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Written by Paul Race for Creek Don't RiseTM and School Of The RockTM |
This is a companion article to our articles What Kind of Guitar Should I Start On? and Evaluating and Buying Used Guitars. It describes - probably in too much detail - how to prep a "just-off-the-boat" or "used-but-neglected" guitar, banjo, or mandolin for service. This is a job that the guitar tech in better music stores used to do for every instrument they put out on the floor. Most folks call it "setting up." It involves diagnosing any issues, then compensating for them, usually by making adjustments, restringing, and retuning the instruments. Sometimes it takes a little more effort, like sanding down the bridge or nut.
Unfortunately, a flood of cheap Asian-produced instruments have inundated department and discount music stores that have no qualifications or interest in ensuring that the things can be played. This means that most guitars, banjos, and mandolins sold in North America this year have never been within a stone's throw of a technician, and most are just about guaranteed to dissuade you or your child from EVER learning the instrument.
Don't lose hope. The other side of the coin is that just about anything with strings and frets can be made at least somewhat playable with a few tools and a couple hours' work. That explains why sometimes you'll look at the reviews for, say, a $250 guitar, and half the reviews say that the instrument is a worthless piece of junk, and the other half say that the guitar has suprising playability and tone for the price. If you read the reviews more closely, you'll realize that the folks who want a $250 guitar to play and sound great right out of the box are always disappointed, and the folks who know how to adjust and restring the instrument are almost always proud of their new toy by the time they're done "prepping it" for their use.
Note about Banjos - Because banjos typically have a lot more adjustment points than wooden-bodied instruments, we have added two banjo-specific setup articles:
About that time, my sister Tess brought me home a Mariachi-style twelve-string from Mexico, and that became my main guitar for about ten years. I traded the Kay to a fellow for a Harmony Bass that was just as ugly, but which I used for years, after replacing the guitar tuners with real bass tuners.
In other words, everything I know about "setting up" guitars, banjos, and mandolins I learned first by experimenting on low-quality, low-cost "starter" instruments. I am not a luthier or even a guitar tech, really, but I've picked up enough over the years to be able to share what I've learned and hopefully save you or some family member some unnecessary frustration.
Most $50 (or so) undersized guitars sold in department stores are not worth the time it would take to make them playable. For some reason, 2011 saw a huge glut of so-called "quarter-sized," "half-sized and "three-quarter-sized" "guitars" on the shelves of WalMart, Toys-R-Us, Target, and other "big box" stores. If someone gives one of your kids one of these instruments, and you want to try to make it playable for him or her, go for it. Most of them are no worse than the Kay I learned on. But don't imagine that you'll turn a $50 guitar into an instrument they'll want to play forever. That said, if you want to practice your "setting up" skills on a guitar you don't mind destroying, and you can get said guitar really cheap at an after-Christmas sale or garage sale, go for it.
Never take on a project you're not quite equipped to do on an instrument you can't afford to replace. Removing, sanding, and replacing the bridge on my $15 Kay was one thing - doing the same on a $1500 Martin is something else.
We are not responsible if you destroy your instrument or hurt yourself - No matter how carefully we write instructions like these, we can't take into account every variable, including shoddy construction, defective materials, prior abuse, or what folks in the computer industry call "user error." Here are a few tips:
This is one reason we recommend starting out on inexpensive instruments - eventually you get a "feel" for things and you can tell, say, if something is taking a lot more pressure than it "should," or something is taking a lot more time than it should to "settle in."
Can you hurt yourself working on a a musical instrument? In addition to obvious risks like poking yourself in the eye with a guitar string, or puncturing your hand when screwdriver that slips off a screw you're unscrewing, there are less obvious dangers. Like the time a "friend" decided to tune my twelve-string a couple steps too high, and the bridge - under hundreds of pounds of extra stress - exploded away from the face of the guitar and barely missed his face as it arced around.
Setting up a fretted instrument is no more dangerous than the average shop project. But you need to exercise reasonable caution. And don't blame us if you do something stupid and wind up with a b-string in your liver or something.
The lighter you go, the easier the strings are to play, but the less tone they have. Experienced Bluegrass musicians with professional instruments often choose medium strings, or even heavy, but that's the exception, not the rule.
Beginning players are often put off when an instrument is ugly. And if you're fixing up one of your own instruments, you may decide to improve the look somehow. But, except for covering Hanna Montanna's face with black spray paint, cosmetic upgrades are outside the scope of this article. Most problems that keep fretted instruments from being musical have to do with tone and playability.
Tone may be poor for many reasons, including inferior materials and bracing. But 95% of the time the best way to improve the tone on any instrument is to put new strings on it. So assume the instrument needs new strings, and don't bother starting on it unless you have a plan for replacing the strings.
