Guitar setup 'vision'

You know that thing when someone starts to tell you about their ‘vision’?

Clears throat So I want to talk about my vision… 😉

Yeah, yeah, I know…

Bear with me though.

It's occurred to me that I've never really talked about why I made the Sketchy Setups guides or (more importantly) why you might want to read one.

A few years back I wanted to write a book. However, I’d been lucky enough to have read some great guitar maintenance and setup books and this had left me pretty intimidated by the reams of useful information these existing books contained. What could I bring to the party?

But then it occurred to me… Fantastic though these books were, the were also pretty big. They had to be. They were really broad because there are a lot of guitars, each with hugely varying hardware. All that I found intimidating as a writer could also be intimidating for someone starting out with their first setup.

💡My lightbulb moment: Write a book for just one type of guitar.

Then a player with a Strat can just find out how to set up their Strat. No need to skim though dozens of procedures, detailing different hardware on different guitars. Easy instructions for ONE type of guitar.

And that’s the vision: Simple, easy steps for one instrument. No filler.

I started making notes and outlining what I needed to include. I blocked out the steps and some ideas and began to sketch some very rough drawings to figure out what diagrams would be needed.

💡The second lightbulb: Why not just sketch these things?

I’d planned to include photographs and detailed vector graphics but, sketching them… Hmmm.

In fact, why not go the whole hog and hand-write and draw the entire book? I had a brief ‘this-is-crazy’ moment before deciding to just go for it.

And I’m so pleased I did. The result is a friendlier feeling book. If I'd typed it all and included photos and crisp computer graphics, it wouldn’t feel the same. I wanted something less intimidating and, thanks to two lucky lightbulbs, that’s what I got.

When I’m writing about Sketchy Setups, I often start with:

Imagine your best friend was a setup guru…

And wrote a book just for you.

That's it. That's the feeling I wanted.

Sketchy Setups

I followed that first book (the Stratocaster one) with three more guides to make a series.

#1. The Fender Stratocaster

#2. The Fender Telecaster

#3. The Gibson Les Paul, SG, 335, etc.

#4. The Fender Precision and Jazz Bass

People seem to like them and I’m pretty proud of them.

Since they were released, I kept getting requests for more Sketchy Setups, covering different instruments. Three topics in particular kept coming up over and over.

So, I made more three more Sketchy Setups. (I call these Series 2).

#5. Fender Offset Guitars

#6. Locking Tremolo Guitars

#7. Acoustic Guitars

These ones were tougher to get done. They cover more ground than the previous guides but I’ve tried to stay true to the whole ‘Sketchy Setups vision’ thing. It’s been necessary to include more information but they’re still focussed and filler-free.

These three new Sketchy Setups guides launch this Friday, 12th June.

To celebrate, I'll have a sale on ALL the guides. I'll be in touch soon with some info on pricing and a sneaky little discount code to say thank you for reading my emails.

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If you’re reading this from the future (after June 12th, 2020), you can just buy Sketchy Setups guitar setup guides without waiting. The ebooks might even have been upgraded so you can do that thing where they upload directly to your brain through a jack socket in your skull. The future must be a wondrous place.