Ninja00151
Junior Member
- Messages
- 26
I find Steve is actually on the money as far as neck setups though. It's easy to get into analysis paralysis. The entire goal of a setup is to get a good-playing guitar, not to setup the guitar to arbitrary specs. Here is the best way I've found to setup a guitar.
1. Tune the guitar with your preferred string gauge. This setup will be hyper-tuned to this string gauge, and any smaller gauge strings will require another setup.
2. Capo behind the first fret
3. Finger last fret (22 or 24)
4. Check neck relief by pressing down on the string on fret 7 and 12. I start with the high E string
4.5 If neck relief is large, it will be obvious, we will be making this neck near dead straight.
5. Adjust neck relief a quarter turn, repeat steps 3 4 and 5, until almost no relief is present.
6. If any relief is present, upon tapping the (cappoed and fretted at the last fret) string at fret 7 and 12, a small 'ping' will be present. If not present, the neck is dead flat or up bowed (upside down U).
7. Repeat steps until you get no ping on the high E. Now add relief (quarter turn the opposite way of making the next flat). You should hear a tiny ping after almost no string movement. Check all other strings. Add neck relief until each sting pings, with almost no movement.
8. Neck relief is now near dead flat with nearly zero relief. This is optimal.
9. Lower high E saddle slightly. Play each fret and check for fret buzz. Once you get buzz, slightly raise the saddle height until you get zero buzz.
10. Repeat step 9 for all the strings.
11. You now have an optimally low action setup. You can not get any lower action than this, unless your frets are unleveled. Then with a perfect leveling/plek you can get lower by repeating this process.
12. If string action is too low, adjust saddle height until desired action is reached. No further truss rod adjustments should be necessary, unless the neck moves into an up bow from temperature/humidity changes.
1. Tune the guitar with your preferred string gauge. This setup will be hyper-tuned to this string gauge, and any smaller gauge strings will require another setup.
2. Capo behind the first fret
3. Finger last fret (22 or 24)
4. Check neck relief by pressing down on the string on fret 7 and 12. I start with the high E string
4.5 If neck relief is large, it will be obvious, we will be making this neck near dead straight.
5. Adjust neck relief a quarter turn, repeat steps 3 4 and 5, until almost no relief is present.
6. If any relief is present, upon tapping the (cappoed and fretted at the last fret) string at fret 7 and 12, a small 'ping' will be present. If not present, the neck is dead flat or up bowed (upside down U).
7. Repeat steps until you get no ping on the high E. Now add relief (quarter turn the opposite way of making the next flat). You should hear a tiny ping after almost no string movement. Check all other strings. Add neck relief until each sting pings, with almost no movement.
8. Neck relief is now near dead flat with nearly zero relief. This is optimal.
9. Lower high E saddle slightly. Play each fret and check for fret buzz. Once you get buzz, slightly raise the saddle height until you get zero buzz.
10. Repeat step 9 for all the strings.
11. You now have an optimally low action setup. You can not get any lower action than this, unless your frets are unleveled. Then with a perfect leveling/plek you can get lower by repeating this process.
12. If string action is too low, adjust saddle height until desired action is reached. No further truss rod adjustments should be necessary, unless the neck moves into an up bow from temperature/humidity changes.