Playability - On a fretted instrument like guitar, banjo, and mandolin, the worst playability problems usually relate to the strings and fingerboard.
If the neck is bowed, locate the adjustment screw access. On most guitars, you can get to the end of the adjustment screw by unscrewing a triangular piece of plastic on the head. On some guitars, you can see the end of the adjustment screw at the bottom of the fretboard, just over the sound hole. If you can't find an adjustment screw period, the instrument may not have one, and the only "remedy" for a bowed neck may be to install lighter strings than you planned, which may reduce pressure on the neck enough for it to pull back a little.
Find a nut driver or hex screwdriver that fits the end of the adjustment screw. They're seldom metric, if that helps, and some instruments even come with them.
Loosen all the strings so they're a few steps flat. Loosen the middle strings enough to get the nut or hex drive into the end of the adjustment screw and make at least a partial turn.
Holding your face well away from the instrument, in case a string snaps, tighten the adjustment screw a bit, then sight down the neck and see if you're having any effect. Keep going until the neck seems fairly straight.
Retune the strings. If you have time, let the instrument sit a bit so the neck can decide whether it's happy where it is - sometimes the string pressure will pull it back into a bow even after you've tightened the adjustment screw.
The last few times I've set up used, but decent guitars, I've gone through this step several times. I leave the old strings on for this step, since all this tuning and detuning is hard on the strings, and I would rather beat up the old ones than prematurely age the new ones.
When you're satisfied that the neck is as straight as you are likely to get it, tune the strings back up and check out the string height (below).
If your instrument has a resonator (a round wooden shell that goes on the back of the body), it is usually held on by a few obvious screws. Unscrew those screws, put them in a safe place, and put the resonator aside. In fact, you're probably better off leaving the resonator off until you're done working on the instrument. Now you have access to the nuts that you tighten to adjust the drum head.
You may have got a small nut driver with your instrument. Or you may have to find one in your tool case. Again, many banjo head tuning nuts are the same size as interchangeable screwdriver bits, so you may be able to use a magnetic screwdriver or some such for this.
Loosen the strings again (if you haven't already). Then turn the nut closest to the neck a tiny bit to see if you feel any resistance. If you don't feel any resistance, the head may never have been tightened. If you feel resistance, leave the nut where you left it, then go to the nut exactly opposite, by the tailpiece. Work your way all around the drum head this way. It's common for cheap imported banjos for, say, 2 nuts out of three to actually be tightened - that's enough to keep the instrument from falling apart on the boat, but it's not enough to deliver good sound.
When you're done, tapping the drum head should give a crisp sound, like a snare drum with the snare detached. If it booms, go around again.
You should feel resistance on every nut, but you should never twist any nut more than a quarter of a turn at a time. Whatever you do, avoid tighening up one side of the drum head more than the other side - keep working your way around, the way they showed you when you learned to replace an automobile tire.
You should never have to exert real force to tighten a drum head adjustment nut - if that's the case, you've got the head too tight or some other mechanical problem.
When you're satisfied that the head is tight enough, get the bridge about where you think you will need it and retune the strings.
On the other hand, if you have a banjo, mandolin, or a guitar with a tailpiece, your bridge is probably held down only by string pressure. That means that it can move back and forth, annhilating your intonation if it's got too far from where it needs to be.
In theory, the distance between the nut and the twelfth fret should be the same as the distance between the twelfth fret and the bridge. But measuring exactly will only get you close to where you need to be, because string thickness and other issues affect the optimum placement of the bridge.
To get optimum placement, fret a string just behind the twelfth fret and pluck it. Then hold a finger lightly against the string over the twelfth fret, but without fretting it, and then pluck it. If you're doing it right, you'll get a bell-like tone called an "overtone." If your bridge is placed properly, the overtone will be the same pitch as the note you fretted.
Don't spend too much time trying to get this exactly right now - you'll have to do it over again when you restring the instrument anyway, but it will help the next stage if you can get the instrument to play at least somewhat in tune.
When you fret a string at the second fret (by pushing down on it between the first and second fret) the string should just about lay on the first fret, but it should not buzz against the third fret when you pick it. Try this on all six strings. Then do the same test on the third, fourth, and fifth fret.
The nut may be too high if:
If only one or two strings seem to be too high, you might be able to fix the problem by filing the little notch(es) a tiny bit deepar and trying again. Remember, go slowly.
On a really cheap guitar, the whole nut may be too high. Generally the nut is barely held on by a dab of glue. So if you loosen the strings enough to lay to either side of the nut, you should be able to pop it out, lightly sand the back, replace it (without glue at first) and try again. The strings should hold it down. Even if you're happy with the placement, don't bother gluing it back in place until you've adjusted the bridge as well (if necessary).
