. All that did there was soften up the goo on the surface. You don’t have to worry about the ebony being really problematic.

If you have a lot of junk on there, you can just keep at it and eventually you’ll soften it up. The last process if you want to save yourself a step or so, dollar store brass bristles. Good stuff.

Polishing the Frets

You’ve got to be careful with polishing the frets. I’m going to use this to make a point of something. Okay. Very lightly, what this will do is get the junk out of the knees of the frets, and it will burnish the frets at the same time.

It’s not going to harm the ebony at all because ebony is so hard. This will actually give a light polish.

You can use this on the rosewood too, but you’ve got to be very, very careful with it. It still a hardy little brush, it’s metal okay? So that’s good to go, got a lot of the junk out of there.

This is 1500 grit micro mesh sandpaper, which you can find online on Amazon, stuff like that. Okay.

Or even a hardware store you can get 2000 grit, would be just dandy. Okay. Then I’m just going to give these frets a quick polish.

ou can use finer grains of course, and get a nicer shine if you really want to have at it. You can get some really good shine happening. I wasn’t pressing really hard, and I’m not worried about the ebony finish on that either.

In other words, I didn’t mask it off or worry about that because that was a pretty light buff, let’s say. Again, back with the Windex just to pick up the junk. See? Just a little bit of junk left over.

I’m not leaving it sit on there because that leaches up the oils in the wood. I want to get that off of there pretty quick.

There you go. That literally dries in seconds. I just put that on there and, seriously it’s dry. It’s already dry.

Reconditioning the Fretboard

Okay, fretboard reconditioning coming up. I’m going to dribble on a few drops. It can be a bit of an experience trying to get the lemon oil on without getting it everywhere, but this is what we do.

This works really well with rosewood and inexpensive offshore stuff. That wood can be so dry, it does suck up half the oil in no time.

All right, I’m just going to wipe off the excess. No need to let the oil sit on there because it’s not going to go anywhere or do anything because that ebony is really, really tight.

That is Housekeeping 101 on an ebony neck.

Different kinds of necks such as a clear coat maple, rosewood, stuff like that, you want to treat… well, rosewood is more or less going to be the same process, but clear coat maple is a different thing.

I’m just getting some of that extra oil off my hands. Okay so, that’s that. And then get rid of this.

Okay. I’m going to take a short break and will be back to do some basic body housekeeping, and get the rest of it done. Thanks!

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The post How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul Part 4 (Cleaning Hardware And Fretboard) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 4 of How To Setup A Fender Telecaster

Getting down to brass tax and setting the stage for fine tuning.

What’s covered in the Video:

• A quick neck-to-body alignment and relief assessment

• General action setup

• Cutting the nut

• Tips to achieving a perfect guitar setup

Video: Telecaster Setup Tutorial Part 4

Transcript:

A Quick Neck Realignment and Action Check

i put a capo on here to keep these strings and everything under control. They like to pop out of the of the old school tuners if it’s not organized like that.

I took the neck off and I gave it a good tweak, it’s a judgment call. I gave it what I considered to be a good a good torque anticipating the amount of pressure it would it need to be in the state that I want it in. And then reinstalled the neck again, just two screws ’cause I might have to take it off again.

Now I’ll get that capo off there. Going to double check my alignment. Okay, that looks not too bad. This thing wants to be tilt towards treble side a little, so not doing any undo force or anything like that. That looks great.

I’m just going to set the screws again, modest pressure on your neck screws you know, you don’t torque the crap out of them. I’ve seen the screw heads just torque right down and it compresses all this wood – it distorts the plate. You don’t have to be gorilla man you know, just good moderate pressure on there and that’s dandy.

Assessing Relief

I’m going to bring this up to pitch – that was my a440 pitch fork by the way. Nice buzz there, wonder where that’s from. Well, we will find out.

Right, I’m going to take two seconds and see if I can locate what that little sizzle is all about – push the string around. Beauty, okay it was just a little softness down here little something was a little out a joint. Moving it around.

And my relief is pretty good, oh yeah, that’s real good, I like that.

At some point I will have, look around for it, I’ll have a very specific video on reading neck relief. I’ve always said I could write a book on neck relief. It’s a very interesting process involving compression, torque all sorts of interesting things and every instrument has its own little kind of thing where ,it likes this doesn’t like that or what not. It’s really quite remarkable.

