NGD Music Man Valentine

[riverrick]

Hey all...New to this forum. And my first Music Man Guitar (Valentine). I had to wait forever to get it. Ordered it from Sweetwater. But had to wait months before it was delivered. Well worth the wait though. Where do I start? What a great guitar, the craftsmanship is unbelievable. The neck is soooo smooth. WOW!!! Frets are spot on. No cutting up your hand going up & down the neck. Love the push push control. Much easier to operate than the push pull type. I got the Trans Buttermilk finish. Love it. One thing I might change are the strings (11's) I'm wondering why they put 11's on there? I prefer 10's. Does anyone know if I switch to 10's if I'll have to have the guitar set up again?

 

[jones4tone]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on a fine guitar!

The Valentine came with 11s because that's what James wants on his guitar. There would have to be some adjustments made if you went to 10s. Nothing too complicated on a hard tail like that one, so you could do it yourself if you're so inclined.

 

[riverrick]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on a fine guitar!

The Valentine came with 11s because that's what James wants on his guitar. There would have to be some adjustments made if you went to 10s. Nothing too complicated on a hard tail like that one, so you could do it yourself if you're so inclined.

what would I need to do???

 

[Fro]

I switched to size 10 Slinky's on mine and all it needed was the intonation set.

 

[jones4tone]

what would I need to do???

Go here: FAQ | Ernie Ball Music Man

Scroll down to the question "How do I setup my Music Man guitar with hardtail bridge?" That will tell you how to quickly judge if you need to adjust the truss rod, and tell you how to do it. (There's another question further down that section with detailed instructions on the truss rod.)

I don't think they have any info on that page on adjusting intonation. You'd do better looking to youtube for a how-to than me trying to explain it.

It just takes patience to proceed in small increments, and allow the neck some time to respond when making adjustments to the truss rod. And there's nothing wrong with having someone set it up for you if you're not inclined to dive in yourself. Some enjoy the tinkering, and some don't.

 

[slr_shooter]

what would I need to do???

If anything, check neck relief. That'd be the one thing directly affected by a different string gauge. If you do need to change it, you'd want to check intonation and action after that. It's an easy adjustment once you know what to do.

 

[monte]

I actually change my string gauge on a LIII from 9s to 10s and really didn't have to do anything to the guitar and the tuning was fine. Maybe I changed it back to how it was shipped. Maybe the previous owner didn't set it up when he changed the string gauge. Either way, it is not very difficult. Just watch a video and take your time....it is a good skill to have.

 

[PeterVV]

I swapped to my usual gauge of 10 to 52, all I had to do was adjust the width of the bottom 3 strings nut slots, and was fine.