Many guitar players understand the importance of having a new guitar professionally and properly set up. Yesterday, a customer brought in a brand-new, off Amazon, Leo Jaymz Single Cut Deluxe guitar for a setup, needing it for a gig this weekend.
With sales tax, this is roughly a $200 guitar, and a nice-looking axe at that! Did it NEED a setup? Wouldn’t it have been perfectly playable right out of the box?
Follow along with me as I put the guitar on my bench and do the setup..
I start off with tuning the guitar to the player’s preference – a half-step down in this case. Next, I checked the hardware – tuner nuts, bottom strap button; switch all needed tightening.
Next, the output jack was a bit loose, so I unscrewed the jack plate to prevent wire twisting and tightened the jack, then reinstalled.
Below is a copy of our online Shop Worksheet, click image to see full-size –
Checking electrical components came next and everything was as it should. Unfortunately, it had the “modern” wiring configuration meaning that controls were interdependent when playing both pickups.
When you have dual controls and two pickups, I prefer independent wiring where I can blend the pickups as I want (more or less volume for bridge pickup than neck, etc.) The customer hadn’t requested this mod however, so I moved on.
There wasn’t any neck relief to measure! The factory had over-tightened the truss rod and the neck had a backbow. Had the customer waited half a year or so before getting a setup, the neck may have become “set” in the backbow position and require a special jig and effort to straighten.
A backbow is not only bad for your guitar’s neck, it almost guarantees lots of buzzing, especially in the middle area of the fretboard.
Fortunately, loosening the rod and “helping” it with a bit of tension, allowed me to set relief to specs.
The nut was next (that’s right – we do not use the T.R.A.I.N. system which we have previously and thoroughly debunked!). The low-E nut slot was causing buzzing when that string was played open. The high treble slots caused sharp intonation in the “cowboy frets”. Thankfully, these were correctable.
Low-E was too low, A & D were ok and G, B & high-e were way high. This is results from a vertical mill machine cutting an unlevel nut shelf likely due to a jig that was not properly leveled at the factory.
The customer didn’t want to spend for a new nut, so I filled and filed the low-E and filed the treble slots down to spec.
The horizontal and vertical angles of the neck were ok, but saddle heights (i.e.: “Action”) were too high, so I lowered the saddles and got the action down to spec.
Pickup poles on the bass side were too high, nearly touching the strings when fretted at the highest fret. This would likely have caused less than optimal tone and could even cause distortion. Adjusting the pickup heights corrected this problem.
Don’t Fret? Deal Killer!
Unfortunately, the guitar had many high frets, especially from the tenth fret and up. These high frets killed notes and caused terrible buzzing. I was able to re-seat about half of the frets. But that still left many that needed to be leveled and re-crowned.
If only a few needed leveling, we’d just handle it as part of our Complete Setup process, but when there are this many un-seatable high frets, a level & crown is the only option. Unfortunately, it would double the cost of our work which when added to what the customer paid for the guitar, would come to double his purchase price!
Note: This is a problem I’m seeing more of lately, especially with boutique brands. I’m guessing the problem lies with one factory that makes guitars for several brands.
The customer declined the extra work so hopefully, he’ll stay down in the “cowboy” area and avoid the buzzing high frets.
I finished by cleaning and conditioning the fretboard, polishing the frets with Dremel & buffing wheel, polished the guitar, strung the guitar with new strings which I gave our four-cycle stretching routine for tuning stability.
Finally, I set the intonation so the guitar would play the proper notes when fretted and when chords were played. The intonation was wildly out from the factory, but the bridge position was proper and the saddles had sufficient range for me to set the intonation.
How’s YOUR Guitar???
Bring your guitar in and we’ll check it out while you wait. If it needs anything, we’ll show you what it needs and why, and let you know what the cost should be if you decide to have work done.
Guitar Center or Sam Ash Guitar???
If you bought a guitar from Guitar Center within the past 45 days or Sam Ash in April or May of 2024, we’ll handle any needed truss rod adjustments for FREE – and while you wait!
Why? Well, Sam Ash is gone and there’s no one left to support you. And Guitar Center? While they have a great selection of guitars, they’re not known for great tech service, so we’ll step up to the plate!
An improper truss rod setting can not only negatively affect your playing it can ruin your guitar’s neck, so why not take advantage of this offer today?
Just bring your guitar and your receipt and we’ll take care of you. We’ll also let you know if the guitar needs any additional work but you’re under no obligation to have us do the work.