Here are a couple of video examples on the subject:

Using a business card and a feeler gauge to reference neck relief for better action

How to avoid misreading neck relief

Just as an aside, I had a bass in, a brand spanking new top-of-the-line branded bass, really nice beautiful neck on it,and it was punched from the get-go. Punched. The neck was just like, I couldn’t find a happy spot on that. During the relief setup the neck would either bowed back here because of too much compression here, and it had a scoop up here. It was just… I mean this is a brand new instrument. I thought buddy, I said to the owner, take that back for warranty and he didn’t and that’s okay. That’s his choice to do that, but in my books I is a subpar instrument.

I have special tricks and things that I do to coax necks into better condition. When I see them like that, and I tried with this one, and it wouldn’t settle down – he’s got a compromised instrument that’s brand new, top end too, not cool. But it just shows even brand name stuff is not immune to the natures of force and the natural quirkiness of wood. Internal soft spots, could be whatever. It was unfortunate.

Back to our show here.

Cutting the Nut

This bit of relief looks good. The string height looks not too bad. I might work a little bit on that treble side but at the moment, I’m going to cut this nut. I’ll give you a brief rundown of how I’m going to do this. If you watchs ome of my other videos there’s a little more in-depth explanation of this process.

I have my way of doing it. It’s not the end all be all, it’s my preference. I use light and gaps let’s say, to do this, but I’m just going to make sure that we have these slots properly ramped.

The height on that low E is good. What I’m looking for is a certain amount of light gap between the string and the top of the fret using the ambient light that’s in here. When I first moved in here some time back, quite a few years now, compared to my old shop, this lighting was very different – I had to relearn the process but it only took a short time.

Anyway back cutting this a little bit to finesse the front edge of the slot there. I’m using my select files here. I’ll use certain files for certain strings. Once again, the whole nut cutting job is a story for another day.

Actually, I have some of it in another video that I got pretty in depth with it. Well, this one’s being fussy. I want to give you guys a real deep explanation on at least my process.

Here’s an example of how you can use light to cut the nut exactly the way you want it:

How to cut nut slots to the perfect depth every time.

f you can make use of it that’s awesome. Again that’s about a 50 thou needle file. This is a specific file a D string for acoustic. This is a, let’s see what is this is, this is a 16 thou, yes it’s a 16 but I’m going to look for a 20. There’s my 20. I like to use a 20 here just for starters just so I know that the walls are are good. Okay, that’s good.

It’s binding a little bit, and that’s not a problem. I’ll get in here with the 16 – just like that. Now I leave a little bit more height on the G string because it’s a wrangley string. It’s like, when you pluck it, it’s not doing this sort of thing. it’s doing this. We want to accommodate that.

Now remember this is all dependent on having the relief set up properly to begin with. On to the second string. I will use my 13. This one’s fairly high so I’m going to be a little bit more aggressive here. You can actually compensate for certain, say idiosyncrasies at the nut and your playing style if you take the time to study it properly and understand deflection, intonation and a bunch of other nifty little tidbits.

There’s more than one right way to tune a guitar. Some people will have a vice-like grip, they’re naturally heavy-handed and other people are very, very soft. Their approach is very light and the nut, the whole instrument can be set up to tailored to their particular styles, and that includes the nut. Okay, that’s dandy.

I’m going to finish up with my stubby 10 here. Notice that I don’t have it under the the button or the string tree here. That’s fine because I don’t want to wrestle with it. I’ll get a fair read with it as is. I’m being very careful not to nick the back end of the neck too, this back ridge here.

Sometimes they extend a little bit too far back during the manufacturing process and you can’t avoid but hit them, and that’s just the way it goes sometimes. Of course you don’t want to but so as I’m doing that if you can notice I cut slanted this way, slanted that way, few strokes and then back. I cut the back wall or the back, say, the trailing edge and then finesse it – just go across the slot itself at the last couple cuts.

Okay that’s really good. You can get the first string down pretty fine without worrying about any kind of buzz or anything like that so again I’m not going to get into too much more detail about that. That’s done, that is done. I know where the instrument’s sitting I won’t have to touch that again because I’m not taking the neck off at this point.

A Word on Customer Service

Funny thing might happen here, we might have some leftover compression from adjusting the trust rod which will force the neck up. I will make a point of telling my client that I had to use a couple good torques on that neck and and if it decides to move it’s not a problem, it’s just a matter of a readjustment – that’s service after the fact and that’s good business.

Okay, always, always throw that out there – that you don’t want to say, “Well, you know I couldn’t, I don’t know where it’s going to…” Yeah, don’t play that card, that’s just not cool. You want to make sure that your customer is cared for and that you’re knowledgeable enough to anticipate these natural changes, and help them to understand that it is natural and that they’re taken care of. You’re going to care of them okay, that’s a good deal.

