Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
If you're like me, too many guitars, and some of them frankly don't play or sound as good as they could because too many guitars and not all properly set-up, nevermind aging strings and other factors such as any guitar is not the same everyday. You're not the same everyday. The world isn't the same everyday. Just as the weather changes, so do our guitars, daily.
I have too many guitars and it's time to part with some, again. And I can't bear to part with them not finished, not playing right. It's not just monetary, it's about getting something right, and being able to pass it on with pride.
Acquisition phases, and divesting phases... When the dust settles, there should be less, a lot less... but only the cream of the crop should be left in your possession.
And do you tell what from what when half of them are somewhat lame because of common issues such as;
Nut slots too high causing sour cowboy chords. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that will make me give up on a guitar faster than one that sounds like crap in G and D, forget it.
String height off, too high, too low, making the guitar harder to play in one case or causing muted notes when strings fret out.
And if you're like me and you have a raft of electrics, pickup height is a biggie. Too high can pull the strings out of tune, causing oscillation/warble/wolf notes.
With a short list of specs and the Stew Mac gauge, I was able to set-up 5 guitars in a few hours, better than they've ever been. Three Teles, two Strats.
On two of the Teles that I built last year, the bone nut slots were still a tad high, totally wreaking havoc with my chords at the nut.
The clearance @ the 1st fret when string is depressed @ the 2nd should be .006" on the trebles and .010 on the bass strings. It's really almost nothing. Luckily for me, I finally bought nut files from .010 to .056 so I can do this and make it right. I use business card over the frets to protect while lowering the slots as needed.
When this is done, or at any time, verify your relief and adjust as needed.
On Fenders, it becomes slightly more complicated because of radius used. For 7.25" radius, relief is .012/0.3mm, for 9.5"-12", it is .010"/0.25mm, 15"-17" .008/0.2mm.
Then your string height, easy peasy on most Fender guitar. 7.25" radius = 5/64"/0.2mm Bass 4/64"/0.16mm Treble. 9.5"-12" radius = 4/64" Bass 4/64"/0.16mm Treble.
Then finally your pickup height.
For non high output p'ups 6/64"/0.24mm Bass 5/64"/0.2mm Treble with the strings held down at the last fret. For high output staggered pole piece types, 8/64"/0.36mm Bass 6/64"/0.24mm Treble
This would be a really good time to set intonation since you've done everything else.
I do it by ear, and having the correct string height helps, it prevents overly sharp fretted notes at the 12th fret.
I play the fretted note gently, and the harmonic. If the harmonic is flat, make the string longer. If the harmonic is sharp, make the string shorter.
With Teles doing two strings at a time, you just have to get lucky, and if not, they make offset saddles in brass to get around it.
Now, assuming your strings are still reasonably serviceable, you should have great playing great sounding guitars.
At this point you have a baseline for tweaking your p'ups if you like to find sweet spots.
The guitars must all be tuned dead on before making any comparisons. Dead on.
All my Strats/Teles have 10's. I tried 9's, and while they are twangier sounding, they can't take any kind of a beating for Bluegrass, they just sound terrible and on Strats I think the 10's work with the Trem system (vintage 6 screw), a lot more resonance, a lot more sustain.
At this point I was able to do a recorded shootout of three Teles, acoustically and plugged in, and the winner was surprising, because it had potential and I built it from scratch with high hopes from vintage parts but was a dog on account of everything being slightly off. In the end, it made "the" Tele I've had for 20 years redundant.
Then between that one Tele and the Strat that's been a love hate relationship since I first laid eyes on her, Excalibur. This guitar's got more personalities than Sybil, it can range from the best you've ever played to the worst you've ever played.
This Strat now playing better than ever after some latter day sorting out and back from the chopping block. A late reprieve, I went through all the motions and it sold on Reverb within two hours of posting for $2500 "offer" to my $3200 price and the buyer started being a problem instantly. I canceled it and I feel like I just got this guitar all over again. A sign from God obviously, was not time to let go.
The Strat of course did more for me than the Tele ever could, so now it was time to do this with Excalibur and a Strat of immense significance, 80's USA reissue Fullerton made Sunburst, Alder body/Rosewood board. A Strat of amazing sonic properties unplugged loud like it half acoustic, endless sustain. Consistently about twice as loud unplugged as any other Strat.
I adjusted everything on it too, strings were way high and I knew that, that's why it was louder. All things being the same, Excalibur, the one I just sold but then was saved, ended up with the absolute keeper.
It's a '74 Olympic White Hendrix lookalike Strat that's been my obsession for a long time, but at the end of the day, if a guitar doesn't play like it should, you're not going to be making music with it, just getting frustrated.
Back to the Stew Mac gauge. What a GEM! I bough it and a Chinese knockoff graduated differently at the same time and I thought I might like that one more, but I could pitch it in the trash now. The Stew Mac tool is indispensable, so easy to use, so easy to read, with glasses that is.
I do all of my guitar work with different strengths of readers. For nut filing, I use something extreme, for restringing and adjusting something milder.
This is basically just doing a little tune up on your Fender guitar. My approach has always been eyeball everything but the eyeballs aren't what they used to be, and frankly, without the String Action Gauge, you'd be hard pressed to tell 6/64" from 5/64".
Btw, even though I listed metric measurements, that's not how my brain works. I like 64th's. A very fine measurement indeed.
