Setting up a guitar

[rocketpastthemoon]

so, i was talking to a guy in a guitar shop the other day, and he mentioned that he knew someone who "remakes" guitars... essentially, he takes say a fender, re wires and puts new pots in, sets up the pickups so all the natural tones, and harmonics come out of the newly remodeled guitar, and then does the usual, setting up, like intonation and fret filing. Does anyone here know of what I'm talking about, and where could i find a book, or website on how to do this. or does this require an extensive knowledge on harmonics, and circuit theory.

or any other ideas of making a guitar better, besides just replacing it with better parts.

[Hubie]

If it aint broke...

I couldn't recommend taking a good Fender or any other guitar and stripping the guts out and doing all this work that may not be necessary. You could also de-value a vintage piece whether you realize it or not. I have heard of vintage guitars, amps, and even cars being trashed by careless people because no one knew they were of any value! Sometimes repairs are warranted, and should be carried out by someone who really understands how this machine works. Check out the tech section of the Fender.com site for complete instructions on how to set up Fender guitars. If you are saving the body or neck, or pickups from a damaged guitar and building a hybrid that's different. Buy the best quality you can afford to remake it, read up on basic electonic theory so you better understand what is happening with the pick ups and tone stack before it leaves your guitar. Renewing the internals of a non vintage piece with higher quality components will give better reliability at the least. Sometimes a little contact cleaner will give those old pots new life. You can even use Wd 40 in a pinch. Good luck, post a picture if you can.

Scott Huber

[rocketpastthemoon]

I couldn't recommend taking a good Fender or any other guitar and stripping the guts out and doing all this work that may not be necessary. You could also de-value a vintage piece whether you realize it or not. I have heard of vintage guitars, amps, and even cars being trashed by careless people because no one knew they were of any value! Sometimes repairs are warranted, and should be carried out by someone who really understands how this machine works. Check out the tech section of the Fender.com site for complete instructions on how to set up Fender guitars. If you are saving the body or neck, or pickups from a damaged guitar and building a hybrid that's different. Buy the best quality you can afford to remake it, read up on basic electonic theory so you better understand what is happening with the pick ups and tone stack before it leaves your guitar. Renewing the internals of a non vintage piece with higher quality components will give better reliability at the least. Sometimes a little contact cleaner will give those old pots new life. You can even use Wd 40 in a pinch. Good luck, post a picture if you can.

Scott Huber

I'm definitely not talking about a vintage fender... more so the new ones, american standards to be exact. I've already built an esquire copy with vintage parts, and a Donahue seymour duncan pickup. came out nice. I was just curious about pole positions i guess. I'll have to research it more i suppose. Any suggestions to books or websites to help me with that?

[bluesmannumber1]

I agree with Hubie

Rocket,
I have to agree with most of what Hubie said. To answer your question, there are oodles of articles on the Web about Guitar set up, Guitar Mods, Guitar Electronics etc. A lot of the different Parts Houses on the Web also sell books by expert people who specialize in all manner of everything having to do with Guitar. I generally agree with "if it ain't broke".
Now, having said that, I have been playing Guitar since 1959@9 yrs old and every Guitar I have ever owened, I have customized to fit my own personal needs and preferences. It's like people who are into cars ( or Amps ) they personalize/mod them for themselves. I have never been into the collectable part of the Guitar thing. It just never did interest me. I have thousands of dollars worth of top of the line Guitars, Amps etc. I have always bought the best I could afford and sometime the best I couldn't afford. Then I costomize/personalize the stuff to suit me. It is all about what you want personally. Many others probably have different views I'm sure. But in my opinion, my stuff is uniquely mine.

[rocketpastthemoon]

Rocket,
I have to agree with most of what Hubie said. To answer your question, there are oodles of articles on the Web about Guitar set up, Guitar Mods, Guitar Electronics etc. A lot of the different Parts Houses on the Web also sell books by expert people who specialize in all manner of everything having to do with Guitar. I generally agree with "if it ain't broke".
Now, having said that, I have been playing Guitar since 1959@9 yrs old and every Guitar I have ever owened, I have customized to fit my own personal needs and preferences. It's like people who are into cars ( or Amps ) they personalize/mod them for themselves. I have never been into the collectable part of the Guitar thing. It just never did interest me. I have thousands of dollars worth of top of the line Guitars, Amps etc. I have always bought the best I could afford and sometime the best I couldn't afford. Then I costomize/personalize the stuff to suit me. It is all about what you want personally. Many others probably have different views I'm sure. But in my opinion, my stuff is uniquely mine.

