DIY: Easy 4-Step Guitar Setup - Adjusting Neck, Setting String Action, Filing Nut Slots & Intonation

hi this is David Johnson with scale model guitars in Nashville Tennessee I've been working as a repair Tech luier and instructor for the last 20 years today we're going to go over techniques that you can do yourself to make any guitar play feel and sound better okay today we are going to go through the steps of doing a quick setup on a square Strat so the first step to do is to adjust the neck if you'll notice there are four steps on a setup adjust the neck do the string action at the bridge step three nut slots step four intonation one 2 3 four in that order so let's get started uh First Step make sure the guitar is in tune if you'll notice through the steps of a setup I'm always keeping the guitar in tune in this case it's going to just be E standard so as I'm moving through this if I do anything or make any adjustment to the guitar I want to make sure that I retune the guitar the reason is because the string tension as it's deflecting the neck back is very important I always want to keep that coming back to where it should be in order to do the setup correctly if I change anything it's going to throw the whole thing off so retune every time so step one truss rod so this is actually a very easy concept when the strings go up to pitch they deflect the neck back I'm introducing relief to the neck what relief is is the neck with no tension on it will be straight when I pull it back it bows a little bit that amount of bow is measurable and that is called relief you need a little bit of neck relief in order for the guitar to play clean so the way we do that is we're going to Capo one guitar is up to pitch I'm going to hit 13 and that is going to be um a way that I can read the neck relief you have to remember that every guitar will needs neck relief in order to play correctly I'm going to hitting 13 Capo one Capo takes nut out of the equation I'm looking at the sixth fret which would be the middle of the span I'm looking at the distance between the top of the Fret and the bottom of the string that's a measurable distance and to measure that I'm going to use a device called a feeler gauge um you can get this Harbor Freight five bucks um every feeler gauge set is going to have one gauge that is brass that is 10,000 10,000s is a very important number because it's the amount of neck relief that we would like to start with in any setup so what I'm doing is I'm putting that under the string and on top of the Fret so this one looks like I could use a little bit of a tightening uh little bit too much relief if I tighten the neck righty TIY it's going to flatten it just a little bit so to do that I'm going to take the Allen key this guitar obviously shipped with an allen key it's the trust Rod wrench that we'd like to use make sure it actually fits going to tighten it just a little bit and what I just did right there is I tightened the neck I did this with it just a little bit so now tune it again Capo the first hit 13 check with the gauge again 10,000 .010 there it is got it and now I'm going to check the base side too like to make sure yeah that's on the money I'm putting the corner of that feeler gauge under there to check when I got 10,000s I know I'm correct that's a good starting point in any setup okay now that we've adjusted the truss rod step two of the setup is to adjust the string action height at the bridge and to do that I'm going to use a 6-inch ruler so what I'm doing is I'm still caping first and I'm reading at the 12 fret so when I read I'm putting the ruler down on the top of the crown of the Fret and I'm looking to see where the string dissects the ruler on the treble side it's at the high side of the 232s line and on the base side I am on 330 seconds so that's a little bit high for an electric uh the spec that I like to try to start with is that uh if we're talking about 64 of an inch I like to shoot for 5 and 4 64s or maybe even a high 464 and a proper 464 if you look on the ruler I'm looking on this side here right there that's second line would be 23 seconds okay so now I'm going to make those adjustments this one was at the high side of 230 seconds this one is at 33 seconds so what I'm going to do is move this one down just a little bit and if you'll notice I'm also going to level it out I don't want a bridge saddle to be like that like staggered when this is all said and done I want this s sadles to all be stair stepped and by that I mean they're like d d d d they're all just flat you always want to stair step your Saddles because it will make your setup last longer if a saddle is like that I'm putting all of the downward tension onto one set screw and not the other one we always want to balance them out like this but there's a speck that I'm trying to hit so I need to get that first so there's 4 464 or 232s and there's the high side of 230 seconds there's my spec so now that I've got the outside ease adjusted