Okay, so that being done, I’m pretty comfortable with getting those strings under there which is good to go. Give that screw up there a test – that’s good like that.

Now we’re down here, now we’re going to get into the final phase of the actual setup process which is dealing with the saddles and getting the actual action down here fixed up, or where where it’s going to wind up.

The main Factors of a Perfect Setup

I’ll relate this before I’m going to take a break, I want to relate this one thing which I come to over and over and over which is what I call the triangle of a perfect setup. That is you have three points that constitute, let’s say, the perfect setup and imagine it like a perfect triangle.

If any one of those points is out of balance the whole thing is skewed. One point is your nut, another point is the bridge, the saddles that whole area here, and the other point would be the relief in the neck.

All those things have to be in harmony to achieve the ideal setup. Once we deal with the nut, that is essentially done you should never have to worry about it again unless it wears or needs replacement through breakage or whatever. This and your relief, that’s really where the meat and potatoes is going to happen.

This, for the most part can be, once you have your your radius set you shouldn’t have to tinker with that anymore – except to maybe generally raise or lower things. You can do that like, the same amount of turns per adjuster here.

Your intonation once it’s set, unless you change the string gauges, you shouldn’t have to deal with that again either. And really, the hero in this whole thing is the relief in the neck because that will dictate how the whole thing is going to react under your hands.

I tend to to aim for a point where everything is moderate, nice, relatively easy action. I speak with the individuals. I watch them play and get a sense of how they approach the instrument and that sticks in my mind. Again, we set it up accordingly. I already have that information for this person.

Anyway, on with the show. I’m going to take a short break and get right back. Thanks.

The Telecaster: A Working man’s Tool

The beauty of a Tele is its simplicity. Originally designed for the working musician, Leo Fender’s brilliant concept included the very necessary element of serviceability.

If the instrument’s neck got damaged it was easily replaceable by removing the four neck bolts and installing a replacement neck.

While this is common for most production instruments today, back in the day it was a novel way of dealing with manufacturing an instrument for the masses.

Thanks to this component type of assembly process, the market for custom parts has allowed anyone to build their own dream guitar to their own specs.

Everything from inexpensive Telecaster guitar kits to bespoke built bodies and necks in every color, shape and style imaginable. I wonder if Leo saw that coming…

In the context of putting things together, or more accurately, back together in this case, reattaching a neck may need a bit of adjustment to sit perfectly.

Have you ever seen a guitar with the outside strings really close to one side of the neck? On the treble side this can be a huge issue as you’ll find your notes literally falling off the edge of the neck. Vibrato can be nearly impossible.

The cure is to align the neck laterally, which I cover in the first part of this video.

A Few Thoughts on Cutting The Nut

Being one of the most important elements of a great guitar setup and a key point of energy transfer, the nut always gets special attention.

In the case of our ’52 Reissue Telecaster on the bench, the material we’re working with is bone. Traditional, tonally effective and a very long lasting natural material.

If you’re curious about how to cut a nut to work in harmony with the guitar and the player, skip to the 5:07 minute mark. I go into great depth about the tools and techniques used to dress out a factory installed nut.

It’s important to note that any mass produced guitar is built within tolerances dictated by the company producing it. Fender products are no exception.

That’s not to say they aren’t a fine instruments, not at all, Teles in particular are one of the most versatile guitars ever produced regardless of region of manufacture. But the fact is, every guitar needs to be dialed in to match the owner’s playing style.

The nut happens to be one of the most critical points needing attention out of the box. Our “52 Reissue on the bench is no exception.

Check Availability! >>

PRO TIP: Individual files for each string gauge will ensure a perfect cut – but they come at a price. If you take your setup skills seriously, consider making the investment.

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Coming Up:

Everything you wanted to know about setting string height, maximizing acton and playability, plus the finer points of setting intonation.

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The post How To Setup A Fender Telecaster Part 4 (Tweaks, Tips and Cutting the Nut) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 3: How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul.

In Part 2 of How To Setup A Les Paul, we covered the teardown process. In this next section we cover the basics of getting the guitar in condition to be built back up.

Let’s pick up where we left off:

Video: Les Paul Setup Tutorial Part 3

Transcript:

Adjusting the Pickups

This pickup is remounted. Let’s double check it. There we go. It’s snug. You can feel the screw heights there so that they’re recessed all the same. So I reloaded some new screws there. The other ones were chewed from somebody not using the right size screwdriver. That’s how that stuff happens, it’s important to choose the right size screwdriver.

