Want Your Guitar to Sound Better? Master These 6 Techniques!

foreign hey folks I'm Gene embody I'm one of the head techs here at Stuart McDonald I'm here today with of course Dan Earlywine and Tomo Fujita oh yeah he's a professor at the Berkeley College of Music for 30 years now of course Dan world-class repairman so we're here today to talk about six things that you the musician the player can benefit from ways to keep your guitar in tune ways to make it play better ways to keep it in shape over the years I think every guitar player should know how to maintain their equipment so I have about 30 students each semester at least 10 of them setting is horrible so they want to learn but setting is horrible so that very difficult to learn you know sometimes guitar neck is bold like this you know half an inch of a almost a slight guitar you know and then students say I don't know I can get really good intonation and because they don't know how to move a saddle or a string height every time I say Shanghai yeah it's easy you should get tattoos oh I'm afraid I'm Greg you can't break it you can't break it you just go for it just you know yeah something like so anyway so each part is really important for a lot of people think my guitar is okay because I maintained this a year before like something like that right but one year just like a health is to keep moving especially Boston weather it's really hot in summer and winter is really cold and dry exactly that's why neck always moves a little bit right well let's start with the most basic yep changing your strings would you guys agree that's oh yeah something everybody should like to know how Tomo does it yeah all right because you don't go out of tune you're playing like crazy yesterday well I I bend a lot of notes so even like this like you know sometimes I just go like just you know make sure you know straight you know and then foreign yes this is how I do it usually I take about you know two or three those poles around here is good so you're going a few posts past week yeah so like yeah all depends on the guitar but sometimes like at least like a two okay sometime a little bit more and again everybody has you know different opinion about this one but I like a little bit more tension around the post that way I believe it's really ringing all the way you know and also make sure that you put this all the way in and then you turn then that extra couple of posts gives you the amount of extra string to create the the number of wines you're looking yes exactly so like that then then hold it here tightly and just go all the way and you don't cross over you don't do anything fancy or you're just no the reason is if I own a gig and what if we break a string it's happened somebody that's really locking something like that I can't take it out right because they're too good so I do just very simple you know yep [Music] and then I just stretch you're just pulling out the the extra slack and yeah so like you know he uh here everywhere you know like even this I that's going to help you stay in tune quicker look at that see but then that's not enough just one time so I do two three times you know like that it takes it takes a few times a few times yeah definitely so now here's a very important it's even less and very close right but then sometimes I stretch they want to move back a little bit so sometimes pitch become a little Sharp so just think is stretch three four times and just in case two three four times and you're able to hear that because you exercise your ear you don't rely just on an election yes so everything I Do by ear then finally I plug into the tuner yeah I always I always recommend to people they use an electronic tuner yes to check their ear yeah you know when you're playing live it's different but when you're stringing your own guitar exercising I do it just all the way like that so this one maybe these two poles at least then gradually I go a little longer because string is a thinner right so I want to go each one a little bit more while more wines on the unwinds this last one probably I have at least five times like that that way my guitar stay in tune and really great so that's how I teach my students I'd like to see you do the same thing on a Gibson guitar all right it's a good one this is something a lot of students oh good right entry-level guitar that you see a lot [Music] so give some style a little bit different because the fender Style just you know stick in you see you know turns so much smooth but give some style I have to do a slightly different way the hole in the post is coming from the side on a tuner like this yeah so go through the post like that then again like you know almost like a similar but you don't cut it you just go back a little bit like that so you're pretending there's another post about the same distance from that last one yeah I do usually just like this much and go back a little bit and then you have to hold a little tighter here and then because moves I do usually call above the string I do too on the first strap and then I pull this a little bit like this straight tell them it looks like uh the bushing on that tuner is a little loose yeah I saw a little bit a little bit moving it's pretty common it's a good opportunity yes a spanner wrench is is great for that kind of stuff I never seen this yeah that will fit right in there under the string oh like that oh wow one side will be loosened and one is tightened oh wow this is great that's a very handy tool to have wow yeah because a lot of students too and I always little wiggle like that well when you change strings it's a good opportunity to check to make sure all your Hardware this is