"Create a Mood" With A Good Guitar Setup!

 Q: How Do I Know I Have A Good Guitar Setup?

 A: There should be no need to alter your playing technique as you move around on your guitar. 

A pro guitar neck set-up feels great and is consistent all the way up the neck and promotes effortless playing. It's almost impossible to get a good set-up when you buy off the rack in a music store. WHY? Simply because they don't know who is going to buy it and setup requirements are different for every player, so they do nothing. OK, I get it and fully understand why they do that. However they usually don't have a good setup tech on staff the very day you walk in. Know what you want! Take some ownership of knowing what you need to play well.
Then pursue it vigorously.

  A **Custom** guitar set up is what you want and is routinely done in The Haywire Custom Shop to give players maximum breadth and depth of hand freedom to play how they want to play when playing at their best.

The Custom guitar shop is where to go. It's not really a players responsibility to know how to do a setup, be he needs to know himself and his playing well enough to be able to describe the feel and know when he feels it. Much like music itself. Your setup should, "Create a Mood" for you.  We take pride, time and care in our set up work so the player is very pleased and surprised with the feel, action and performance of our very fine instrument setups-before he leaves the shop.
No waiting, we do it right away and hand it back over to the player for approval before he or she leaves. Then we guarantee it.  Sometimes finding your setup requires time, testing and patience especially if you are a new player. You know something is wrong, but can't verbalize it in an discerning manner. In addition to callouses, good setups are a necessary roadblock to get familiar with and loving playing a guitar.  Great guitar feel needs to be chased down until it's caught. Find your setup. Know what you need. Relay it properly. Have it done. Begin playing much better.

We encourage you to write us and let us know what you think about setups. Guitars are set up, intoned perfectly so any note or chord is in tune anywhere on the neck at a bare minimum.  In a great one-the FRETS will also feel smooth, silky and you'll feel the emanation of great tone because they have been leveled, re-crowned and polished. The fret now becomes a great base for the notes. The truss rod and neck angle are in synergy for that particular guitar because each guitar requires it's own custom setup as they are all different, just like people. Guitars need us to pay specific attention to their idiosyncrasies as instruments and don't want us to judge them by just how they look but how they CAN play if you help find their, "Sweet-spots"..... Find your Guitars potential. Find the sweet-spot, or let a good tech do it. Then play great!

 Install a new set of your favorite strings for your feel, before judging any newly setup guitar. In the shop, guitars have been played and thoroughly tested at the Haywire Custom Shop, South Carolina. When properly set up an instrument there is no need to alter your technique as you move around on your guitar.  Is your action the same on the 12fth fret as on the 1st fret?

Your neck set up must feel comfortable and consistent all the way up the neck for you to get comfortable with your best playing. You absolutely need to be pleased, surprised and very comfortable with the feel, action and performance of your instrument setup.  Are you thrilled with it?  You should be.  Find out what you're missing and go get a great setup for your guitar to match your style,playing comfort and level of expertise.  Talk to your tech today!                  https://www.haywirecustomguitars.com/buy-it-now/
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Sometimes Sending A Guitar Back For A Small "Tweak" Is Not Always Practical

A Small Truss Rod Tweak Gives Instant Results

 Many times when I ship a guitar from the humid deep South to a dry climate the neck sometimes will  "hump" up a bit.  This will cause what can be described as a "string buzz". The best way to handle it is with a small truss rod adjustment at the head stock.  Sometimes sending a guitar back for a small "tweak" is not always practical so here is a short guide to a small truss rod tweak that will give immediate results to a "string buzz" issue. The good news-it only takes a few minutes.


Rick, I'm having one fairly big problem with my guitar. I love the way you set the action so low and I don't want to change that, but the two lower strings, E and A, are fret buzzing ferociously, especially down near the head stock. What's the best way to keep the action as low as you set it and still lose the buzz? Filing the frets? Something else?

Please advise. Jim

Hi Jim!  Let me see if I can help you with some easy adjustments. It sounds like a hump in the neck is the problem.

You won't have to loosen the strings as the adjustment to be made is intended to loosen the truss rod. Guitar strings are only loosened for tightening adjustments to the truss rod. As follows......

Sit down with the guitar between your legs looking directly into the truss rod hole at the head stock. Take an Allen wrench and place through the adjustment hole into the truss rod at the head stock and make sure it's a snug fit. I usually apply a small bit of oil to the end so as to insert and remove it easier.

Now, imagine a clock. Imagine that the Allen adjuster wrench is the large hand and you want to move it back (counter-clockwise) just 10 minutes (a ten minute interval).

After that adjustment- lay the guitar flat on a counter or floor and gently push down in the middle of the neck to loosen the rod inside the truss rod cavity.

Almost as if you're giving gentle compressions to a heart attack victim.

This should work to loosen any "binding" inside the truss rod cavity and allow the upper strings to get over and humped area caused by the differences in humidity. Tune the strings to pitch. Repeat steps as necessary.

Jim-If you need to do it again-remember to go in 10 minute intervals only to avoid over-correction. If you don't feel comfortable then bring it to someone that you know has some experience in adjusting a truss rod and most likely they can handle it.

