When you go into your favorite guitar shop should you be able to pick up any guitar new or used and trust that it is setup the best it can be? I know we can say action is subjective, so we can say action is set by factory specs. I know that it is setup at the factory then shipped (maybe several states or more) by the time it reaches its new home it can be quite a bit different. Should the shop do another setup before putting it on display? I have been in small business all my life so I can completely understand that this may not be feasible. Sometimes its hard just to find time to use the bathroom. I wish it was my job to play different guitars each day, looking for any adjustments needed to make them better. That would be sweet.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

Whenever i buy a new guitar it comes with the free set-up, i bring it home a tweak it myself then play it for about 2 months to let it settle to my home temp and humidity and playing style, then take advantage of the free set-up, then once it comes back from the shop i tweak it all over again then do my own set-ups from then on.

good idea.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

Whenever I bag a new guitar (or even just new to me), I'll loosely set it up to my personal liking as required. I'll play it for say, a month or so and then, once I know the guitar has thoroughly acclimated to its surroundings and my goodly self, it then gets the full setup from 'A' to 'Z' (as necessary) by my goodly self.

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You dig?

I dig,

+1
+2
+3

Learning to set up a strat is a valuable skill you can use in the future.

SOLID.

It's been around 40 years since I let anybody touch the setup on any of my guitars. I do my own and pretty much always have. I'd like to say I've NEVER had a setup done but I suspect I may have had one when I was 11 or 12 and don't quite remember it.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I can say the same. I'm sure you can find good videos on youtube.com to learn setup skills. My number one warning...don't mess with the truss rod unless you know what you're doing.

another vote for DIY.
i had one setup done by a local guitar guy... very pleased with his work.
every guitar after that i've done by myself. i've used the strat setup calibrations on gretsch, squier, and my vintage penco-SG copy... oh, and my strat. they all play and sound very nicely. the gretsch and the penco were un-playable. i was pretty proud when i finished with them. i set the gretsch up for a friend of mine. he's still raving about the job i did... i just followed the directions.
YOU CAN DO IT!

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Theres only 2 people I trust to work on my guitars, other than me. I don't really use em for setup anymore, more of a sounding board.
Everybody should do their own setups. I can't see how someone can balk at the idea of putting a sticker on a guitar (silly thread on the strat forum) yet trust that same instrument to a stranger with a screwdriver in some guitar shop.

Thanks for the chuckle!!!
So true!

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

when you buy a guitar there are things to do after you get it home or to the studio or where ever you will inspect it thoroughly, if it needs a cleaning do it, restring it, set it up, play it, make any adjustments needed and you should be all good. yes it would be sweet to work at a guitar store.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

The store where I buy most of my gear -Reid Music ,Mt. Pearl,NL,Canada-has all their guitars set up and perfectly intonated before the go on display.The action is usually on the low side which suits me fine anyway so I never have to do any tweaking when I take a new guitar home.Any set up work I need done after I've had the guitar for some time, I do myself.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I believe a store should have the guitar set up reasonably well when you purchase is made. I also believe that every player should learn to make his own setup as there are so many varibles. I have found things even in very good guitars that require some additional tweaking, some of them being nut slots cut too shallow or too tight for the string gauge, truss rods in need of adjustment, pickups too low or too high, etc.. And finally these things change as the guitar adjusts to your climate and the wood dries out and shrinks. The best thing to do is learn what suits you best and makes your guitar work best for you.

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OK, I'll hum a little bit, got it now?

I believe a displayed guitar should be basically playable so I can give it a test drive. I was in a shop about a year ago and they had a Ric 360 and 330 in stock. I was ready to lay out the cash for 1 of them until I picked them up. Neither was playable at all. The sales guy offered to set them up if I waited. I said no thanks as I did not trust the condition of these "new" guitars as the shop treated them

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Am Deluxe Stratocaster HSS
Am Standard Stratocaster
Am Standard Telecaster
Blacktop Telecaster
Gretsch 6120

Pignose
Super Champ XD
60'sTwin Reverb

All the guitars should be set up once atleast. All the display guitars should be set right once a fortnight. It's not a very good sales pitch to have duff players as demonstration models is it? Surely to sell a guitar it helps for it to be playing like a dream.

I think the big hitters like Fender and Gibson should really stress that point. They do require their sellers to be trained to maintain their guitars after all.