Score of of these gauges or chime in if you already have one.
$30 you'll never regret spending.
Excalibur.
I have too many guitars and it's time to part with some, again. And I can't bear to part with them not finished, not playing right. It's not just monetary, it's about getting something right, and being able to pass it on with pride.
Acquisition phases, and divesting phases... When the dust settles, there should be less, a lot less... but only the cream of the crop should be left in your possession.
And do you tell what from what when half of them are somewhat lame because of common issues such as;
Nut slots too high causing sour cowboy chords. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that will make me give up on a guitar faster than one that sounds like crap in G and D, forget it.
String height off, too high, too low, making the guitar harder to play in one case or causing muted notes when strings fret out.
And if you're like me and you have a raft of electrics, pickup height is a biggie. Too high can pull the strings out of tune, causing oscillation/warble/wolf notes.
With a short list of specs and the Stew Mac gauge, I was able to set-up 5 guitars in a few hours, better than they've ever been. Three Teles, two Strats.
On two of the Teles that I built last year, the bone nut slots were still a tad high, totally wreaking havoc with my chords at the nut.
The clearance @ the 1st fret when string is depressed @ the 2nd should be .006" on the trebles and .010 on the bass strings. It's really almost nothing. Luckily for me, I finally bought nut files from .010 to .056 so I can do this and make it right. I use business card over the frets to protect while lowering the slots as needed.
When this is done, or at any time, verify your relief and adjust as needed.
On Fenders, it becomes slightly more complicated because of radius used. For 7.25" radius, relief is .012/0.3mm, for 9.5"-12", it is .010"/0.25mm, 15"-17" .008/0.2mm.
Then your string height, easy peasy on most Fender guitar. 7.25" radius = 5/64"/0.2mm Bass 4/64"/0.16mm Treble. 9.5"-12" radius = 4/64" Bass 4/64"/0.16mm Treble.
Then finally your pickup height.
For non high output p'ups 6/64"/0.24mm Bass 5/64"/0.2mm Treble with the strings held down at the last fret. For high output staggered pole piece types, 8/64"/0.36mm Bass 6/64"/0.24mm Treble
This would be a really good time to set intonation since you've done everything else.
I do it by ear, and having the correct string height helps, it prevents overly sharp fretted notes at the 12th fret.
I play the fretted note gently, and the harmonic. If the harmonic is flat, make the string longer. If the harmonic is sharp, make the string shorter.
With Teles doing two strings at a time, you just have to get lucky, and if not, they make offset saddles in brass to get around it.
Now, assuming your strings are still reasonably serviceable, you should have great playing great sounding guitars.
At this point you have a baseline for tweaking your p'ups if you like to find sweet spots.
The guitars must all be tuned dead on before making any comparisons. Dead on.
All my Strats/Teles have 10's. I tried 9's, and while they are twangier sounding, they can't take any kind of a beating for Bluegrass, they just sound terrible and on Strats I think the 10's work with the Trem system (vintage 6 screw), a lot more resonance, a lot more sustain.
At this point I was able to do a recorded shootout of three Teles, acoustically and plugged in, and the winner was surprising, because it had potential and I built it from scratch with high hopes from vintage parts but was a dog on account of everything being slightly off. In the end, it made "the" Tele I've had for 20 years redundant.
Then between that one Tele and the Strat that's been a love hate relationship since I first laid eyes on her, Excalibur. This guitar's got more personalities than Sybil, it can range from the best you've ever played to the worst you've ever played.
This Strat now playing better than ever after some latter day sorting out and back from the chopping block. A late reprieve, I went through all the motions and it sold on Reverb within two hours of posting for $2500 "offer" to my $3200 price and the buyer started being a problem instantly. I canceled it and I feel like I just got this guitar all over again. A sign from God obviously, was not time to let go.
The Strat of course did more for me than the Tele ever could, so now it was time to do this with Excalibur and a Strat of immense significance, 80's USA reissue Fullerton made Sunburst, Alder body/Rosewood board. A Strat of amazing sonic properties unplugged loud like it half acoustic, endless sustain. Consistently about twice as loud unplugged as any other Strat.
I adjusted everything on it too, strings were way high and I knew that, that's why it was louder. All things being the same, Excalibur, the one I just sold but then was saved, ended up with the absolute keeper.
It's a '74 Olympic White Hendrix lookalike Strat that's been my obsession for a long time, but at the end of the day, if a guitar doesn't play like it should, you're not going to be making music with it, just getting frustrated.
Back to the Stew Mac gauge. What a GEM! I bough it and a Chinese knockoff graduated differently at the same time and I thought I might like that one more, but I could pitch it in the trash now. The Stew Mac tool is indispensable, so easy to use, so easy to read, with glasses that is.
I do all of my guitar work with different strengths of readers. For nut filing, I use something extreme, for restringing and adjusting something milder.
This is basically just doing a little tune up on your Fender guitar. My approach has always been eyeball everything but the eyeballs aren't what they used to be, and frankly, without the String Action Gauge, you'd be hard pressed to tell 6/64" from 5/64".
Btw, even though I listed metric measurements, that's not how my brain works. I like 64th's. A very fine measurement indeed.
Score of of these gauges or chime in if you already have one.
$30 you'll never regret spending.
Excalibur.
Attachments
Last edited: