Do I Have A Good Guitar Setup?

In a pro guitar setup the guitar feels great and play is consistent all the way up the neck effortlessly. The strings feel just the right height from the fret board. There are no dead notes. It sounds great. It’s almost impossible to get a good guitar setup when you buy off the rack in a music store. WHY?  Two reasons. Simply because they don’t know who is going to buy it and guitar setup requirements are different for every player, so they do nothing.  OK, I get it and fully understand why.  However local stores usually don’t have a good setup tech on staff the very day you walk in. Be armed with some requests. Know what you want!  Take some ownership of knowing what you need to play well. Then pursue it vigorously.

Do I have a good  guitar setup?

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. A good Custom guitar shop is where to go if you need a good setup. It’s not really a players responsibility to know how to do a setup, however he needs to know himself and his playing well enough to be able to describe the feel of what he needs to optimize playing. 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.

Know what you want

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 caught. Find your setup. Know what you need. Relay it properly. Have it done. Begin playing much better.

A Guitar Setup-Neck

Your neck setup 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.

How We Set Up a Guitar at Haywire Custom Guitars

The truss rod is the first item we look at. If it’s bowed or humped it gets straightened. Next is the string margins all the way from the head stock area to the last fret. Are margins correct on both “E” strings. Do you have the same amount of space from the strings to the edge of the fret board? If not we correct it. Is the nut cut properly? Are the strings too high at the first fret? If so, it makes for action too high and hard playing. We’ll re-cut the nut. Are the string slots in the nut cut too low allowing the strings to “buzz” at the first fret when forming open chords? We’ll fix that too.

After Checking the Neck Alignment on Your Guitar…

The next step is to add your favorite strings and set the action as low as possible. Why, because it can always go up without any buzz if it plays great “low”. If low action cannot be achieved then we’ll level the frets. That will get it super low.

In order of Importance…

However once frets get leveled they must be crowned and then most importantly, polished. They need to be smooth for perfect glass-like string bending. At this point we can set the string heights and action. Why? Simply because in a great guitar setup, all strings must be the same distance from the top of each fret underneath and the action must be “custom fit” to the player. Next, the guitar is tuned and the intonation is checked and adjusted. Only after all of these operations have been performed in the exact and correct order can we now attempt a trial play and test for comfort, tone, overall in-tune and no buzz playing.

Your setup should, “Create a Mood”

We encourage you to write us and let us know what you think about your guitar setup and how we can help make it better. Guitars should be setup, intoned perfectly so any note or chord is in tune anywhere on the neck at a bare minimum.  In a great guitar-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!

do you think about your guitar setup?

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?