Checking the Headstock

The next course of action here is to take a…sorry, I forgot to mention a couple of things in the intro there. A 10mm open-end wrench here for the inserts, see these threaded inserts.

I’m just going to go around the headstock and snug, make sure that they’re snugged up. These are pretty…somebody got at these and really torqued them up. Oh man, I’m not happy with that.

This is a judgment call on my part because what happens is people get overindulgent, let’s say, and over torque these things. Then you will start to see the lacquer start to split and chip out around the washers there because it has been over torqued.

You’ve got to remember, this wood, over the seasonal changes, is doing this, okay? That is the headstock, right? It’s expanding and contracting. It’s a very, very, very small amount, but it’s enough to cause a problem if these are too tight.

I just snugged them up nice, just snug, okay? Not cranked. There’s no screws in the end buttons, obviously. These Gibson tuning keys are in good shape and all that.

I will give it a quick flip here onto the next phase. Gonna go around and make sure all the screws are snugged up, a couple of…let’s see, out of 12, there were only 2 so far that were actually in good condition.

Now we’re going to take off our Les Paul back plate. In other words, at the headstock there. At the headstock, most of those screws needed a little tightening up. I left those there. I didn’t put them in the tray. I don’t want to fish them out afterwards because I’ll only be at this for a minute.

Let’s see under the hood. I know the switch is in great shape. Now if you can get a look see at that. Okay, I’ll turn that over like so, and you should be able to see there’s some shielding paint in there. The electronics have not been messed with. Everything looks like it’s original, so that’s a good deal.

Cleaning the Electronics

Now what I’m going to do is I have some cleaner here. It’s electronics cleaner you can get at electronics supply places. If you don’t have this kind of stuff, you can just take those controls and just them zip back and forth really, really fast, like this kind of thing and that will clear out some of the junk too and extend the life a fair bit.

I know the treble pot is a little sketchy.

This is corrosive. This is going to damage this finish, so I’m going to be very, very, very careful about not getting it anywhere near or around the finish, okay?

Hosa CAIG Laboratories D5S-6 CAIG DeoxIT Contact Cleaner, 5 Spray, 5 Oz

Put a paper towel here and make sure we don’t have anything dripping. I’m just going to hit that just like that. Didn’t get anything anywhere.

I’m gonna wind that out. Just a very, very small amount because I don’t want that seeping out through the bottom and destroying the finish or anything like that. So I’m rotating that back and forth. That should be just dandy, okay? We’ll let that evaporate for a few seconds.

All right, we’re going to button that back up. By the way, while I’m in there, no interference at the jack. That’s great. Sometimes the cable can get wrapped up inside there cause some problems. We’ll get this back down. And that’s good to go, everything nice and snug, hand tight. All right.

Own a fine Fender product? Check out a similar article by GuitarNiche: How To Setup A Fender Telecaster.

Now, the next part is dealing with some housekeeping.

I did raise the pickups and the reason I did that is I want to be able to clean around these edges where junk gets down inside there and what not. I’m going to be a little limited up here, okay?

This is not a complete teardown. I’m not taking knobs off and getting under everything and what not. That’s a really down and intense sort of thing, and that’s not really what we’re about. We’re just trying to do a good housekeeping setup on this instrument.

I’m going to take a short break, and I’ll be back in a second.

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The post How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul Part 3 (Headstock And Electronics) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Dynaguide – Keeping You In Tune!

Some short time back I received an email from Fred Dingemans of Dynaguide.nl, maker of a new string tree called Dynaguide.

Granted, I didn’t know what it was, but curiosity compelled me to check it out, and I was glad I did.

The concept is pretty simple, instead of the strings binding against a static fixed string tree, they’re retained by a small floating bar that travels along with the strings.

This same problem of friction above the nut has been tackled many times before.

There’s the traditional Tele style string tree – a small disc affixed with a screw – that although increased the necessary down pressure – didn’t address the original problem.

Roller trees that use what looks like a string’s ball end have been available for decades, and they certainly help. But they aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing.

Then we have the locking nut. Why tinker with all manner of re-invented string trees when you can eliminate the problem altogether? Clamp the nut!

But even that comes at a price – you have to unlock it to change strings, tuning gets complicated, and ultimately, it’s more work.

Thankfully, Fred has created an elegant and effective solution to a fundamental guitar tuning problem.

Here’s the best part, Fred was amazingly responsive in communicating with me, what a pleasure. Small business has it’s advantages – often times you’re talking directly with the owner of the company, How cool is that! Thanks Fred!

