How to Setup your Guitar

I believe that every musician should be able to do a full “setup” on their own instrument. However, if you’re not comfortable or don’t have the proper tools, I can help.

What’s involved? Will it really make your guitar play better? And is it possible to do it yourself, or should you leave it to a pro?

A setup is actually a series of procedures, many of which fall under the categories of “basic maintenance” and “fine adjustment.” Much like a car’s seasonal tune-up, a setup should be performed to address the changes a guitar undergoes over time, with adjustments made to the instrument in order to match your preference of strings, pickups and playing habits. A setup can also reveal potential problems before they become major headaches.

These are the steps that I will perform doing a complete setup once the guitar is brought up to pitch.

1. Adjust the Truss Rod for Proper Neck Relief

Virtually every acoustic and electric steel-string guitar built after the mid-Seventies has an adjustable truss rod, which runs the length of the neck and counteracts the tension of the strings to help keep the neck straight. Loosen it, and the strings pull the neck into a concave bow, resulting in more relief—i.e., the distance between the strings and the fretboard. Tighten it, and the neck bends backward—this is called back-bow—against the natural curve the string tension imparts, moving the strings closer to the fretboard. Neck relief varies depending on the style of playing and the type of playing. I usually adjust to around .006” at the 6th fret on acoustic guitars, .008” at the 8th fret on electric guitars and .014” at the 8th fret for bass guitars.

2. Adjust the Bridge Height

A guitar’s action should be adjusted at the bridge, not the truss rod. On an electric guitar, this is a matter of twisting the appropriate screws; on an acoustic guitar, you may have to shim or sand the bridge saddle.

Depending on the playing style of the player, the type of instrument and the fretboard radius, these are the measurements I’m aiming for. On an acoustic steel string guitar the high E - 5/64”, low E - 6/64”.  On an electric guitar high E - 2/32” and low E 3/32”. However, every player style is different and requires their own unique setup.

The key is to not have any fret buzz up and down the neck as the guitar is played.

3. Check the Nut Height

With the truss rod and bridge fine-tuned, we enter the final phase of action altering. Although these days, the vast majority of nuts are well made, even some expensive production guitars can slip through the cracks with nut slots cut a bit too high or too low.

If any open string buzzes, its string slot is low and the nut must be shimmed up or replaced. Of course, this means the other slots must be deepened to compensate for the higher nut.

All nut slots get lubricated with graphite powder to help prevent string binding.

4. Check the Electronics

Do your switches snap, crackle or pop? Does it sound like someone’s frying bacon every time you do a volume swell? A good setup includes checking a guitar’s electronics. For amplified acoustics as well as electrics with active pickups, this means a battery check (and, if necessary, replacement). Also, all the nuts and screws that anchor the guitar’s electronics should be tightened. I use De-Oxit Cleaner to clean and lubricate all pots and switches. If the cleaner doesn’t eliminate the excess noise, then it’s time to replace that component. Finally, I tighten and clean the output jack.

5. Change the Strings

All of the adjustments discussed so far are done prior to changing strings. The only time you would adjust the truss rod, bridge height and nut slots with new strings on your guitar would be when changing to a different gauge. Once the strings are changed, I stretch each one to tighten the post wraps. This will help the strings stay in tune longer. A new set of strings will also make your guitar sound better as well.

6. Check the Tuning Machine Hardware

All tuners are checked, screws tightened, tension adjusted and gears lubricated. I typically do 2 1/2 string wraps on the tuner post.

7. Clean and Check Frets

All frets are checked for level and cleaned. Any high spots or divots are leveled and crowned. Sharp edges are filed away. All setups include up to 20 minutes of fret work. However, for the lowest action possible, your guitar may require a complete fret level and crown. That is above and beyond a routine setup and requires a different procedure.

8. Clean and Oil the Fretboard

Just like polishing the frets, the fretboard is also cleaned with Naphtha followed by a small application of Lemon Oil to moisturize the wood. Lemon Oil is also applied to an unfinished acoustic guitar bridge.

9. Inspect for Structural Problems

Just as string tension can hide loose tuning gears, it can hide loose joints and cracks. Bolt-neck electrics occasionally suffer from lose neck-joint screws, and braces within an acoustic guitar sometimes break or come unglued. All guitars are inspected for potential structural problems.

10. Adjust the Pickup Height

Pickup height is adjusted for balanced output.

11. Set the Intonation

Intonation is adjusted for proper pitch up and down the fretboard.

12. Tremelo Adjustment

All tremolos, Fender Strat style, Floyd Rose, etc are adjusted for proper tension and all metal contact points are lubricated.

