Rick Mariner working on a guitar issue. Update: fixed!
I love gig-ready guitars, and there’s nothing like a new electric
guitar with a proper set up! I like the tone, the way it feels in my
hands, and the way it can sound “right” for any kind of music. Whether
it’s jazz, blues, country, hard rock, R & B leads, guitar chords, or
just working on songs, all it takes is a flip of a switch, some prep, a
couple twists of the knobs, neck alignment and
I’m right where I need to be.
After
working
on a lot of guitars over the years, I discovered that taking that
beautiful new Strat or Tele guitar out of the box was always just the
first step in finding the gig-ready guitars that fit in my hands the way
that I imagined they would when they first caught my eye. After a close
inspection my new guitar wouldn’t be a gig-ready guitar until I did all
of the little subtle tweaks, repairs and modifications that would make
it play just the way it should for me out on the gig. Dress the frets,
get the intonation just right, tweak the pick-ups, customize the
configuration a bit, and before you know it, I’d be playing a guitar
that felt like it was made to be in my hands. Playing music is always
fun, but when I’m on the gig with a guitar that feels just right… it’s
just pure guitar joy.
“
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to buy gig-ready guitars that
felt gig ready right out of the box?” As wonderful as that idea may
seem, in reality it’s almost impossible to pick up a guitar in a music
store “off the rack” and have it play right. It just doesn’t happen.
There are many things that need to be done to “prep” the guitar before
it’s ready to play. At
Haywire Custom Shop
we recommend and perform all of the following in prep for a guitar
purchase before it leaves the bench at the workshop. For our purposes
here I will focus only on electric instruments for now. First, let me
pose a question to the beginning through the advanced guitarist.
What Is Guitar Intonation and why is it important? Do you know?
Intonation is the accuracy in which an electric guitar or bass can
produce a fretted note and the most important issue with any instrument.
Setting the intonation on a guitar is the act of adjusting the
length of the strings (by moving the bridge saddles) to compensate for
the thickness of the string and the stretching of a string due to
pushing it down to the fret board to produce a note. To adjust the
intonation of your guitar or bass guitar, you move the bridge saddles
toward or away from the fret board until the 12th fret note and its
harmonic are equal in pitch to the same open-string note, which are
exactly one octave apart.
Accurate intonation is critical to pitch quality.
Pitch quality is essential to “in tune” playing. Poor pitch
quality=”out of tune” notes which in turn = poor musical presentation.
Wouldn’t you want to present your musical talents in the best way possible? Of course, you do.
Now, it is not necessary for a guitar player to know this at all. It
is essential however that the guitar possess this quality and maintain
as close to perfect intonation as possible. Buying on looks alone can be
very disappointing. If however, you like an instrument for the looks
but realize that you will need to have it worked on to get it playable
then that is a savvy notion. It’s best to speak to a guitar tech,
repair expert or guitar builder previous to any purchase. It’s akin to
asking a mechanic which car he would recommend-before you walk into the
show room. In this way you can benefit from his first hand knowledge and
experience and not have to go it alone. After all he sees the ones that
breakdown more often than you or the car salesmen do.
Below, are outlined the essential adjustments to be performed prior
to purchasing and playing gig-ready guitars under optimal
circumstances.
1. 4-axis Alignment of the guitar neck.
The
guitar neck is checked and adjusted to insure that it is true and
straight to insure proper alignment on all axis. This step insures
proper action and allows for more accurate and easier guitar tuning,
playing and set-up in the following steps.
2. Inspect and Lube the guitar tuning gears.
Each
tuning gear is adjusted so that there is no play in the mechanism. They
are then lubricated to insure smooth and even movement to make your
guitar tune accurately.
3. Potting the guitar pickups.
Dip the pickups in hot wax to reduce squeal and unwanted guitar feedback.
4. Prep the guitar body.
Upon
installing the guitar electronic components, great care is taken to
insure that all wires are properly routed, spaced, and grounded to
insure years of trouble free service with your guitar.
5. Level and polish the frets.
This insures that all of the guitar frets are level, eliminating any possibility of fret buzz due to unevenness.
6. Radius the guitar strings.
Most
guitar necks have a contour over the top of the neck called the
“radius”. Adjust the strings to make sure the height of each string
follows the contour of the guitar neck.
7. Adjusting the overall guitar string height and the action.
Once
the string contour and radius of the guitar strings is set, it’s time
to adjust the overall height or “action” or distance of the strings from
the top of the frets to the bottom of the guitar strings.
8. Set the guitar intonation
This
step should be done twice. The intonation is normally set two times
with a 24 hour period in between to allow the new guitar adjustments to
properly re-seat.
If these steps are performed before playing your new guitar then, you
won’t be disappointed. Your focus can then be on the music and not the
problems of the instrument. If it is “set up” properly a player will not
have to “get used to” it.
Everything on it will feel natural and fall right into place and the music can flow so you can lay back deep in the groove and just play………..
In summary, Guitar purchase “off the rack” can be a real
disappointment. A thoughtful purchase should include consideration in
buying a “custom” or “gig-ready guitars” electric guitar versus a
“pre-fab” instrument built on a production line. Custom guitars are
individually built for a specific customer and will have all of the
above necessary operations performed. All the guitarist needs to do
is-Play!
Correct guitar strings-Do you have them?[/caption]If you have an electric guitar, the industry standard is nickel wound and gauge 10-46 is most common for thickness. Electric guitar strings have a different composition than acoustic guitar strings to help the pickups function properly; specifically they have steel core.
Do you have the right guitar strings?[/caption]For an acoustic guitar, it requires steel strings. Lighter gauge for softer sound and ease of playing. If you want a deeper louder tone, choose heavier (larger) strings. Silk and steel are much easier on the fingers than the regular metal strings but not for use on electric guitars. Bronze strings on an acoustic guitar are standard.
Correct guitar strings-Do you have them?[/caption]Nylon guitar strings have a soft, mellow tone, are easy on the fingers and designed for classical guitar. Ball-end nylon strings, sometimes called "folk nylon," are a little heavier than regular nylon can stand vigorous strumming.