The post Dynaguide String Tree [Quick Product Demo] first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 3 of How To Setup A Classic Fender Telecaster.

In this segment:

Cleaning and Restringing

In order to get this ’52 Reissue performing up to it’s maximum, we have to knock it down a bit. This way, we get to peek under the hood and have clean access to adjustments that may be hidden.

What’s covered in the video:

• Tele bridge tweaks

• Restringing quickly and efficiently

• Neck polish & prep

• Beginning critical adjustments

Video: Telecaster Setup Tutorial Part 3

Final Thoughts

Regarding cleaning the guitar’s finish, there seems to be a bit of a debate – is it ok to use paper towels to clean the finish or not?

I say, throw the dirt straight in the garbage.

With a background in finishing and polishing, I can tell you with absolute certainty, your enemies are contaminated cleaning materials and a work surface that holds on to fine debris.

Imagine putting a TON of work into a pristine finish only to see it marred by a small shift across a work surface that’s abrasive – no fun.
You’ll notice my old workbench in the videos is glass.

I keep a small guitar mat under the butt end of the guitar, the neck goes in the cradle and that’s it. Glass is super easy to clean of course, plus it keeps me aware of hitting anything with excessive force.

Previously, the best material I ever found for a long lasting safe surface was, believe it or not, velour! The ultra short hair-like fibers keep large particles on the surface for a quick brush off.

They also allow super fine debris to collect under the surface and away from delicate finishes. When it builds up too much, just take a vacuum to it and it releases the dirt easily.

Whatever your work surface, point is, it’s all about controlling the cast-off junk.

If paper towels are free of particles that can cause damage – which is easy enough to test inconspicuously – go right ahead, use them.

As far as hardware and such goes, we’ll cover cleaning that in another article.

Alright, back to the guitar in the spotlight…

PRO TIP: Want to keep your strings organized while you service your guitar? Use a guitar capo! These things are wicked time savers as well an indispensable musical tool.

What Makes A Tele So Remarkable?

Talk at length with any Telecaster enthusiast and it becomes clear that they occupy a special place among guitar players. Versatility in tone, a rich history and simplicity of design are just a few of the instrument’s charms.

From a service point of view, it doesn’t get much better – with exception of the vintage style truss rod access, still a pain, but there are workarounds as you’ll see. For a detailed look at the complete process of setting up a guitar, check out our How To Set Up A Guitar page.

As always, I have a few comments and stories to share about guitar repair in this next video.

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Coming Up in Part 4:

More Tele tips and tweaks including cutting the nut for perfect playability.

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The post How To Setup A Fender Telecaster Part 3 (Cleaning And Restringing) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 2 of How To Setup A Fender Telecaster.

In this segment, we continue to tackle the job of making this killer ‘52 Reissue roadworthy.

Teardown and Neck Adjustment

Tearing the instrument down to it’s bare essentials is a relatively simple task.

The real trick with setting up a Telecaster, especially these old school Teles, is dealing with screws and hardware that may be deteriorated. The slot screws that hold everything together on a vintage style instrument can be particularly troublesome because of the lack of tool grip.

Pleeeease be careful.

It’s VERY easy to slip and wind up with a big headache. Watching a flathead screwdriver skate across a premium instrument’s finish is no fun.

For a complete list of recommended tools, check out our Guitar Setup Tools Guide page.

Whether you have an original vintage instrument (lucky you) or one of the fine reissues, they setup just the same.

What’s covered in the video:

• Tools needed

• Removing the old strings

• Dealing with a loose ferrule

• Adjusting the neck

• Tips and tricks to make the job less painless

Video: Telecaster Setup Tutorial Part 2

Transcript

Tools

String winder, side cutters, strings. We are going to need the appropriate size flat blade screwdriver. A couple of them small. That’s the 3/16″ this one is 5/16″ I believe. That should suffice. For some of our larger screws and things like that I will also grab a larger one. The set screws at the bridge, they’re also slots. Everything on this thing is slots, pretty true to form really.

Anyway, on with the show.

Removing the Old Strings

I’ll be up and down and around the instrument whatnot, so we’re going to have at it first by dumping our strings.

I’ve never had a problem with taking off all the strings on an instrument. Unless there’s something, say in a floating system where you know the tension on the instrument is key. I always say batch your processes. Give this thing a haircut all at once. Here we push that all through.

By the way, if you’re ever doing any electronics on a Tele and you have to work with the bridge bridge pickup, you should take the strings off because trying to do that with the bridge pickup still in there is a nightmare!