13. Clean and Polish

The finishing touch! A cleaned and polish guitar just begs to be picked up and played, and that’s what it’s all about.

14. Warranty

All setups performed by Keeley Guitars comes with a 90-day warranty. If a buzz develops or the truss rod needs a fine adjustment, I’ll do that for free. Each setup comes with a warranty card.

If you’re comfortable doing a setup yourself, then GREAT!  If you need help and would like to have me do a setup, then please give me a call to schedule an appointment (509) 738-6491.

Thanks!

Photo: 1959 Gibson LG-1 and a 1925 Martin 0-18.

An Article by Gabriel Cruden, Publisher for the North Columbia Monthly

I have a 12-string guitar that belonged to a musician friend. It was given to me by his widow after he passed away at a young age from cancer in the late 1980s. The guitar had been his constant companion during his travels, from his home country of France, to Hawaii, and beyond. During his illness, the guitar was left out one evening in its case, but the case was not buckled shut, and when picked up, the guitar fell out and snapped at the top of the neck. In gifting it to me, it was hoped I might someday repair and make music with it, carrying on his memory.

A couple of decades later I did an apprenticeship with Dave Keeley, a master luthier in Kettle Falls, so that I could learn how to repair the guitar, and learn something of the craft. Dave’s shop was small and stacked to the low ceiling with raw wood, shelves full of tools, and instruments in various stages of construction and repair. Tucked in here and there were old-fashioned radios and electronic testing gear. And a workbench. It smelled of wood and pipe tobacco and varnish. It was amazing how much fit in that tiny space, yet it was meticulously organized and felt enfolding rather than cramped, like a cocoon where instruments were transformed from the wood.

Building a musical instrument takes time – a lot of time. And I remember one evening, while waiting for a piece to dry, we were talking about how we spend our time. Dave took out his tape measure and, using inches, approximated the average male life-span and then, sliding the tape measure in, deducted his age, average time sleeping, average time at work, and so on, and all the while the extended tape measure got shorter and shorter. This made an impression.

I thought too about the Frenchman whose guitar we worked on, how the measure of his life was cut so short. I thought about how precious and fleeting life can be. And I began what was to become a perennial analysis of how I was spending my own time.

The other day I got to be the one wielding the tape measure in my own shop. It was for my 13-year-old son, who is in a great hurry to be driving and to have a job and an apartment and unlimited access to snacks. After my re-creation of the tape measure experience, I could see that my son was still rattling around, feeling ready for bigger and more, but I think he also heard me because he came back a few days later with a list of goals for this year, things he can do and work toward now. Things that embrace what is here before him rather than the imagined and desired future, representing a shift in focus that allows for seeing the bird of prey in the tree and not just the distant moon framed by the branches.

One of his goals was to climb the mountain beyond our back pasture, solo. And he did it. Looking ahead is important, I would tell him. And so is being in your life, fully, on the way there.

It’s been 2 ½ Years…….

Wow, so apparently it’s been 2 ½ years since I wrote a new blog post. It’s also been 3 ½ years since I quit my day job and pursued luthiery as my fulltime passion. I’m happy to say it’s definitely no longer a hobby. Even with the pandemic, I’m still in business and doing fine.

A lot of things have happened in the last 2 ½ years. First and foremost, Melinda and I married in September 2018. We share every day together and continue growing closer. Our wedding was a fun celebration at Crandall’s Orchard on Lake Roosevelt with some of our closest beloved friends. For music we hired the real deal R&B singer Max Daniels and Nu Jack City. The food was delicious, everyone had a great time and we “danced until dawn.”

Melinda and I attended several local guitar shows to display my instruments. The first show was an evening with guitar legend Andy McKee at the majestic art deco Fox Theater in Spokane. If you’ve never heard of Andy McKee, I highly recommend you look him up. His fingerstyle technique is unlike any other and his playing is almost hypnotic. His show was a lot of fun and we got to hang out with several other instrument builders from eastern Washington. Another show I was invited to participate in was with Jenifer Batten. Jenifer Batten is a guitarist who toured on Michael Jackson’s last 3 world tours and then later toured and recorded with Jeff Beck.  Only a handful of luthiers were chosen to participate. Unfortunately, the show was canceled by Jenifer at the last minute. The third show I was excited to participate in was the Spokane Fall Folk Festival. This festival showcases the diversity of our community through music, dancing and the arts. I rented a booth beside a dozen regional guitar builders from the Pacific Northwest. We shared 2 days of networking with new clients and building friendships with the other builders. For this show I brought several handmade Irish Bouzoukis and a 10-string Cittern. I was shocked by the number of Irish Bouzouki players in the Spokane area and even more surprised by the interest in the Cittern. Apparently Citterns are not common but highly sought after in the bouzouki circles. The show was a huge success with several instrument sales!  Hopefully there will be a show in 2021 and I will be ready with some new Bouzoukis and Citterns, as well as a few acoustic guitars.

