I was having a "discussion" with someone on another forum about setting up guitars/basses. It's a newsgroup aimed at beginner guitarists and my point was that setting up a guitar was easy...
Me:
An easy-to-follow guide can be found at http://www.mrgearhead.net/
The only things I would add to that info there are:
1. Make sure you use appropriate tools of the correct size (don't use
a kitchen knife as a screwdriver!),
Other guy:
Good advice. Nut slot files are about $13USD per gauge (you'll need one for
each of the string gauges you intend to use...at least until you get used to
rocking them back and forth), a 24" straightedge (no, not a ruler) about
$55USD and some smaller straightedges (a fret rocker will cost you about
$20USD)...a leveling file is about $40USD and radius blocks (to properly
level your frets) are about $15USD each...if you only have guitars with a
single radius, this is pretty cheap. Fret crowning files are a little more,
about $150USD for 150 and 300 grit. You'll want a dressing stick for the
final fret polish and a cant saw file to get the fret ends nicely rounded,
for an electric a polarity tester, a neck rest (of course). You'll need
several grades of sandpaper to properly polish your nut, a good quality
tuner is helpful in setting the intonation ( the most accurate would be a
strobe ~$800, though the Peterson VS-II is quite nice at around $200 USD
and, as you point out, the all important Allen keys ($5 for both metric and
imperial)...
All these supplies can be purchased at www.stewmac.com
Uhm...$35 for a setup doesn't seem so bad now does it?
Me:
A strobe tuner for setting the intonation on a beginners guitar? You
need that sort of accuracy? Sure, some sort of tuner is really needed
for this (kind of conflicts with my point on another branch of this
thread, I know), but a cheapo Korg will do fine (1 cent accuracy
compared with 0.1 cent on the peterson).
Other guy:
The Korgs I've tested catch the signal at plus or minus 10-30 cents...almost
1/3 of a semitone between grabbing a signal and letting it go. Again, do a
google on this group for past threads. Just because you are a beginner
doesn't mean you are tone deaf and cannot tell a well intonated axe from one
that is unable to play in tune along the neck.
I've been doing setups on my gear for a while now, with good results... other people have played instruments setup by me and asked me to work on their guitars (we're talking professional musicians here). I generally use a cheap Korg tuner to set up with... I've no idea what he's talking about catching at +/- 10 to 30 cents...
Any ideas???
Me:
An easy-to-follow guide can be found at http://www.mrgearhead.net/
The only things I would add to that info there are:
1. Make sure you use appropriate tools of the correct size (don't use
a kitchen knife as a screwdriver!),
Other guy:
Good advice. Nut slot files are about $13USD per gauge (you'll need one for
each of the string gauges you intend to use...at least until you get used to
rocking them back and forth), a 24" straightedge (no, not a ruler) about
$55USD and some smaller straightedges (a fret rocker will cost you about
$20USD)...a leveling file is about $40USD and radius blocks (to properly
level your frets) are about $15USD each...if you only have guitars with a
single radius, this is pretty cheap. Fret crowning files are a little more,
about $150USD for 150 and 300 grit. You'll want a dressing stick for the
final fret polish and a cant saw file to get the fret ends nicely rounded,
for an electric a polarity tester, a neck rest (of course). You'll need
several grades of sandpaper to properly polish your nut, a good quality
tuner is helpful in setting the intonation ( the most accurate would be a
strobe ~$800, though the Peterson VS-II is quite nice at around $200 USD
and, as you point out, the all important Allen keys ($5 for both metric and
imperial)...
All these supplies can be purchased at www.stewmac.com
Uhm...$35 for a setup doesn't seem so bad now does it?
Me:
A strobe tuner for setting the intonation on a beginners guitar? You
need that sort of accuracy? Sure, some sort of tuner is really needed
for this (kind of conflicts with my point on another branch of this
thread, I know), but a cheapo Korg will do fine (1 cent accuracy
compared with 0.1 cent on the peterson).
Other guy:
The Korgs I've tested catch the signal at plus or minus 10-30 cents...almost
1/3 of a semitone between grabbing a signal and letting it go. Again, do a
google on this group for past threads. Just because you are a beginner
doesn't mean you are tone deaf and cannot tell a well intonated axe from one
that is unable to play in tune along the neck.
I've been doing setups on my gear for a while now, with good results... other people have played instruments setup by me and asked me to work on their guitars (we're talking professional musicians here). I generally use a cheap Korg tuner to set up with... I've no idea what he's talking about catching at +/- 10 to 30 cents...
Any ideas???