I just noticed that we have a bushing or a ferule that came out as well, we will tackle that, getting that bad boy back in place. It’s not uncommon to see those things fall out due to shrinkage. Wood is a natural thing that will expand and contract with the amount of moisture in the air and that’s what can happen.

You notice that I wrap all the loose ends and then throw all that in the garbage, it goes all in one lump.

Okay, just quickly, I’m just going to put a tiny little drop of glue on this. Put it this way, if I ever wanted to get this thing out, I want to be able to do so with a minimum of damage or effort. I certainly don’t want to have any glue or anything kicking around the instrument.

There we go. So I just put a little bit of this is a crazy glue gel which will both fill the void. I put a little bit around there off to one side just to to stop it from from popping out again. I could use carpenter’s glue or Titebond, anything that’ll fill that void and and keep things organized. Anytime you have to use glues use your judgment that too much is obviously a problem, too little is is just as bad. You don’t want things squeezing out and creating a problem.

Removing the Neck

First thing I’m going to do, I’m going to get the neck off. We’ll have a peek at what’s going on there. I’m being very very careful with the screwdriver. I held it in the position where I could crack the screws. I was comfortable with that now it’s just starting to give here, so I’m going to do is carefully take the rest of this out by hand. If they’re a little tighter you can put something on your workspace and put the thing flat down just so you’re comfortable with that. The interesting part’s coming, trust me. So that’s gonna go back on the same way.

This is coming apart pretty cool, I’m not forcing anything. The body date says October 28th, 2008. It’s a reddish stamp, looks like an eight yeah 2008 number 18354. So there’s that.

The neck date November 24th, 2008 so these are within a couple days of each other. That’s pretty awesome. There’s a scan code on the back of that. That sticker there, that’s probably about three or four thou thick, but I would really prefer to not have that there, just call me crazy. If it wasn’t there I’d be happier about the contact between the the neck and the body simple as that.

Inspecting the Neck

The frets themselves look like they’re in really good shape. They’re just going to need a real quick, most basic polish and they should be fine. Now, as far as adjusting the neck goes, the end adjuster here is flush with the end of the neck which is good. That means it’s not over-compressed, it’s not sticking out causing a problem. There’s a little recess here from milling. Using a flat screwdriver is still the best way to go with these things, that’s what’s recommended.

Adjusting the Neck

Now in my mind, I’m referring back to the image I kept for the relief. I’m going to make a little judgment here as to how stiff the neck is. Just turning the adjuster back then to its original spot. I kept a note of that. I’m still seeing a little bit of relief in the neck. Now I’m giving that about, I wouldn’t say a quarter turn, something more than a quarter turn and not a half turn so interpret that whichever way you want.

Now I have a little bit of a back bow so I’m interpreting the pressure, I’m feeling it’s not necessarily as free to adjust as I would like it. I’ve had vintage instruments here which are just like butter they’re awesome. They were so well made, things are just not necessarily the same as they were. Anyway, the adjuster’s where I want it to be. Taking a straight edge here, I don’t see any rocking or anything, and still a little bit of relief on. This is just a regular old 12 inch ruler that I use around the necks.

The neck is almost dead straight which is not bad, but once once we get the strings on that may change. It’s gonna induce a little bit more deflection or relief as it were, so I’m going to give that just a tiny little crack to anticipate the pull of the strings. Does that make sense?

I’m anticipating compression a bit. I’m not going to put it under too much of a microscope because by the time we get the guitar back together and get it tuned up to pitch, it’s normal to have to take the neck off and make another small adjustment under the new situation.

So that’s done for moment, for all intents and purposes.

Reattaching the Neck

Here’s the trick, I’m going to get my neck plate situated. I’ve got one screw and I’m going to turn in there just to get the neck to hang on. Then I’ll put another screw in there.

I’m only going to put in two screws. If I have to take the neck off again, having only two screws will save me some time. And the two screws will certainly be enough to hold the neck rigid and give me some proper reads and stuff like that. I’ve never ever ever had an issue with just using the two screws, it’s a way of expediting things. I’ve never had to go back because I didn’t have all four screws in there, that kind of thing.

Anyway we’re going to take a short break and we’ll get back at it. We’re going to do a little bit of housekeeping here. It’s actually in pretty good shape so we’ll have at it in one sec.

And I’ll be back.

There are tons of variations on the theme that share the same early family traits.The recent and very affordable Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster, the very fine Japanese FujiGen TL52-75, excellent Custom Shop editions, cost effective MIM models and of course our current 90’s era patient.

Which leads to the next question, which one is better?

If you really love Teles, they’re all good. If you’re a purist, they’re still all good – they’re Teles!