This should work nicely!

 Rick, I took the guitar to a friend of mine this afternoon and he adjusted the neck and lowered the neck pickup just a tad, and I've got to say, this is my new go-to guitar!  I love the looks, sound, and playability!  You do awesome work!!!

Thank you!

Jim

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Why Is My Acoustic Guitar So Hard to Play? I Just Bought It!

I Just Bought This Acoustic  Guitar and It's Un-Playable!

 
The problem with a NEW guitar especially an acoustic is that it's NEW! A new acoustic leaves the factory with very high action and it is not meant to be played until it's set up correctly. It's stiff, tight, hard to play and makes your fingers hurt. The store is supposed to tell you-but sometimes they don't know because no one told THEM. 


The guitar factories typically put out guitars day after day and they never know who it's going to end up with them. They'll say, "Well, we don't set them with low action because we don't know if possibly a slide player, who for the most part like higher action, may purchase it".  Sure we get that. However you really need to relay that kind of info to the stores and players and perhaps give them an option to have a similar model side by side with it to be set up for lower action so customers have a choice-high or low action. We get calls like this all the time from customers indicating-"Hey, it's NEW". "Why is it so hard to play?"


So....what does an acoustic player do?  The best way to deal with it is to contact an independent custom guitar shop to have the action set exactly, where they need it to be.  In our Custom Shop in South Carolina we typically have the customer drop it off or ship it with instructions on how he wants it to play, we'll work on it. When he or she comes back to pick it up-we'll ask them to test it out. If it's fine-that's great! If it needs more work to make it comfortable for them then we'll tweak anything that needs to be done to get it where they want it to be while they're right there to test it so they won't have to come back again with the same problem.


While a NEW acoustic can look beautiful on the wall in the store it may need lots of work to get it where the players needs it to be. An acoustic guitar should play with ease and sound great.  The player shouldn't need to think about the difficulty of playing but rather about entertaining and getting their musical point across and creating the mood for the gig. There is hope. You don't have to sell your guitar or return it  but you need to have it set up properly for YOUR style of playing to be happy. We'll do it for you, just bring it in.  Typically a day turnaround time will get you going and playing comfortably and your fingers will thank you.  

Haywire Custom Shop

843-347-5742 

  

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What are guitar pickups?

What are guitar pickups? 

 Guitar pickups are simply microphones (transducers for you,"educated players") that "pick up" or "sense" the vibrations of the strings of your electric guitar.  They convert the vibrations into sound that can be boosted with an amplifier. The "quality" of the sound produced depends on how well they are made.

The reason we have more than one guitar "Pickup Manufacturer" is because each one claims to be able to do it better. Some do and some don't.

What are guitar pickups made of?  The original guitar pickup, most likely German made, was--and still is, made of magnetic steel poles on the inside all wound with thin copper wire on the outside.

  

What am I looking for as a guitar player? Simply this--a pickup with a good clean signal is all you need.

Bottom line is that the pickup is the first in line for producing what comes out of your amp speaker. However--there is no substitute for being a great guitar player.

Ordering From Haywire Custom Guitars

If you would like to order this or any other custom guitar, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your guitar needs. 

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So....you need a Custom Guitar? The question then becomes-How Custom do you need it?

So....you need a Custom Guitar?   The question then becomes-How Custom do you need it?

One of my favorite guitar players and all around great guy, Greg Dalton, needed a very custom guitar
so we worked on it together to build in everything he'd need onstage at "Legends in Concert". This was the result:

Our Haywire Custom Double Cutaway Modification Guitar Specs:
Classic Body shape--extra light (3 lb. body) added plus hole re-routs sand and prep add gloss finish, add Duncan Humbucker pickups, all chrome hardware, very custom 6 way wiring, add a Floyd Rose Trem, applied satin lacquer to the neck and final sanded in 3000 grit pads after finish applied. We then installed the Haywire Custom Shop designed Warmoth Pro: 25-1/2” scale neck. It was a ‘59 round back  profile plus large 6100 Stainless Steel frets with an R-5 locking nut and string bar for added sustain plus pro action setup.

We moved the front jack to the side and added a Neutrik locking style input for cable security. Then we had space on the top to place the football style custom built black cover with coil tap switch installed for easy access to tap the coils on both pickups.  Added also was a new black trem plate to match pick guard.

A coil tap switch activates and de-activates the “outside adjustable poles” on the Humbuckers. The normal 5 way lever switch was not used but instead we chose a Gibson style  pickup selector switch with a 3 way toggle for quiet “no noise” contact when selecting pickups during a performance. The volume and tone controls are moved and located well out of the way with a custom cut pick guard for better chord and hand access. Together the final assembly and setup on this very custom guitar includes low action, great tone, light weight, easier access to controls, Haywire Treble Bleed circuit, recessed heel option for all access to back of the neck, a great tremolo, locking jack for reliability, stainless frets for years of wear and a happy guitar player. How Custom is that?

Ordering From Haywire Custom Guitars

If you would like to order this or any other custom guitar, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your guitar needs. 

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