In the last 2 ½ years I had a graduate of the Roberto Venn School of Luthiery as an apprentice and a local musician as shop helper. I’m very happy to share with you that I will have a new apprentice starting in October. John Prietto is a semi-retired architect whose hobby is woodworking and furniture making. He has a background in AutoCAD design and can assist me with learning CNC. With a small shop I really don’t have room for an apprentice or internship. My shop is only 14’x20’. However, John has his own shop, tools, tone woods, books and jigs and is ready to start building. John is an accomplished mandolin player and as they say, strike when the iron is hot. Stay tuned as I’ll be sharing photos in the coming months!

Do I have any advice on getting into luthiery as a career? My best advice is “no, I don’t”. It’s either in you or it’s not. If you don’t have the confidence to go out and do it, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. The person who can do this and barely make a living has to have the necessary hand skills. You have to be able to do good quality work. You have to look at your work and say, ‘this isn’t finished’, ‘this isn’t good enough’, ‘I have to redo this’. You’re always striving for perfection. Flawless perfection. A good journeyman knows how to hide their mistakes. I am the first to admit that I am not a master. I work hard every day trying to do a good job.

My bread and butter comes mainly from doing instrument repair and restorations. This takes up a fair share of my time. The other 10% of my time is building new instruments. I try to build about 4 new instruments each year, mostly during the winter months when business slows down.

In this field you have to be continuously learning. You have to do research and know where to find information. Work with your local library to help you with very difficult to find or very expensive out-of-print books. This may sound weird, but you absolutely have to know what you don’t know. You have to be good at budgeting; to know where you’re going to spend your money; what kind of stock to have on hand, parts, inventory and materials. Identify what the market wants otherwise you’re spending money on materials that won’t sell. You have to be able to source those materials. You need to know your vendors, be able to put up with shipping delays or backorders. I’ve had some parts take over a month to arrive!

You have to be good at self-marketing and promotion. If you’re going to build guitars, you have to get them out in front of the public. Attend guitar shows. Where are the local guitar shows? Spokane has had a few guitar shows, but the major shows are on the west coast in Anacortes, WA, Portland, OR and Healdsburg, CA. If you’re going to fix guitars you have to talk to musicians. Gain their trust and gain referrals. Go to open mics, go to gigs. My best clients come from very good referrals. Therefore, I don’t advertise in the traditional way like most businesses do. Other than Facebook or my website, it’s all word of mouth.

Many of my clients contact me through Facebook, but what was once a cool forum to promote pictures of guitars and see what other projects my friends are working on has now mostly turned into a cesspool of nasty politics and stupid memes. Therefore I’ve decided to move my online promotion to Instagram with minimal promotion on my Facebook business page – Keeley Guitars. As for my personal Facebook page? Well, that will go away very soon.

Ultimately, it’s the human interaction, establishing positive relationships with my customers and great referrals that keep me going.

You have to be self-motivated because there is no boss. You need to be good at customer relations because you have to talk to people. You need to know what they want and be able to tell them what they need as well. You have to assess the instrument and determine if it’s worth working on. You also have to size up people you don’t want to work for because, believe me, they are going to find you! Although I am honest and sincere with my customers, I still have a lot to learn about dealing with some customers that are a real pain in the butt. People-relation skills. You have to learn how to do that, or you have to learn how to fake it! However, I am truly grateful for the customers I do have. Without them, I could not pursue my passion.

If you have all these skills in a single package, there are so many other jobs you could be doing that would make you a lot more money, be a lot more secure and be far less precarious. It doesn’t make any economic sense to do this. In the end if a person is bound and determined and says “I don’t care that it’s not rational for me to do this”, that is the person that will be the one to succeed.

For the love of it!                    

Don’t be under the illusion that’s it’s an easy life. It’s a rewarding life, but it’s not an easy one. There are so many things out there to be concerned about. What if I get sick? What if I can’t do this difficult repair? What if I make a mistake? As I mentioned earlier, you just need to know what you don’t know. Know when it’s okay to refuse a difficult repair. Ask for help from an experienced luthier. I could worry about so many other things, but why? Keep learning and striving for perfection. I will continue to focus on my work. My craft. Luthiery…