The U.S. made ‘50’s Vintage Telecaster first hit the market in 1982 and featured the expected 4 numbers stamped into the bridge plate. Later in 1988 it changed to 5.

According to many Telecaster Reissue fans with a broad range of experience, Custom versions such as this Road Worn 50’s Telecaster is about as close as you can get to the real deal.

Of course there are winners in every rendition. I’ve handled some that were just stellar.

Once in a while you get one in your hands and it just has… that sound, that feel that is just right.

All that without the price gap that will set you back $30,000.00 investing in an original instrument. Think about it, those original beauties have approached the average person’s retirement age.

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Coming Up:

A little housekeeping and some preliminary adjustments that get us closer to Tele nirvana.

Telecaster Setup Video Series Contents

Part 1: Introduction and Assessment
Part 2: Teardown and Neck Adjustment
Part 3: Cleaning and Restringing
Part 4: Tweaks, Tips and Cutting the Nut
Part 5: Fine Tuning Action and Intonation
Part 6: Final Adjustments and Test Drive

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The post How To Setup A Fender Telecaster Part 2 (Teardown and Neck Adjustment) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 1 of How To Setup Fender Telecaster

Welcome to GuitarNiche’s Six Part Authentic Guitar Setup Video Series: How To Setup A Classic Fender Telecaster.

Introduction and Assessment

Ever have Tele troubles? Or even just guitar troubles?…

No guitar is immune to climate changes, accidental falls, misuse and neglect. Even pro level instruments benefit from a good setup before they live in the hands of their owners.

This is why the Guitar Setup Video Series exists.

That, and to share some of the nuggets and interesting history I’ve picked up over many years of working with guitars.

What’s covered in the video:

• Assessment

• Things to watch out for with Telecaster setups

• A little background on how the Telecaster was inspired

Video: Tele Setup Tutorial Part 1

Transcript:

Introduction and Assessment

Hey everybody, Steve from GuitarNiche here. We have a fine example of a ’52 Reissue US-made Tele here that we’re going to do a tip-to-toe setup on.

As far as I know it has never had any work done to it since the owner first purchased it and, first order of business will be assessment – looking at what if any problems exist and what we’re up against as as far as just getting it tip-top.

That’s the order of the day and I’ll be back momentarily. See you in a sec!

We’re going to have a little look-see at how this puppy sounds with a little bit of grind on it. I have the amp set up kind of ah pretty moderate, pretty spanky.

The guitar’s on the back pickup there. The action is kind of stiff.

My first impression is this: it doesn’t quite feel right across the fretboard – action is a little bit high which can be typical with seven and a quarter-inch radius fretboards from the early Teles and early Fender products etc.

The other thing, just as an aside here, is this has the old-school wiring in it where it’s all bass as you go forward on the switch so you can comp bass lines and stuff like that. It did have a purpose but that’s a story for another time.

As far as the assessment goes here, again I said that the strings are a bit high, particularly on the treble side. I’m gonna have a quick look at the relief on the neck – which needs some improvement.

I can tell just by looking at the saddles, they’re just all over the place down here okay. They’re slightly intonated for a string length but the action across the radius at this point is just… not there – it’s kaki so it’s just destroying the feel so it needs some tweakies and stuff like that.

Checking neck relief

This particular reissue, US made and all that, has slots crews around the the pickguard. Five screw pickguard slot screws – you’ve got to be careful when you’re working with slot screws around the instrument because, you know, one little slip with the screwdriver and… they’re really problematic. So just be careful, exercise some extra attention to your tools if you’re gonna do this okay – slot screws are just nasty.

Anyway, we’ll be able to deal with that. Other than that, the neck angle and everything else seems to be pretty cool. It’s a fairly new instrument so I’m not too worried about wear and tear items. The controls are pretty clean, the jack is not scratchy or anything although I will give it an inspection.

One final thing I’ll have a look at before we bust out the tools, first off this nut is out to lunch – that needs to be recut in the worst way. String installation is okay, there’s a lot of extra string around these posts here which can potentially cause tuning problems – I’ll discuss that as we dive into it

The pickup height is moderate, it could be better and of course, part of this whole process is to go around and “batten down the hatches” and get things in good order

Anyway, that’s my assessment of it. We’re going to have to take the neck off – while we have the neck off we should be able to see some marks where it’s been branded – as far as a date stuff like that.

We’re going to tweak the neck out, we’re going to recut the nut, we’re going to reset the intonation and the saddle height down here, and try to get everything in balance. Of course we will deal with the pickups themselves, that’ll be one of the last jobs.

One thing I want to mention though in terms of this style of instrument, they’re really bare-bones, utility sort of things to work on. They’re actually quite quite a joy to work on because they were designed to be a workingman’s instrument that was affordable – you get replacement parts easily. Let’s say the neck broke, you could put on another neck. But it had to be dependable.

The original intent was to build an instrument that was robust, all things considered, slot screws included. It’s actually pretty cool, they’re a lot of fun to work on and of course play and all that good stuff.

Anyway, I’m going to just take a break for two seconds here and we’ll bust out the tools and have at it. First order is… the teardown. I’ll be right back and we’ll get at it.

Okay, thanks.

Telecaster History

I’ve had the very good fortune of working on a good number of these ’52 Reissues and they never fail to wind up as real charmers. Bullet proof workhorses you can count gig after gig, night after night.

After the launch of the Esquire in 1950 and it’s siblings, Clarence Leo Fender finally had a “Spanish” guitar in form and name that set the bar very high for future iterations. It had also caught the attention of Gretsch, Gibson and others.

With it’s entrance into the market in the summer of 1951, this original and iconic instrument maintained it’s Bakelite pickguard, serviceable bolt-on neck and signature tone cut wiring through 1952.

In this first segment of our six part series, I do an assessment of a mint Fender ’52 Reissue Telecaster and point out some of the intricacies involved in setting up one of these fine instruments.

For a complete detailed guide to eliminating your own guitar problems and maximizing it’s playability, check out our page: How To Set Up A Guitar.

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The post How To Setup A Fender Telecaster Part 1 (Introduction And Assessment) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Part 2: How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul

The second segment of our nine part series on how to setup a Gibson Les Paul. Time for teardown – removing the old strings, getting the hardware sorted out and batching processes!. You wanna get it done? let’s get started:

Video: Les Paul Setup Tutorial Part 2

Transcript:

Removing the Hardware

The first thing we’re going to do is get our truss rod cover off. We’re also going to take off our pick guard, put that aside. Get yourself a new tray, good deal, anything that will hold it, a bowl or whatever, it’s all good.

All right – batch your processes. Do one thing and then…because you got six strings on the guitar so you’re probably going to do that six times. So if you’re going to unwind the strings, unwind one unwind the next and unwind all the strings, so that’s done.

Removing Old Strings

Get rid of the strings all in one shot. Now back here I’m going to not worry much about this coming off because I’m going to reset those studs, okay? If you want to keep your studs in place, you don’t want them to move around, you can use different methods.

You can put an elastic band around and keep them from chattering, just carefully take the tail piece off. Just put an elastic band on there and it’ll keep things pretty organized for you. The old strings go in the garbage.

Same thing with our bridge, you want to put an elastic band around there. If you have it set and you’re just doing some housekeeping that’s awesome. Let me get rid of these strings, these are all coming off.

Cutting off strings in a bunch

All right, love doing this, one two, one two and in the garbage it goes. All right, I’m going to raise these pickups a few turns.

I will reset them later, so I’m not worried about – that’s got some junk in it. I’m not too worried about where the pickups are sitting at the moment because I going to reset them.

Setup Tools:

That’s a little awl, it’s just an old jeweler’s screwdriver that I filed a real sharp point on to get into some stuff. It’s a handy tool to have around, but these screws are kind of messed up. Okay, so I’m going to use a finer tipped blade screwdriver that’s got some good bite to it, see if I can get that. Yup, that’s fine.

Dealing with Damaged Screws!

These screws are fairly, well, they’re kind of pooched. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to take that pickup out and I just happen to have some screws that I can replace those with, because these are really quite damaged.

And this is not part of our setup procedure, but you know what it is, that’s what happens when you get into instruments that come in and get these surprises.

Nice to see it’s nice and clean in there, there’s no monkey business going on. Another thing you can do is if you want to make an adjustment, you’re just doing it the hard way, but you can push that down and try to turn that with your finger. It’s a bit of a sketchy thing.

Next, I’m going to go hunt down a couple of screws to replace these and then put it back in place and nail it back down again and then we’ll carry on. Next…

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Recommended Guitar Tools:

Basic Guitar Tool Kit

26 Pc Guitar Repairing Tool Kit

Check Availability!

Better Guitar Tool Kit

Ernie Ball Guitar Tool Kit

Check Availability!

Best Guitar Tools Kit

27 Pc Guitar Tool Set

Check Availability!

The post How To Setup A Gibson Les Paul Part 2 (Teardown) first appeared on GuitarNiche.