The nut is probably too low if you get fret buzz on the first or second fret when you're not fretting anything on the guitar, especially if you don't get fret buzz further down the neck.
If the entire nut is too low, take off the strings, pop it out, and shim it up with a thin sheet of plastic (a chopped-up credit card may work).
If only one slot on the nut is too low, and you don't want to shim up the whole thing and file the other slots back down, you may be able to fix that one slot with epoxy. Loosen the strings so they don't cross the nut, clean the nut with Fantastic, Formula 409, Glass Plus or some other cleaner that doesn't leave a residue, dry that out, then let it air dry for a spell, then mix some epoxy and dab it into the offending slot, and let it dry thoroughly overnight. Then the next day, use the trianular file to carve the offending slot down to where it needs to be.
Now that you have the nut height where it needs to be and the neck straightened, pay attention to the bridge.
The "acid test" is fretting every string at every fret and listening for the string buzzing against the next fret down the fingerboard.
How you adjust the bridge height depends on what kind of bridge you have, and whether it has a pickup built into it or not.
Bridges Without Pickups:
Bridges With Pickups: If your instrument has a molded bridge with the pickup built right into it (like better Ovation guitars), you could check to see if the part where the strings cross the bridge can pull away a bit from the rest of the bridge (once the strings are sufficiently loosened). There may be shims under that part, or room for shims. Removing a shim or two will lower the bridge. Adding a shim (say a sliver of an old credit card) will raise the bridge.
Be Prepared to Compromise - At this point in the setup process, a bridge that is too high will cause little or no fret buz but make the strings hard to push down. A bridge that is to low will cause fret buzz at multiple places along the instrument's fretboard. While you're adjusting the bridge on any instrument that costs less than $1000, you will almost certainly find yourself trying to find the best compromise between ease of play and excess of fret buzz.
Once you feel that you have the optimum nut height, bridge height, and neck tension, it's time to take off the strings.
You're nearing the home stretch. Once you have the instrument in its optimum mechanical condition, it's time to clean it up, polish it up, and oil the firetboard.
Oiling the Fretboard - Unless you have a heavily-varnished maple fretboard (like some Fender electrics), your fretboard is probably a dense tropical hardwood like rosewood or mahogany. This wood is used for durability and resistance to humidity, but it lasts longer and look better if you occasionally take the time to saturate it with an appropriate oil or polish, then wipe off the excess before restringing the instrument. Martin guitar polish, Tung oil, Liquid Gold, or mineral oil will work, in that order of desirability. Spread it on thick and check on it in about twenty minutes. If it's soaked in some places but not others, spread out the part that is still standing in puddles. If the wood was really dried out, you may need to add a little oil. After another twenty minutes, wipe off the excess thoroughly.
Polishing the Head, Neck, and Body (or Resonator) - With a very soft, absorbent cotton rag and the polish of your choice (Martin guitar polish is the best), polish the instrument's wood parts. Then wipe away the excess. If you use any form of furniture polish, be especially careful to wipe off the excess - it won't evaporate like guitar polish. Then wash your hands with soap. You don't want to be transferring oil to the new strings as you put them on. That includes the natural oil your hands give off.
These days strings tend to be packaged in pairs. If I have a set like that, I put on two strings at a time.
First, make certain the end of the string is properly attached to the bridge or tailpiece. Then run the other end across the bridge, neck, and nut and through the appropriate tuning peg on the head of the instrument. Use your needle-nosed pliers to kink the string at a 90% angle where it comes out of the tuning peg, but don't cut off the string right away. Cranking the tuning knob should cause the string to tighten so much that the string automatically kinks again where it goes into the tuning peg. Keep going unti the string is quite tight. If you have a removable bridge, make certain that the string is crossing the bridge and holding against the face of the instrument. Tune each string as you go, even though you'll need to tune it again as soon as you run the next string. (Each string you add puts more pressure on the neck and takes pressure off the strings you've already run.)
Then run the other strings and tune. Tune again. Now you're ready to cut off the excess strings sticking out of the tuning pegs. With your needlenosed pliers, cut each string off about 1/2" from where it leaves the tuning peg. Dispose of the cut-off pieces very carefully - as they will poke right through trash bags and hurt people who aren't expecting them. Now use the pliers to kink the cut strings downward toward the head, so they don't stick up and scratch or poke you later.
Tune the instrument again. A few minutes later, tune it again. Wash your hands again, wipe the whole instrument down one more time, and play a tune or three. Then tune the instrument again. It should need tuned a few more times tomorrow, a couple times the day after that, and once the day after that. If the instrument continues to need several serious tunings a day, look for bigger problems than the ones you addressed during this setup.
