For someone without that kind of experience though you should use a straight edge. Adjust it in the playing position, with only the body supported, none on the neck. I use white paper on the workbench, so it really shows up in the space between the straight edge and the guitar.

Every player should absolutely learn how to set up their own guitar. Every player has his/her own needs, and why pay $50 for a set up? It's much more rewarding to do it yourself. I learned a lot on my own and from the forums the past year or two, and this is the way to go.

I set up all my own guitars, do all of my own wiring, and hardware changes including the nut. I have also refinished my two Squiers with excellent results. Basic setups are one of the first things one should learn when they learn how to play any instrument.

Why pay $50 or even 100 for a set up?

Two fabulous reasons:

1) You have no idea how many guys out there would, have, and will continue to butcher a set up, and never ever stand a faint sniff of learning how to do it properly.
2) The guys that mess up setups, want endless mods, and think that PU changes are in the same frequency league with underwear changes, have bought me 3 very, very nice vintage guitars ( 2 Strats, and a Tele) through the years. I want them to keep coming to me, although now I just want less of them and have them pay me way more for it. And they do.

If guys keep this up, added to the fact they listen to other guys on forums and end up with inferior guitars, I will shortly purchase a Les Paul Goldtop from the mid 50's, and I've never owned one of those before. Please don't kill my dream.

I need these guys, and love them to death. Dont' discourage them, please!

If I made my living playing guitar, I'd have someone set them up.
But those days are over--it's a hobby--and with several guitars getting them set up is prohibitive. So I will get someone else to do it if the neck has shifted or there's some other problem, or I want a change--but invariably when I get a setup--even though I say I like my action where it is--when I get it back--they've lowered it. I have them readjust it & check the intonation all over again. It's a pain. The best set up I got was on my acoustic 12--the guy actually watched me play--and asked me several questions about what I liked--and the set up was incredible. And that was a set up I got for free! I had a friend who used to do them for me for free--but life goes on and changes--and that's no longer an option--although I've been in contact with him lately--and I've asked him about checking out the work I've done.

The thing about a good set up is that unless you change the string gauge to a significant degree, change the action, the wood changes drastically, you make alterations, etc, a good set up should last years if you're not touring with it-introducing it to multiple climates and sometimes unsuitable environments. It should only need tweaking at most. And this was something told to me by a guy that charges $100 for a set up--plus strings.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

"The best set up I got was on my acoustic 12--the guy actually watched me play--and asked me several questions about what I liked--and the set up was incredible."

That's a good guy to go to. I like his style of doing set ups. How a player attacks the strings, what sort of touch he uses, what style of music he plays, does he use the trem bar, left hand use, right hand use...everything plays into a setup, and I always tried best I could to get that same sort of read on my customers. Yes, I charged real money for it, but I've not once had any level of " Wow, that's a lot of $$ just for that..." type of thing. Again, you should get what you pay for.

I cannot say that about some of the guitars that were brought in...the customer many times didn't spend enough to get a truly good or great instrument, and paid dearly at the other end. For this, I have no pity.

I have allways adjusted the neck myself but didnt know how to set up the intonation, but after this thread and talking with another guitar player friend he explained how easy it is to set up your own guitar. So last night I took my 2006 MIM electron blue Starotocaster and got my tuner out and tried to set the intonation and after a little work I got it. Then I did my 1994 white stratocaster and that one was a little harder but I can say that both guitar were way sharp and now the strings are looser and they both play much better, and the wife allready wants the $100.00 I saved by doing it myself. On another note I have also started to retune any notes that go out of tune on my Baby Grand Piano and IM really starting to enjoy working on my guitars and my piano.

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1969 Tele Thinline "Natural Finish"
1994 Strat "Arctic White Squier Series"
1995 Strat "Red Squier Series"
1998 Strat "Midnight Wine Fat Strat"
2002 Strat "Sunburst"
2006 Strat "Electron Blue"
2000 Jazz Bass "Purple"

I have several of Dan Erlewines books, "How to make your electric guitar play great", and "Guitar player Repair Guide 2nd and 3rd editions" I highly recommend the 3rd edition. It has some newer stuff that is added from 2nd edition. It is a bible for us who like to repair and restore guitars.
I also have "Complete Guitar Repair" by Hideo Kamimoto which is also very good. It is not as detailed, but quite good.

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A bunch of guitars, a few amps, some pedals and some other stuff that makes noise.

See? Nothing to it.

I'm also tuning my own piano, it takes forever because I suck at it but I too am learning. Unisons are not too tough but higher treble keys are giving me a hard time...

I'm going to make one small exception to this. Over-all I do agree with this idea completely and I've been setting up and modifying my own instruments for many years. In my mind, if nothing else it's the only way to get the guitar playing -exactly- the way you want as apposed to a tech who may or may not know what they are doing and either way is going to either set the instrument up to "factory specs" or simply how he/she thinks it should be setup. However...

It also must be said that there are folks who simply lack any mechanical aptitude what so ever. There are also those who lack any degree of patience. Setting up a guitar correctly is easy for most people (once they've learned how) but there are simply those who really have no idea at all which end of the screwdriver they're supposed to hold...and such people could be better off taking their precious instruments to someone who actually knows what they are doing. There are also those who would force the proverbial round peg into a square hole and the same thing certainly applies...take it to someone who knows what they are doing.

I wanted to mention this because I have a neck out in the the garage somewhere...off of a Kramer I think...that has a snapped truss rod. This guy that I knew at the time (a real yo-yo to begin with) had brought it to me to see if I could "fix it". The guy had been adjusting his truss rod because "his strings were too high" so he kept cranking that sucker back trying to force those strings to come down until he heard that lovely "snap"...of course the problem was that his bridge saddles were simply up to high (I think the guitar had been setup for slide at one point). Anyways, when I told him the cost and what all was involved with replacing a truss rod vs. simply buying a new neck, he told me to keep the neck...I assume he bought a new one from Warmoth or Mighty Might or something as I never saw the guy again. I've kept the neck as a reminder to myself to always be patient and not to do something "dumb" out of sheer ignorance.

That said, I would encourage most people...who have a degree of mechanical aptitude and patience...to learn how to do their own setups. It really does make a wonderful difference. As far as books go, I would even take this one step further and suggest folks read "How To Build Your Own Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock. Even if you have no plans at all to build your own out of parts, let alone cut your own wood for it, it's a wonderful read into the mysteries of how and why guitars work, play and sound the way that they do. A lot of wonderful information there into this wondrous thing we call the "electric guitar".

Peace,
Jim

Great topic! I believe that I enjoy setting up my guitars as much as I do playing them now. It took a little bit of time for me to learn everything and be comfortable fiddling with parts on an expensive instrument - but once you get it down it's no problem. Not to mentions that setting up your own instrument and then picking it up and hearing/feeling the difference you just made is very satisfying!

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::Jim::
www.jimstigall.com
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2004 Fender Squire Strat Aged White
2007 Fender Deluxe Ash Stratocaster Cherry Burst
2009 Fender Telecaster Surf Green
2006 Fender Hot Rod Blues Jr.

Hey Stratheads-

This topic has really been HOT... Great to hear so many insightful responses.

I respect the point that "Setting Up" a guitar may not be for everyone. I will say however that once you learn it- you will see how much control you have over your tone, your action, and your over all playability.

The Freeze

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There's Always Room For MELLOW !!!!

2000 MIM Stratocaster, Midnight Wine W/Texas Specials
2000 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
1969 Fender Vibro Champ