Guitar Setups

• Guitars can require seasonal truss rod adjustments. High and low temps and humidity fluctuations affect the way a guitar plays.
• Don’t leave guitars in extreme heat or cold. If it’s uncomfortable for you, it’s uncomfortable for your guitar. Hot car trunks, warm attics, etc. This will cause many problems with guitar setups. You’ll have split tops, cracked and checked finishes, glue break down, setup issues and more. Avoid extreme temperatures and extreme humidity.
• When storing guitars for long periods of time loosen all strings. String pull will bow the neck in dry conditions.
• Changing string gauges often changes your guitar setups. For example; If you go from a heavier gauge string to a lighter one this will add more neck relief (bow), requiring a truss rod adjustment and a tremolo spring adjustment.
• Maintain your setup, neck tension and settings. Be sure and change one string at a time. The truss rod tension is the opposite of the string’s tension, changing one string at a time keeps even pressure.
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Humidity and Care

Guitars require 44% to 55% relative humidity and a temperature of 69 to 79 degrees F. Get a hygrometer and keep it in the same room as your guitars. For ALL guitars: extreme temperatures and extreme humidity . Using and following changes in a humidifier in the winter will help prevent problems with guitar setups, bridge lifting, neck humps, cracking, split tops and other issues due to dryness. Forced-air furnaces can dry your air. Maintain humidity close to 44-55% when you turn on the heat or A/C .

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.

 At The Haywire Custom Shop You’ll Get:
Guitar Repairs, Guitar Modifications, Guitar necks
Improvements for better playing guitars and best of all diagnosis of all guitar problems in addition to:

Services not just limited to guitar setups….

Guitar Neck Shaving

One Day Urgent Guitar Services
8-Point Tune-Up
Recessed Heel Crest option
Treble Bleed Circuit
Guitar Pickup Replacement

Restore and Re-build Guitars

Guitar Neck Refretting
Replacement Guitar Necks and Back up Guitars
Guitar Neck Repair
A Faster Guitar Neck

Guitar Headstock Repair
Repair A Broken Guitar Neck

Guitar, Instrument Repairs, Maintenance and Modifications.

We service ALL electric and all acoustic guitars featuring: PRS, Ibanez, Jackson, Gretsch, Squier, In addition: Gibson, Taylor, Fender, Martin Guitar Repair, Guild, Seagull ,Yamaha, Ovation, Washburn, G&L, Rickenbacker, ESP, Schecter, Ovation, Epiphone, Guild, American Achtop, Foster Guitars, Tacoma, Gretsch, Jackson/Charvel, Takamine, Benedetto, Heritage, Larravee, Furch and more. Worldwide Guitar repair, Instrument Repairs, Maintenance and Modifications. Send us your broken and needy instruments for quick reliable repairs.

Regardless of the value of your guitar it needs a professional quality setup. It will then play properly for you. A proper setup will enable you to get the most from your instrument. It will be easier to play. The tuning is much more accurate. You can benefit from Haywire Custom Guitar Luthier services.

The cost of your guitar setup is not an issue with Haywire Custom Guitars Luthier services. Ask what the price would be for new strings, tuning, intonation action and truss rod setting. Have every detail checked and adjusted. Every guitar needs inspection and adjustment. Every new guitar or bass should be checked. We have a guitar tech and Luthier available. Guitar manufacturers forget to ship guitars with a reasonable setup.  They often are slack. We’ll do it for you!