I'm going to use this tool which is an UND saddle radius gauge uh you can purchase one of these from stac this is an incredible tool for doing a guitar that has six separate Saddles and see what I'm looking at here the G is too low so I need to lift that up and out of the way I'm going underneath the strings cuz the E are where I want them to be the rest of the strings or not so a comes up a little bit and I'm just looking here little space little space okay now I'm getting there so let me lower the B down to the gauge everything goes down to the gauge the fretboard radius on this guitar is 9 and 1/2 in 9.5 so I'm using the 9 and 1/2 in radius gauge that one can come like this makes it very very quick to do adjustments see that little space on that one if you can see that but I got a little space face down just a little bit there I just hit spec I'm going to stair step the Saddles so see that one little crooked bring that up bring this one down this one same deal up down I'm stair stepping them okay and once I've made those adjustments I'm going to come back there you go right on the money the more you do this the better you'll get at it but now I have at the 12 fret High 2 30 seconds proper 2 30 seconds meaning the string is dissecting that second line and the rest of my strings are falling the path at 9 and 1/2 in radius okay so step three of our setup is to do the nut slots I've already tuned the guitar back up so now we're ready to dive in I'm not going to lie this is probably going to be the most difficult part of any setup you ever do um the reason is because there's a lot of different variations of headstock um that we're going to change your Technique and how you approach this to do this we're going to use uh nuts slotting files the biggest thing to remember when you're doing nut slots is that there are really just two headstock variations you need to be aware of there's a scooped headstock which is what we have here this is a fender and then we've got a tilt back tilt back would be like a Martin a Gibson those have two very different styles two different techniques of using these to start with are these too low or too high I need to look where it is now where does it need to be to be correct to get a quick read on it I'm going to use this technique where I hit the third fret then tap on the second and have a look now the more you do this the better you're going to get at it a lot of people just kind of eyeball this these measurements or something that you when you see it like for instance when I see that high E I know I'm at spec already the more you do this the better you get I know what that spec should look like I want to see about 20,000 on EA and D the three low strings and on GB and E I want to see about 18,000 so why do I have higher nut slots on the base than the treble because the travel of the string more side to side play I need to be able to clear that first fret so the way I'm doing this remember I've already tuned it up I'm going to put the 18,000 018 on my feeler gauge I'm going to stick the corner of that under here and I want to see if it lifts up that string it does not as a matter of fact it's rubbing against the top of it and that's how I know I'm correct now the B is a different story I got space under there see that space so I need to lower that just a little bit this is a set of 10 this gauge is a 13 it's a 13 on the B so the technique for a scooped headstock with the nut file I'm going to try to file this straight out I'm not doing this I would do that on a tiltback headstock not on a scooped the reason is because the back edge of that string it does have a string tree when that string I don't want that to Splat out like a sitar I want the back edge of that nut slot to physically touch the string on the way to the tree so I'm gonna move this aside lower that just a little bit and see the see the file and then these are safety files move that in just a little bit there we go now where's it sitting got it it did that one was not going to take much I know I've already hit Speck look back here see I'm on it and you can kind of see what I'm looking at see I'm hitting the three back on to now look look at the difference between E B and G look at that g that is tall so what I'm going to do grab the appropriate file for that string just little bit very little bit and then back got it trying to make sure that everything is level and even that is 18,000 see I've hit my spec there right hit spec there it's really obvious when one is sitting up like that like really high then you know it needs to come down so now I'm going to jump over and find 20,000 with my feeler gauge and that is this one 0.020 could come down a little bit that one's on the money already that one can come down a little bit so let's do the D the D string on this set it's a 10 set that's a 26 I'm actually going to go with a 28 couple points over where I want to be I don't want the string to get hung up or get pinched in the slot itself