yeah, I'm pretty much just trying to figure out what does what... like different transformers in my tube amps, like supposedly mercury transformers sounds really good in Ampeg V4s, but i want to know exactly what certain mods do. I was just looking for some websites you guys would recomend, so i can figure this stuff out. For instance it has been taking me years to figure out my own tone, and i know how i want it to sound, but it's still slightly off from what i want, and I dont want to throw modeling pedals or anything in front of the amp.

as of now my setup is
Jazzmaster reissue
1979 antigua strat with active EMGs
Home built esquire
Gibson SG standard

Ampeg V2 and V4
Marshall JCM800 2205
Fender Twin Reverb
Orange 2x12

[bluesmannumber1]

Keep studying. Talk to as many as you can for opinions on what they did and why or why not it worked or not for them. Then pick a few mods and try them out. Some stuff is quite cheap and easy like trying different value capacitors in your guitar circuit. Nobody can get the sound and tone you want but you. Check Stewart- Macdonald web site catalog. They have a bunch of books for sale on there that can probably answer a great deal of your specific questions. There are a host of other Web sites as well. I hope this helps you enough to get you started. I'm not expert, just and old Guitar
Player. Good Luck.

[choctaw]

Keep studying. Talk to as many as you can for opinions on what they did and why or why not it worked or not for them. Then pick a few mods and try them out. Some stuff is quite cheap and easy like trying different value capacitors in your guitar circuit. Nobody can get the sound and tone you want but you. Check Stewart- Macdonald web site catalog. They have a bunch of books for sale on there that can probably answer a great deal of your specific questions. There are a host of other Web sites as well. I hope this helps you enough to get you started. I'm not expert, just and old Guitar
Player. Good Luck.

Just type "guitar set-up" into google search and lots of places will come up telling how to tweak your guitar. Here is one I found

http://users.powernet.co.uk/guitars/setuptut.htm

[aaronp]

so, i was talking to a guy in a guitar shop the other day, and he mentioned that he knew someone who "remakes" guitars... essentially, he takes say a fender, re wires and puts new pots in, sets up the pickups so all the natural tones, and harmonics come out of the newly remodeled guitar, and then does the usual, setting up, like intonation and fret filing. Does anyone here know of what I'm talking about, and where could i find a book, or website on how to do this. or does this require an extensive knowledge on harmonics, and circuit theory.

or any other ideas of making a guitar better, besides just replacing it with better parts.

I would avoid that guy, just for the language he allegedly used. Sounds very "sales-pitchy"...especially when talk of fret filing gets thrown around as if it was something you just do in a regular tune-up. In fact all of that stuff besides just a basic set-up is completely dependant on what's in your guitar, now.

It sounds like whoever it is already has a fixed Idea in his head that "to make a gutar better, here's what you do...".

Likewise..."if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

[Tim Hall]

^^^

I would be wary of big talk too. The guy at my local music shop is a used car salesman (sorry to offend any used car salespeoples). I brought my guitar in to have it setup a while ago...it was buzzing pretty bad, and the intonation was off after putting a new brand of strings on it. He set it up with ridiculously low action, buzzing even worse, and told me that it was because I had such a bright sounding maple fretboard. Then he proceeded to tell me how wonderful his PRS was, and then pointed toward some shred guitars for sale while I'm holding my S-S-S strat. Bonehead!

Anyway, I bought "Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewine, and set my guitar up myself, and will do so forever after...Bonehead! Also, I think Chris Kinman (kinman.com) has some interesting articles about achieving so-called "perfect" tone on strats. But I think these are all best taken as general go-by's - not gospel.

It took me a long while to get comfortable tinkering with my equipment myself, but now I wouldn't let anyone else touch it. It probably doesn't sound as good as it could, but I did it myself

[bluesmannumber1]

But DO tweak it. To your taste !!!!!

It's like putting a little salt and peper on your steak or using A-1 sauce etc. Your steak ain't broke but you want to add something extra( to fix it ) for your own personal taste IMHO.

[David Schwab]

I would avoid that guy, just for the language he allegedly used. Sounds very "sales-pitchy"...especially when talk of fret filing gets thrown around as if it was something you just do in a regular tune-up. In fact all of that stuff besides just a basic set-up is completely dependant on what's in your guitar, now.