really great I don't have it because I used to do with something similar to this actually I scratched it yeah so so this is how I do it so your first wrap you come above the tail yeah and then for the rest you're going going below is there a certain number of wines of wraps you're looking for on the post I lose like a two you know two one or two you know that way strong it was good like that yeah oh yeah that's right don't poke your eye out right right this is the important part too like that and you just cut right down as short as you can get it so that's a basic way of stringing a guitar that's the way I do it Dan is that pretty much how you do it you do it all good so what what kind of mistakes do you see when when strings down backwards backwards meaning like on the wrong side of the post okay yeah too much the whole string put on sometimes you're not whining on the inside opposite direction sometimes the right direction in the same guitar or how about winding up the post instead of shutting down I know that one of the things that that I hate the most when I when I see a guitar come into my shop is I've seen people tie knots like actually I run the string through the post several times and tie it I'm sure you've seen sure dental picks to pull it apart and I cut myself there's a lot of mistakes but really I think keeping it simple is what what works the best and the way everybody should learn nobody should try just to try and don't worry about the mistake takes just by another set of string you know yeah there are millions of different strings and more coming out all the time how do people know what string to use to me like you know I've been playing many many years and I try so many different way and I always like to learn every detail so I try to do thin strings heavy strength but ended up 10 10 to 46. so basically regular guitar I think 10 to 46 is great but if you use more Distortion sometimes 9 to 46 42 sounds good but if you like more Jazz stuff yeah you live in you know 49 like that do you Dan do you find like heavier strings tend to change the tone of the guitar sure yeah absolutely yeah I used to love 11s 11 through 49 50 and now I'm playing tennis and I agree on the nine sometimes I'll get a guitar and that's got nines on it and I can play better bends are better it doesn't go out as soon as right yeah I think it's a matter of experimenting if find what you like in a in a playing point it's like you know a thicker string is definitely as you said tone is better or sometimes thicker louder louder but easy to pick harder because the strings can handle more tensions more abuse that's why I play 10 because I like to use a lot of Dynamics if I have more heavy strings I can hit a little harder yeah then I lose my Dynamic so there's really no right or wrong answer to it exactly it's a balance of what you like what feels good yes what your guitar is set up to handle acoustic I use 12 to 52 normally sometimes I try a 13 you know 56 it sounds great but then I can play Benz or anything like that so and it can be hard on the guitar too oh yeah that's a lot of acoustic yes yeah especially all the guitar you know new guitar sometimes yeah you they kind of handle 13 to 50 60 to 2 minutes too much it's the energy of that string that that's driving the top and yeah creating your tones so you can overdo it or or underdo it basically like 12 to 52 is normal okay so that's changing strings let's go on to number two and this is an important one and one that scares a lot of players adjusting your truss rod we're lucky to have the master of truss rod adjustment with us so Dan take us through it well let's get a guitar out here something with the truss rod hopefully okay so Dan if you looked at this and you checked with the string and you see a big gap there are you looking for dead straight do you do you want a little bit of a gap for most people I like to be able to get it dead straight and then if somebody thinks it's buzzing or wants or Leaf loosen it to give a little up though that's what a truss rod can do so if you see a large gap here now then you want to tighten the truss rod and straighten the neck out because it's pulling upwards let's take a look at this one sure let's grab our screwdriver here and take the truss rod cover off we're going to use this guitar because the truss rod on a Gibson is really easy to get to a lot of fenders you have to take the neck off if it's at that end yeah so we'll use this because it's a great example this is what I like to see on a truss rod when I see a lot of Rod poking out at the end with threads that's not so normal that's happening more on newer guitars if you see a quarter inch of thread pulling out on a truss products could be moving back here if you see all that thread you might be totally maxed out and you won't be able to tighten it because you tightened it so much it's pulling this anchor forward squishing in the wood and it can't do any more so then you take the nut off sumac has yeah extra washers and spacers you put a spacer on it put the nut back on and you get a whole new grip Dan could you show me which equipment do you use we use a wrench this size oh there's all kinds it could be oh that's really easy to fit right on there it's a 5 16. and we call this a Popeye Ranch loosening yeah tightening right lots of new guitars are adjust with an allen wrench just a regular four millimeter or five millimeter hex wrench and on an acoustic guitar you're coming in through the sound hole we have extra wrenches that are long and bent to get around the braces but you can buy one wrench if you have a guitar right you can always buy just what you need shops like ours we have 20 