How many of you guitarists do your own setups? Are there any good, free sites explaining how to do these yourself?

I do not. I take mine to Mike Lull in Washington! He is the top luthier in the Pacific North West!

I know a local guy who builds custom guitars who has done setups for me in the past. He actually carves the bodies of his guitars by hand. He does a great job, but I'd like to be able to do it myself.

That's something I have been thinking about myself. I have 2 basses and neither one has been setup by anyone. I just play them. Not sure if a pro setup would make a huge different as I am still learning, but would like to learn how to do it myself.

So can anyone answer my question about online resources on how to do guitar setups?

here is one site but reading it and being able to do is not the same. I do all my own setups as far as intonation and adjuestments but when it comes to frets I let the Jim Foot handle that.

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

Alldat...check out http://projectguitar.com There is a ton of useful info here. Ive played around with setups and it isnt that hard as far as intonation and adjustments like Don said. If the neck needs adjusting I take it somewhere. If my frets buzz or seem a tad too high....I make those adjustments myself.

I do my own set-ups. Of coarse I have played guitar for 25 years and have worked at a music store with experianced guitar techs. I have learned from the best in my area. It is a trial and error process.

I'm still a little scared about trying to do this myself. I've always taken mine to a pro and paid them to do setups on guitars or my basses. but, I'd really like to get rid of that fret rattle on the E string on my new SX guitar and get to work finishing this new CD.

Oh, you can see the new guitar in my avatar.

Looks classy. Nice.

Someone please explain to me what this entire guitar set up thing is all about. If I can make my guitar better by trying something like this, then by golly I am gonna go for it.

I checked through the directions at a couple of sites, and I think I can do a basic set up myself. Oh, I'm not going to try to any major repairs on a guitar, but checking the intonation and string height shouldn't be too bad of a chore.

Thanks, guys!

A "setup" would be tweaking the action (string heigth, neck relief from the trussroad) and intonation. If you've never done it, and are new to dinking around with your guitar, you can experiment, but GO SLOW....you can REALLY screw up the way your axe plays (or even crack the neck or break the trussrod if you turn it too much....).


But yeah, a proper "set up" job can make a VAST difference in the way your guitar "feels".