and notice the motion with my file straight out not like this always direct it to the post If This Were a tilt back headstock I wouldn't be this is a straight string pull it's a fender so I'm going straight out if this were on a Les Paul I'd be directing it towards uh towards the D tuner which on a Gibson uh is out it makes a little bit of a turn you don't go straight out so the string doesn't have have to make a hard left turn to get to its post check it that one's good already a is fine that e is a little bit High let's bring that down just a little bit with an E bring it down man don't break it this one's just a little bit then back in there we go see that e a d g b e then I give it a little look sideways I want to make sure looking at it sideways nice elegant radius that looks like um they're all in line it's really obvious when you get like e a d g letter is kind of all over the place you want to balance those out and that is how you do nuts slots on a scooped headstock okay so the last step of our setup is step four and that's going to be intonation so what is intonation well as you know a guitar is an equal temperament instrument that means I can't move the Frets when I hit open E open E I want 12 fret e to be one octave higher than open e and the way that I can tune the 12 fret e to the open Tune or the open e is with the saddle so the way I'm going to do it is I'm going to hit open E I'm using a strobe tuner for this then I hit 12 Freddy you need to be a little careful on the strobe tuner because if you hit too hard see what happens I can make the note go [Music] sharp so make sure that you're hitting that 12 fret how you normally would when when you play see it's going up to 12 and it's sticking it's staying put now let's do a oh see how it's dropping down just a little bit that's because my 12 fret strike tone on a see it's a little bit flat I need to shorten the length of the string to sharpen the 12 fret to do that I'm going to take a screwdriver I'm going to move that a in just a little bit I'm moving it that way I'm shortening the length of the string remember what I said you always retune see I flattened the the open strike tone there we go now I'm back in tune back to 12 fret perfect so now to D that one staying put right out of the gate now to [Music] G see how that's fallen down just a little bit open strike tone in tune it is it's falling down just a little bit so I need to pull the G forward I need to shorten the length of the string that will flatten the open strike tone remember to always retune after everything you do hit 12 fret again now it's staying put see that H maybe a little more don't stop till you know what's right okay open strike tone 12 fret there you go now I got it now [Music] B little flat need to push that one forward just a little bit there we go Rune 12 fret got it now High [Music] e little flat need to sharpen it now on this one let's go too far and let's see what happens if I go too [Music] far see it's creeping up and I'm not digging in this is me digging in I'm hitting it with a normal attack creeping up just a little bit need to pull that back so it's in line there's going to be something that happens when you get a guitar inate properly you're going to see the strings follow a certain pattern and it's something that you can look for if it does not follow that [Music] pattern then you know you're not in tune here's your check so e a d g b e hit octaves up high I'm listening for that you know like we it's Out Of Tune that's in tune man who little bit on that one what is that you hear it is that me or is that the guitar no that's there and L low see that's your algebra check always want to check yourself if you look here you're going to see a pattern develop and this is how you know you got intonation see these three Saddles they're kind of in a row and these three Saddles are in a row they're in line wound wound wound plain plain plain every guitar that's playing a plane G should look something like this if you see a saddle kicked far forward out of that shape one two 3 one two 3 then you know that that's not intonating there's no way um if you are playing a guitar that has a w and not a plane this saddle will be sitting up further maybe within that line ahead of the B string so something to look forward to and that is how you intonate this guitar

Channel: Premier Guitar

Views: 18,534

Keywords: guitar, guitars, guitarist, demo, guitar player, electric guitar, fender, fender guitar, gibson, gibson guitar, gibson les paul, rig, guitar gear, pedalboard, pedals, guitar effects, guitar pedals, premier guitar, make a guitar play better, guitar setup, how to set up a guitar, electric guitars, guitar maintenance, how to do a guitar setup, file nut slots on guitar, intonation, guitar intonation, how to video, how to, diy, diy video, tutorial, diy project, diy guitar, string action

Id: yJvmQZBcUlk

Length: 20min 26sec (1226 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 26 2023