different wrenches I think a lot of people are scared to adjust their truss rod just don't force anything make sure you have the right size wrench and if the guitar doesn't want to do what you want it to do if it doesn't want to loosen if it doesn't want to tighten Don't Force anything that's probably a time to go see a repairman but otherwise if you have a new guitar a guitar that's in good shape adjusting the truss route is really no big deal and just about anybody should be able to do it when the truss rod is tightened and not really loose the guitar sounds way better it's there's no comparison you can take a guitar with a good dead sounding note to it and see that the truss rods rather loose and tighten it and all of a sudden that guitar has life okay so that's setting your neck relief that's straightening your neck with a truss rod and that brings us into the next stage because before you can set your guitar up you need to straighten the neck or get the relief where you want it and that leads us in to your action what do we mean by action Dan to me action is how hard or easy the guitar plays and and the measurements of how tall the strings are from the Frets how well the strings are set to the radius of the fretboard all the things that make it play well this is our string action gauge it measures in thousandths of an inch fractional measurements down to the 64th on the back of it we have a conversion chart to switch from decimal to fraction to metric this gauge is also available in metric for those who prefer to measure in metric we're going to lay it on the Frets and you can see which line is lining up at the bottom of the string to give you a measurement of Your Action height a necessity if you want to set up your guitar Tomo's guitar with this string action gauge you're looking underneath the string the bottom of the string to the top of the Fret and I can see the line of a hundred thousands that's less than an eighth of an inch I see on the first string between 80 and 90 000. if you measure that in inches it's 5 5 64 of an inch this is a very playable action thank you some people would consider it high but the Frets are pretty tall yes this way I can pick a little harder no I like this one yeah thank you well I think that's a good point is that there is no right or wrong that's right I think a capo is is really invaluable for a lot of this I like to check with the Capo at the first fret I kind of call that my zero points so then I'm measuring without factoring in the nut it frees up another hand if you're going to check with the string then I have one hand to kind of be able to move the string but I think a capo is important for setup work anybody can adjust their action it takes a little practice to take some experimentation to figure out what you like what works best on your guitar and it does take a little bit of investment in some tools like radius gauges so as Tomo was saying he sees a lot of his players where the Saddles are kind of up and down up and down right for those who don't know the fretboard isn't flat from side to side yes they all have a different radius that's right that's why we sell notched radius gauges so you can get around the strings and check the board or the top of the Fret oh that's a nice one yeah yeah um and what did you say you thought this one was I think 9.5 to 12 supposedly okay so it's a compound radio compound a compound radius is one that changes we're talking about a piece of a circle the radius measurement of us of a circle so if we're seven and a quarter or nine and a half that's this chunk of the radius right and it flattens out towards this end well as it flattens out towards this end it makes bending notes cleaner and easier that's correct yeah but tighter on this end your hand wants to curve I play more cores and Lower Side I play more Higher Side Bend notes and especially I bend two whole step like Oliver King so this is great so a flatter radius is great for bends yes tighter radius is great for cords of course right so this is kind of in between in between you get both that's right there's a radius yeah you can see that curve yeah that's a nine and a half that means this board is curved like that yeah and it's ending up at a 12 and if you put these two together you can see the difference so then we're using these gauges to check the radius of our board but then we've got under string radius gauges to measure the radius of the bridges right you want the radius of your bridge to match the radius of your neck right and fenders are individually adjustable so you have to adjust each one in this case it would be if it starts at a nine and a half hits the 12 it's going to keep flattening and especially I play little funkia I will play bands so I do not use exactly 12 I just do use that to get the basic measurement and I raise other side a little bit higher so that way guitar Rings you know you need to know what radius of your guitar and use that to measure so that you are in a really good spot and after that you can use your taste to lower or higher let's look at this with an under string gauge there you go now that's a 20. so it does get more difficult on a compound radius because the radius is changing yeah all the way yeah and a lot of necks most necks it's going to be the same right I see yeah yeah yeah if it was a seven and a quarter the whole way we would just be setting this at a seven and a quarter so basically keep going on a Les Paul or Gibson guitars you won't find a compound radius right whatever the board radius is that's what you'd set under the strings of it but you don't have individual adjustables yes that's right it's easy that because it's already