>
"How To" Basic Guitar Setup
Copyright © 2017 "Musical Instrument Repairs WA (MIRWA)"  ·           All Rights reserved  ·  E-Mail: service@mirwa.com.au
MIRWA
Setting a guitar up is a mechanical process and then a symptomatic process, that is, we set the guitar up to a set of mathematical figures, then we tweak or adjust the guitar subjective to how it plays (symptoms) and then tweak to how the player plays, its about finding a nice match for the two.

The difference between Acoustic and Electric guitar setups is mainly to do with the height of the strings, the string action on an Acoustic guitar must be high enough to be able to drive the soundboard, Electric guitars can then be lowered to what is comfortable for the player without buzzing.

Time to repair approx 1 hrs
Clean the fretboard and frets with soapy steel wool, if its a painted maple board I will tape the board up to protect from scratching.

Rosewood and Ebony boards are not painted, so its a good idea to clean them as well.
Also check for exposed frets. Exposed frets are symptomatic of a dry guitar.

With some lemon oil, re-oil the board, any board oil from your local music shop will do.
Rub the oil into the wood.
Quick check of the fretboard radius, on this guitar its a 12 inch radius.
Fit the string over saddle and make sure it rests in the saddles groove.
On the wound strings, we trim them one tuner length up.
Wind the string on, one wind over and then all winds under, this clamps the string tail and prevents it from pulling out.
Pointless doing a setup without at least changing the strings, so they are first to go.
Remove any covers to access the truss rod.
Clean damp cloth to remove any soap residue from the steel wool.
For non wound strings,go one and a half tuner lengths of the string winders.