A Little Personal History
My first guitar (back in 1966) was a small black $15 Kay flattop that had the a fake pickguard with a big note painted on. It was a gift from a cousin who never learned to play it. And no wonder - the strings sat so high off the neck it was better suited for slicing vegetables than for making music. The neck was unadjustable, but straight. I knew next to nothing about guitars, but I was mechanically inclined enough to diagnose the problems. So I removed and filed down the nut and the bridge until the strings were in the same time zone as the fretboard. For cosmetic purposes, I sanded the front and back, stained them both a deep red, and painted a fake "binding" line on the front. I then played that guitar all through high school and my freshman year of college. By that time, the thing had actually developed some tone, and I had become a decent player, and folks were surprised that I could get that much sound out of such a small guitar.
When I was working my way through Wright State University's undergrad English program, I was also playing "out" in many coffeehouses. There, and on campus, I met many other struggling college students whose guitars had "issues." I patched holes, reglued (and reinforced) head stocks, rewired electronics, lowered bridges, restrung, tuned, and adjusted, adjusted, adjusted. Later as a part-time guitar teacher, I also adjusted more than one of my students' guitars. And even though I tend to shop carefully, every guitar, banjo, or mandolin I have ever bought (even the professional models) required some sort of adjustment before it truly served my needs.
Caveats
Some guitars, banjos, and mandolins can NEVER be made playable. For example, instruments with necks that bow unevenly or twist can never be made right without herculean effort. The same goes for instruments with necks that bow deeply, but don't have an adjustment screw.
Tools You Might Need
Don't panic, you won't need all of these tools for every job. Also, most homeowners already have most of the following stuff onhand.
Have New Strings On-Hand
You will also ALWAYS need new strings for the instrument you are working on. Even if the strings on it are new, the process of adjusting the neck puts undue wear and tear on them, and - unless you strung that instrument yourself - do you really know the history of those strings? Some generally good string selections would be:
Reasons Fretted Instruments May Suck
Check/Adjust the Neck
Check the neck for bows by sighting down each edge of the neck like an archer sites down an arrow to see if it's straight. It is possible that one edge of the neck seems more bowed than the other - which means that the neck may be twisted. It's also possible that the neck is bowed unevenly - part of the neck is nearly straight while another part dips or bulges. Either of those problems may signify an instrument that is irreparable without herculean effort. But most of the time the neck will either be straight or bow upward smoothly along most of its length, so that the fingerboard is slightly concave.
Adjust the Drum Head (If you're Setting Up a Banjo)
If you're adjusting an instrument with a drum-style head, make certain it's reasonably tight before you start getting serious about string height. A "saggy" drum head can allow the bridge to ride too low, so the strings are laying on the fingerboard, but there's nothing really wrong with the instrument.
Adjust Bridge Placement on Instruments with "Floating Bridges"
If the brodge on your instrument is permanently fastened to the instrument face, skip this part.
Check/Adjust String Height
On most instruments that have any hope of being made playable, adjusting the neck will bring the strings close enough to the fretboard to play without serious pain. (If you're a new guitarist, you may have trouble distinguishing serious pain from newbie pain, but do your best.)
Check/Adjust Nut Height
The nut is the ivory-colored bar with the little gouges in it where the string crosses from the head to the fretboard. Adjusting nut height is almost never necessary on any guitar that costs over $150, but is a common problem on department-store cheapies.
Check Bridge Height
Checking the Fretboard
The "acid test" is fretting every string at every fret and listening for the string buzzing against the next fret down the fingerboard.
Adjusting Fret Height
Of all the tweaks we've discussed so far, adjusting frets is probably the tweak which you should approach with the most caution. In fact, if the instrument is good in every other way, you might want to get advice from a luthier if you have uneven frets. That said, here are some issues you might notice, along with ways you might proceed:
Adjust Bridge Height (if Necessary)
Oiling and Polishing
Restring the Instrument
When I'm just changing strings, I like to swap out, say, two at a time. That way all the tension on the instrument's neck isn't relieved at the same time, so it's more likely to stay in adjustment. In this case, however, you had to take all the strings off to prep the fingerboard.
Conclusion
Chances are you won't be entirely satisfied with the first or second instrument you set up. But if you've taken an unplayable instrument that sounded like a brick and turned it into something fun and rewarding to play, you've added significant value to the instrument.
Best of all, once you know how to scope out the used guitar market, you can upgrade or help your friends find suitable instruments for much less than you'd think.
Whatever else you get out of our pages, I hope you enjoy your music and figure out how to make enjoyable music for those around you as well.
And please stay in touch!
All material, illustrations, and content of this web site is copyrighted © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 by Paul D. Race. All rights reserved.
Creek Dont' Rise(tm) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising
program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Note: Creek Don't Rise (tm) is Paul Race's name for his resources supporting the history and
music of the North American Heartland as well as additional kinds of acoustic and traditional music.
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