made to have that yes yes but you can change the radius on a Gibson by how deep you cut the slot for the string yes so during setup yeah you have to be very careful How deep the slots in this in the Saddles are because one string could be higher or lower right one thing I'll do two at the bridge is set set the radius a little bit flatter than the actual board because that that boosts the base side up a little bit people tend to like the Bayside action a little bit higher than the treble so if you set a little bit flatter at the bridge that's basically you're keeping the radius the same and then it's bringing it up slightly on this side toward that side there's a lot that goes into a setup this is a lot to take in so we have a lot of different videos that will take you through all the details of how to do a setup we're just kind of giving you a basic overview that this is something just about anybody can do with with a little bit of work a little practice some some basic tools you can set up your guitar tons of videos we have check them out but this is totally doable okay so that leads us into number four let's talk about setting pickup height in case you don't know your pickup heights are adjustable you can raise or lower them that will affect the sound you tend to get a I think a clear sound if they're lower but boosting them will also boost the volume it's a balancing act right Tomo and I know you have a great video on your Channel about this and I can see you have a way of of doing this walk us through how you show us each part's moves you know going up and down and then more you go higher definitely you gain more volume early days I thought higher is I can get more gain so I set up a high but then then somebody told me you know this magnet really pulled a string so if you play 10th Frets listen to the sound you as kind of a you know moving a little bit then lower listen to the sound wow sustain okay so I didn't know lower sounds better than higher not just because of height but just you know less magnet pull okay so that's sustained so this is my setup this side lower this is higher the gradually going a little bit higher just because pretty much the same output up pickup okay then Ria I want to have a little bit more loudness okay yeah so so you're boosting the height of this pickup just get a little more volume just a little bit especially when I play two pickups together it's kind of mild sounding so this way when I play front when I go to middle and rear same volume okay yeah that's what I do yeah so a lot of people don't realize your magnet has an attraction to the metal and the string that's right and the closer you get it to the string the more it's going to pick up that string but you get it too close yes it will interfere with the movement of that string right so you could have it too high you could also have it too low it's about finding a balance between the tone and what you like and the strength of the magnet in your picture so once again like you can try raise as high as you can listen to it the lowest you can listen to it you can hear the difference so this is an easy thing that anybody can do right that's right and you can make a guitar sounds better really you can make a pretty sweet change yeah yeah I want to really try this it's fun so experiment with your pickup height however you do it if you measure it to get it in the ballpark but ultimately it's it's what you want to hear that's right that should be the deciding fact that's why yeah so to me like you know play around 10th Frets lower notes pick the note make sure sustain really well okay yeah so that's how I decide okay so number five let's talk about intonation I think that's something all players and musicians have at least heard of if you're new to this it might be confusing but it's really easy to adjust it's something everybody should be able to do for the intonation to be right is really important if you want to play in tune it's setting the bridge saddle so as the string Rises up on a long angle and you press the string it's going to go out of tune the string isn't laying on a flat plane that's a great experience yeah yeah the harder you go the higher up the neck when you press you're going to push the string a little Out Of Tune therefore you have Saddles that can go forward or backwards right to account for that until when you get to the octave at the 12th fret the open string makes the same sound as the closed string right see how those sounds are all on it they're going like this right that's it that's because they're set to play in tune in that position yeah these two are set very much assume the G string set back this way that's where it's playing in tune if you're setting up a new guitar putting new strings on a good thing might be to bring the Saddles backwards when you string it up so that as you set the intonation you're moving forward and you won't have a kink in that string if you have all your Saddles up to the front put on new strings that'll probably play very sharp and then you bring the Saddles back and you already have a kink in front of it that's a good point so there's a little Bend in the string where it goes over the saddle and if you start out too far forward and you move back then that Kink is then in front of the saddle yeah it can and it can affect your string that's a good point if you have a Stratocaster right here you get a very good example of where your Saddles should look like depending on the gauge of strings that would be a good place to start okay so then when we set intonation yes we're comparing like Tomo said the open note yes against the Optics the 12th fret that's the one I'm not just using my