We can’t really measure neck relief with a ruler. Feeler gauges are a possibility but I feel they’re not always ideal. Luckily, there’s a solution…
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On September 23rd 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter—a 326-million dollar space probe—was accidentally destroyed in the Martian atmosphere. What’s that got to do with guitars? Well, let me tell you…
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Just wrapping up the acoustic action series with a few final thoughts on split saddles, shims, and break-angles. This will see you set to adjust pretty most acoustic guitars.
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Lowering the action on an acoustic guitar is a little more fraught. It’s not easily reversible so it’s important to get things right. A little geometry will help.
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Given the Coronavirus situation, it’s not surprising that I’ve had a lot of questions about how to sanitise a guitar? Can it be done? What products are safe to use on guitar, etc.?
Check it out…
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Bone for tone, right? Usually, I’d agree. But not all bone is created equal. Check it out…
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I’ve talked a lot about good setup and about how to make a nut so it’s time to address the elephant in the room: Nut files. Long story, short: You need ‘em for a complete setup. So what nut files should you buy and where should you get them?
Check it out…
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You might have been tempted by a set of double-sided nut files being sold cheaply on eBay. Free postage from China and not much money for a set of gauged guitar nut files sounds great. But are they any good? Let’s review…
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In Part 1, we cut our nut roughly to fit and we began slotting it. Now we get to the delicate business — properly bringing those slots to the correct depth. After than, it’s an easy task to shape and polish it for a great final job.
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It’s often necessary to remove the pickguard to adjust a Tele’s neck pickup.
That’s fine when you can remove the pickguard. Instruments with 22-fret necks throw a challenge into the mix.
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What direction to wind a string onto a tuner is something that can be confusion to some players, especially those starting out. Doing it the wrong way can have consequences so check out how it's done.
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If you set your string action by ensuring the bottoms of each string are a consistent distance from the frets, doesn’t that mean the tops of the strings are now inconsistent because of the different string diameters? Is this a problem? Do you need to be concerned?
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