There are a number of steps to a guitar or bass setup. Does the order these are performed actually matter?
Yes. Yes, it does.
Here's why…
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You've got a guitar you don't play much and you reckon you might use it for a bit of bottleneck. Wondering if you need to do anything to set it up differently?
Well, you could just go at it and persevere through the clunks of slides of frets until you're Duane Allman. That's definitely valid. Most of us will find things a little easier if we make a couple of adjustments.
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Are you going to damage the guitar by trying your own setups? You've probably heard you can break the truss rod if you try to adjust it.
I read this actual quote: “Do not try and screw around with the truss rod yourself. You will most definitely snap your neck.”
So, should you risk it?
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Continuing our Setup FAQ: Should you setup your guitar yourself or is it better you pay someone to take care of it for you?
Well, there are pros and cons, fors and againsts, plusses and minuses.
Before making the decision, consider the following…
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Do I need to re-setup if I change string gauge? What about string brand?
The TL;DR on this is, almost certainly, yes.
Here's a few considerations to help you make the assessment though.
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You've got a shiny new guitar and you're wondering why on earth you'd want to get it setup. I mean, it's new. Isn't it already perfectly set up?
Well, there's a chance that it is perfect for you.
And there's a really good chance that a setup might just be worth considering. Check it out…
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If you hang around with guitarists or bassists, you’ll probably hear them talk about setups. “I got my guitar setup and it plays great.” “I think my bass needs a setup.” “I think I’ll do my own setup on this one.”
Setups, setups, setups. From the time you start playing and hanging out with other musicians, you’ll begin to *absorb* the ‘setup’ thing. It’ll become part of the world.
I get a lot of questions on setup so this is the first in a series of Setup FAQ.
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From time to time I’ll have conversations with players about intonation issues. Often, they’re worried about weird tuning inconsistencies that have crept in to their guitar or bass. Maybe, they’ll even have done the 12th-fret intonation check and found that it seemed ok but the problems persisted.
Here's why you should consider your frets…
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So here's the problem:
You’ve got your guitar plugged in. You’re not playing it and there’s a noise. A hum. It’s not terribly pleasant.
Thing is, you touch the strings and it’s gone.
The response: It's ok. It's not a problem. That’s all as it should be. Guitars pick up interference and that comes out the amp as a hum. When you touch the strings, it's supposed to get quieter.
Because, 'grounding'.
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Removing a neck to adjust the truss rod is a bit of a pain.
Some Telecasters, however have a channel cut between the neck pocket and the front pickup cavity. Because the neck pickup is often mounted direct to the body, removing the pickguard on those Teles is easy. And, if you're lucky, you'll have a little notched channel to get at the truss rod.
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I love the way that the three pickup Gibson Les Paul and SG looks. Crazily cool.
Their wiring, however, seems like an afterthought. That middle pickup is pretty much wasted with the standard wiring scheme.
So let's mod it for heaps more flexibility.
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In an electric guitar or bass, it's usually necessary to 'ground' the strings.
By this, I mean that all the strings should have a path to ground — a wire that connects them to a ground point inside the instrument. Usually that ground point will be the back of a pot or the sleeve of the output jack.
When it's properly grounded, you can touch the strings of your guitar and you'll usually hear the background hiss reduce. Yay.
There’s a common misconception that by touching the strings you are grounding the guitar.
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