ear I use a tuner right just because I can't trust my ears yeah yeah more detail okay and one more things people tend to press a little harder so I do not sit perfectly I go surely lower yes when I have a 12 Frets that's a good point yeah I do the same thing to account for the pressure the harder you squeeze see the the more you're going to raise the pitch of the note and you can compensate for that in in these Saddles so you're checking the open note on your tuner yep and then you're comparing that right to the 12th yep okay and then you're adjusting the length of the string at the Saddle so that the two notes match exactly if you can as a player you have to do by yourself because you have your own tone your touch that's how you decide that's a running theme we've got going through this is that there are some basic rules that we all kind of go by but yes ultimately it's up to the player it's what works for you it's what you want to hear yeah it's what works on your guitar it's all going to be different yeah one thing I'd like to do is just fret chords along the whole length I will adjust away from the 12th fret to correct some notes that might oh that's great bother me more in this position or in this position I think people get married to the fact that it has to be perfect it doesn't it's it's a good place to start yes but let your playing style let your ear be the judge you can correct intonation wherever I think it needs it most right so what kind of tools do we need to do this we need a screwdriver of some sort and just a good quality tuner tuner yeah a strobe tuner is nice that's what we use in the repair shop but just a good accurate you know most modern tuners are pretty accurate right so I don't use clip tuners I just see you've seen a plug-in so that the signal goes really strong and I can hear it I like my iPhone yeah yeah that's good there's a strobe Turner in that Guitar Tuna when you get that when it Chimes when you hit the time okay I must have four different ones yeah it's always your ear because you could hear the finest guitar player you're at a club and they say let's get so and so up here yeah and you might walk up on a guitar that's perfectly in tune and start to play and change something just because you hear it a little bit different that's the great about the electric guitar because this is not a piano it's just imperfect instrument it is that makes more human sound that's why we love guitar well that's a good point too that brings us into what about an acoustic guitar how do you set the intonation on an acoustic it's a little more difficult that is something you would probably want to talk to a repair shop about because it's about changing the the carve of your saddle the compensation on your saddle that gets to be a little bit much but on electric guitar this is what he's talking yeah on an electric guitar you can adjust yourself so this is a really fun part so you can adjust everything by yourself yeah check your open note against the fretted 12th start there adjust the length of your saddle to the two match if you want more detail on it like always we have plenty of videos about it check out our videos and ideas section you'll find lots of info okay so for number six we're just going to call this general maintenance just an umbrella term for the care and feeding of your guitar things like cleaning adjusting Hardware humidity just the overall sense of of how to care for your guitar Tomah what what is important to you what kind of things do you look for you know I travel trouble a lot so just in case this any screws it's not loosened so I just tighten them just a little bit like that and every time I change the strings I use dry cloth and just wipe each Frets and between so that way everything clean so that I can play really well it's not just for looks so to keep the top of your Frets clean yeah just feel smoother yeah and the wood yeah that's right if you stay on top of things like that yes it stays clean it's a much harder if you go two years without crying and then suddenly you have a bunch of Gunk you have to remove that's right and you're just doing this dry you don't even necessarily need a chemical or a cleaner if you stay on top of it right so also I I have a lot of vintage guitar if I put the cleaner I don't want to take everything off so I just everything just to dry like that I think that's a good point we deal with that a lot in the in the tech department here people taking a vintage guitar and they go and they put a Polishing Compound on it and then you don't want to take out everything yeah you're removing all the years of build up yeah if you want a nice clean shiny guitar maybe but that gets to be a a pretty intense thing to do so keep up on these things keep the guitar clean and you'll be better off so how about here like I see a lot of students sometimes you know connection really loose and what type of equipment do you use this to tighten you're talking about your output Jack here the yes it's attached to your cup this is the way you plug in and out every day and over the time this gets so loose even inside the car keep moving and so I can hear the signal go in and out it will affect the connection of your plug that's right to the inside almost a break inside of a cable yeah so Dan I'm sure you use a tool that I I like to use a lot too the frame for the Frank Ford gripper yeah we sell that it's a tool that has a threaded piece on a can that can go in and grab the inside of the Jack right but you're also putting it through a wrench the wrench holds here so you're holding the Jack and tightening it what we're talking about here for those who don't know is the jack will