I have to agree that this guy sounds fishy... "sets up the pickups so all the natural tones, and harmonics come out of the newly remodeled guitar"

Ummmm, OK. Unless you are moving the pickups, there's no way to set the pickups so "natural tones, and harmonics come out" any differently than before. And pickup locations, with regards to harmonics, only matter on open strings. There's no right or wrong locations for pickups. You can put them anywhere under the strings. They just sound a bit brighter or fuller, depending on where they are.

Now, new pickups can work wonders, especially on a cheap Fender. Another thing is, most of the brand new Fenders I have worked on really do need to have the frets leveled and dressed. They aren't done all that well at the factory.

I had a really fussy customer that was complaining about his brand new US Strat. He wanted the action lower, but was getting buzzes. After examining the guitar, I told him that a fret leveling would help, but only so much because his fretboard was not level.

First we did the grind and polish, and it was a big improvement. But he wanted the action lower. So I removed the frets, leveled the fingerboard, and refretted the guitar. I got the action really low. Lower than I would use. When the customer tried the guitar out he said "wow.. that's low! Can you raise the action up a bit?" lol

Anyway, my point is that most factory guitars can be improved with a little work. They just don't have the time for a good setup at the factory.

The other thing is the neck. I have a regular customer that buys Squire Jazz basses, and has me trick them out. But the bottom line is always the neck. He brought me two last week. One was great... really nice neck and fretwork. I got a great setup on that one. The other one had a funky neck. It seemed to be delaminating, and just didn't sound as good.

I always say the tone is in the neck.

[petemoore]

Dan Erlewine's Guitar Repair Method

Dan Erlewine's Guitar Repair Method.
This is an excellent book to have if you don't own but are getting interested in guitar, even better if you have one.
First fret redressing I did resulted in a perfect playing guitar, it wasn't too bad...just much more perfect after alot of contemplation, then a little filing..
ripping out the wiring...I'd wait until I knew what pickups I was replacing the old ones with [firstly that it is necessary], or wait until the original wiring failed..making sure to understand wirings/impedances etc. or somehow get a wiring set you know will work 'right.
Having that book around...and the file sets, and the straight edge sets [mostly made from files and straight edges I had around]..and made quick neck stresser [gallon jugs filled to 6-12lbs. hung over a 'slider pulley'...and was able to redress frets very nicely the way I wanted them...
Redressing and other 'heavy' neckwork might not be for you, I won't let anyone else do mine but me..[I have had others file my frets, and it turned out excellent, another reason why I think it's not necessarily out of reach of someone determined to understand how to do it right].
ie..not that hard...wood bends when stressed, only a little, truss rod holds the neck mostly straight [can be adjusted, should be allowed to 'settle then..], metals can be shaped etc. not that hard...if you take the time and absorb the info for say...days or weeks, I kind of re-hash info right before sleeping, I think it just takes a few nights of 'sleeping on the book'.
And it tells about...guitars...generally, in very easy to follow, specific ways.

[john82]

all in all, it sounds like a nice idea that might work. i definately wouldnt let this guy or anyone else handle a good expensive guitar before i've seen their work before. also i think alot of work you CAN do on your own without alot of knowledge in electronics and stuff like that.
no doubt the pickups are the most important, so you should put in the extra money in replacing pickups.

_______
Johnny
http://www.guitars101.com

[Chuck H]

Complete Guitar Repair by Hideo Kamamoto

He's a VERY studied and maticulous luthier who now works out of an old house in Japan Town in San Jose California. I was very fortunate to have him work on some of my instruments when I was a very young player that lived near his home town. I got his book for Xmas when I was 13. I didn't even put together that the guy who worked on my guitars was the same guy who wrote my book for about 6 mos. By then I had learned so much from the book that I was doing most of my own repairs and all of my setups. It's just as well too because soon after he stopped making and repairing guitars and started making and repairing only classical stringed instruments, violins, cellos, etc. But no longer any guitars. There were a couple of times shortly after when I had repairs I thought might be out of my experience level so I had to go to a different repair guy. And I now do all my own repairs and build my own electrics. And I can tell you that I have not met his equal. his book is extremely clear and complete. It's still in print after 26 years and is considered a standard text in the craft.

Chuck

[David Schwab]

Complete Guitar Repair by Hideo Kamamoto

Boy that brings back memories! That's a great book. That was the very first book I ever got on guitar repair way back when it first came out.

I haven't had my copy in over 25 years, so I don't remember much about what's in there, but I found it very useful when I was learning to repair guitars.

I'll have to get a new copy one of these days.

Here he is...

http://www.kamimotostrings.com/html/shop.html