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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | This came up last week. Saw this. I do it differently, but, they have nice pictures and I have none. :( I do the action first, then the relief, only when the first two are done, then the intonation, then the strings. Oh well.
http://images.misupply.com/content/14/Guitar_Setup.pdf |
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March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | this is not at all how i set intonation. i use a chromatic tuner, and match the tone at the 12th fret (also check this against 12th fret harmonic0. this should be an exact multiple of the open string frequency, or in other words the open a should 440 cps and the 12th fret should be 880 cps, or both a, an octave apart. the saddle is moved to compensate for any difference, the string is stretched to even the change (like bending it in blues) retweaked to tune and rechecked. repeat till the reading is right on pitch for open and 12th fret.
i also do not support the guitar on the bench by the neck near the tuners when i set intonation or set the neck to be dead nuts. it is really best to have it in playing position, but placing the support under the body or close to the heel works more consistantly for me. it is surprising how much a thin neck on a heavy guitar will deflect when it is supported near the tuners.
on my eclipse, the intonation is dead on, using 10's, with the saddles in a straight line (almost). i don't think i have ever seen two guitars exactly the same in where the saddles are when intonation is correct. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I always got the neck straight first, then the action, then intonation the next day when I got tired of playing out of tune. |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Russ, I agree with you on the intonation. I think if someone does a search in the future on set up this would be a good post to review. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | Originally posted by an4340:
Russ, I agree with you on the intonation. I think if someone does a search in the future on set up this would be a good post to review.
thanks for the positive feedback. i almost always have someones guitar on the bench, if not one of mine. tweaking a guitar with a good blues cd playing and the ac on in the guitar room of my shop is one of my favorite hot season tinkerings.
it is amazing what some players put up with (and what my students bring to guitar class) that can often be corrected with outpatient surgery. my biggest reward is seeing them make a new connection with their guitar.
i just finished doing a setup on a rainbird all carbon shallow body. no truss rod and the action was evidently never set at the factory. the neck was bowed slightly with the reccommended .012's, and with no truss rod in the carbon fiber neck i thought i'd have to use lighter strings. i used a substitite saddle to lower the action and dropped it 5/32 and still had no buzz, and the neck was now almost perfectly straight. i guess the vector force of the out of line pull was enough to make the neck bow slightly. i took 5/32 off of the intonated saddle and it was a completely different guitar to play. i played it last night for a set at the club, but with driving bass and a tele playing through a blackface twin it became a feedback monster that even the notch filter couldn't handle. it was picking up sound from behind. probably best for less agressive gigs or studio work. interesting concept nicely made and not a bad guitar but at $3k list none of my pals were impressed either. really light. pretty in the stage lighting. i played a ukII for the rest of the night. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | an4340 and Russ
I didn't read the instructions in the original post as my adobe screwed up. However, I agree totally with Russ, especially on setting up electrics. his is a good reference post for setting up intonation, or setting up period, you can't do it under artificial conditions, it must be done in conditions that the guitar is going to be played. This might reveal the problems in some lesser guitars.
Bailey |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | hey bailey. i figured you would still be up. i can never just go right to bed when i get home. that line from bob seeger about the amplifiers ringing in your head---pretty right on. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Russ
I'm an hour different than some, it's a little after one o'clock here, but i have lived my life in the early morning hours. I started by working second and third shifts when first married so I could go to Kent State on the GI Bill, went to CA and worked 2nd and 3d cause that was where the money was. Where others got off work and went home for supper, I hit the Copper Penny in San Diego at one AM for some late night breakfast and closed down the Green Onion bar because of the ringing in my ears. When I started playing in bands, the night was our playground and I was already used to it. Now I am retired and I still don't get tired before two or three AM because I love the quiet and privacy that exists in those hours. I have walked the San Diego byways and loved it after midnight because of the aloneness that you get when you are truly alone and nobody even knows you are there. Yes the drums ring and the guitars sing but the silence brings the thoughts on wings of nights so black and days you know are coming.
Bailey |
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Guitar set up