spin yes so as you want to tighten the nut the Jack will want to turn two and you're not getting anywhere you're actually then you're you're twisting up the wires inside yes you can cause damage so the tool Dan and I are referring to is is one made by Frank Ford that goes on the inside of the Jack and we'll we'll grip that from the inside and keep it from spinning and then on the outside there will be an actual wrench to tighten the nut so it's that's holding the Jack it's gripping the Jack and giving you a means to tighten the nut so that's just into checking your Hardware making sure like your strap buttons are yeah so struck both on another things you have to check because this pass always you're using and then getting loose and what happened is if you tighten this screw sometimes go around it stops gripping exactly no gripping right so then I take this off and I use toothpick stick in then I put the you know Screw again so that way adding a wood inside to you know catch it yeah I'm sure you've seen that a million times a million times in the shot so that's what I learned that same way I do sometimes these you know if it's so it's just a way if a screw is kind of stripped out in the wood gaining a little bit of grip into the wood again exactly that's so make sure I tighten this make sure that you know not spinning you know same way and one more thing I usually check the mounting screws about the screws because this could be a little loose so I use tools to tighten but when I hold this I tell students you don't want to go like this because then you tighten a little too much so I hold like that light then almost kind of give up a little bit if you want it tight but you don't want to overdo it exactly yeah that's the key yeah and cause damage you can strip those screws yeah too tight in general you just want to check to make sure anything that needs tightening is is tight and snug right well for my two cents worth I'd say It's always important to remember that you want your guitar to rest in a place that you'd want to rest yourself humidity dryness wetness guitar case humidifiers are good in a guitar shop we spend a lot of time trying to keep our humidity between 40 and 50 percent year round it's not easy to do but it's very doable and the same goes with your home you'll be lucky if you have a humidifier all home humidifiers yeah great but you don't want to leave your guitar out in the car in the freezing cold and say oh I'll get it tomorrow I don't want to take my I do not take my guitars out in the rain and I don't like to take my good acoustic guitars or even electrics outdoors in the spring when it's just starting to be so humid down here in Ohio take care of your guitar like you would yourself right that's a good point especially yeah if we're talking an acoustic guitar that's very sensitive to humidity right so invest in a humidity gauge that's fair to say if you have an acoustic guitar and you live somewhere where the weather gets dry especially in the winter a lot of people don't realize there's snow everywhere but that doesn't mean there's moisture in the air this room is heated yes so that's the way they're heating will dry out a guitar very very quickly so a sound hole in identifier is good if you're if you have an acoustic guitar that's got solid wood we should say that yeah you know maybe one more time what's the humidity level is good 40 60 between 40 and 50 50. okay 40 to 60 if you if you have to you know but as close to 50 as you can get general cleaning tightening your Hardware being aware of humidity just kind of general maintenance care and feeding of your guitar treat it like you would your pet like yourself just just be on top of it stay ahead of it and you'll be better off okay so that's six things right there those those are six basic things that everybody we think everybody should know right every player I really think so this thing really helps you're playing every day I mean if if your guitar is not set up right you're not going to play right everything we said here is something that is important for you and I think important too that they're things that everybody can do yes this doesn't require an enormous investment in tools or lessons or studying you know you can get this stuff down with some videos and and tools that we have out there right don't afraid just you do it don't be afraid it'll make you a better player yep you'll spend less time with guys like me and Dan paying to get your guitar fixed and more time with guys like Tomo learning how to play the guitar but but I have to learn a little bit so that I can maintain you know yeah so every player should be able to do these things yeah yeah so thank you so much for joining us thank you so much Tomo for coming all the way from Boston it's been a been a pleasure meeting you and showing you around in a real honor to work on your guitar thank you um likewise thanks so much guys that's amazing thank you guys for joining us and we will see you next time bye folks thanks for being with us thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: StewMac

Views: 273,330

Keywords: Guitar Repair, Guitar Maintenance, Guitar fix, fix guitar, diy guitar repair, DIY guitar setup, DIY guitar maintenance, dan erlewine, Tomo fujita, Gene Imbody, Stewmac, stewmac guitar, lutherie, luthiery, luthier, guitar tech, guitar repair electric, guitar maintenance electric, truss rod adjustment, truss rod adjustment electric guitar, intonation guitar, adjust intonation, guitar action, guitar action adjustment, adjust guitar action, adjust guitar action electric

Id: 0-dAFibWW84

Length: 35min 12sec (2112 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023