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This is an area that is roundly ignored by the great majority of guitar owners, unless 1. they own lots of valuable instruments, and don't want their collection to lose value, or 2. they're pros (rich pros), and pay guitar techs to do this for them. Unfortunately, these apply to only a small minority of guitar owners. In fact, many guitarists consider their obligation to maintain their instrument to have been discharged if they change the strings every six months or so, or when the axe becomes impossible to tune because the strings are so filthy. There's a very good summary of things to check when your guitar is misbehaving on the Dolphin Music site (it also has some of the best photos I've seen on this topic).  Strings
How often should you change your strings? There are many ways to gauge this, but I recently found a useful little table on a web page (http://www.accessrock.com/ReferenceLessons/guitarstrings_life.asp) that I'm pasting below.
Do you know the correct technique for changing your strings? There are many correct and even more incorrect ways to do it. JustStrings.com has a nice selection of YouTube clips on changing strings on acoustic and electric guitars, basses, and several other stringed instruments. Actually, you should change your strings any time that the unwound ones don't feel smooth when you run your finger along them, or if your guitar has gotten very hard to tune. Dirty strings lose their ability to resonate the harmonics of each note, and these are the source of the brightness you hear with new strings. By the way, if you wipe your strings down with a lint-free cloth every time you stop playing them, you'll extend their life by at least a factor of two. Make sure the cloth is lint-free!! If it isn't, you'll shorten the strings' life by leaving bit of cloth between the windings. One thing that helps in changing strings more often is to have a good supply of new strings in stock. Buying strings in quantity is also the way to get the best prices. Personally, I usually buy mine on Ebay, because there's always someone selling strings at great discounts. I recently bought 12 sets of Ernie Ball strings and paid $2 and change per set. D'Addarios, which I use on my acoustics, are more expensive - for 10 sets, I paid about $3.75/set. Pickup
Height Next, turn on your amp, and adjust the tone and volume to the approximate points where you usually play. Adjust one pickup at a time. I usually start with the one closest to the neck. Raise it slightly - say, by 1/4 to 1/2 turn of the adjusting screws - and play the guitar for awhile. You'll probably notice that both the volume and tone will have changed. Keep making adjustments like this until you hear a muddy, crunchy, overdriven sound (sometimes called the "wolf tone"); this indicates that you're too high. Back off on the adjustment screws by the same amount you've been raising them until you find the ideal height - the "sweet spot". Move to the next pickup(s) until you've found the sweet spots for every one. Your axe should sound louder, more full, and more responsive than it ever has.
Bridge
Adjustment The best way to start is to look
for any low spots, i.e., individual notes that buzz, usually
because the fret directly in front of each note is too high. To do
this, you need to play every note on the guitar. The easiest method is
to place the little finger of your fretting hand on the fourth fret of
the high "E" string, pick that note, then move down, one finger per
fret, ending with your index finger on the first fret. (Incidentally,
this is an excellent exercise in using your little finger and in
alternate picking.) Then, repeat the exercise on the "B" string, then
the "G", the "D", etc. When you're done with the first four frets,
start over on the high "E" string with your little finger on the 8th
fret (a "C"), moving down to the fifth fret ("A") with your index
finger. The photo to the
left shows a bride with the screws for adjusting both intonation and
string height. The six horizontal screws under each string adjust
its length, and the large thumb screws at either end of the bridge
adjust its height. Unfortunately, with this model, adjustment of
each individual string's height is not possible. However, it is
almost never found that adjacent strings are at widely differing
heights. If you're like many guitarists (including me...), you'll find yourself turning this into a speed drill! That's fine, but make sure you do at least one run slowly enough to really listen to every note for buzzing - after all, that was the idea in the first place... ;-)
Truss Rod
Adjustment [Note: all photos in this section are available as higher-resolution images by clicking] IF YOU ARE ALONE AND INEXPERIENCED!! I'll address the potential places for disaster toward the end of this section, when you're more aware of the issue involved here. The truss rod is a steel, reinforced rod that runs
the length of the neck, and is anchored above the nut and at the bottom
of the neck. So, what is the ideal shape for the
neck, to support the power of the six strings, while enabling them to
be fretted at every position without buzzing or making unwanted noises
of any kind? Hundreds of years of experimentation by thousands of
luthiers (guitar-builders) have shown that the ideal shape is slightly
warped to a concave shape. The truss rod is installed such that
increased tension on Over-reacting and over-tightening the rod would cause it to flex the other way (2nd diagram), laying the string along the frets so the guitar is unplayable. Backing off on the tension would straighten the neck, where the action is still too low; but a little additional loosening would allow a small curvature, with the strings raised just a little from the frets - this is what we want! So what's all this gloom & doom about ruining your guitar? Like I said at the start, you definitely can. The most typical destructive error is over-tightening the rod, trying to get something to happen that either can't or isn't ready. Remember that when the rod is too tight, the neck will try to become bowed, or become convex, instead of the slightly concave shape we want. When that can't happen due to normal string tension, the neck will usually start to twist to lessen the rod tension.
Useful Resources Ultimate Guitar Building "Everything you Need to Know about Guitar Building" He's an experienced luthier and builder, and the plans the accompany one of the kits he sells are first-rate. If you *really* want to give it an honest try, this is a great place to start. Ultimate Guitar Repair "Acoustic, Classical & Electric Guitar Repairs" Owned by the same folks as the building site above. It's best for you to juust check them out; you'll see that words can't adequately convey the atmosphere of the sites.
I've run across several that I'd like to share; the common thread is that they all deal with getting the exact sound you want. They're all PDF files which open in a new tab/window.
The following articles were all written by the Dean of electronic wizardry, Craig Anderton. If you've been reading Guitar Player for awhile, you may remember Craig's columns on modifying or building effects, amps, etc. His credibility as a true expert in electronics, especially as applied to electric guitars, is beyond reproach. Even if you think you know pretty much all you need about a particular subject, say, EQ, I really suggest you read Craig's article anyway. I am certain you'll find something of value. Technique: The Top 10 Effects Pedal Targets - what pedals he suggests everyone use, why, order, etc.The Guitarist's Guide to Multiband Distortion - the next big thing in chasing the perfect distortion unit The Truth about Guitar Cords - what to look for, the value of gold contacts, impedance matching. etc. All About Wire - speaker vs. instrument cables, gauges, RF interference, shielding, delicacy of cables Making Equalization Work for You - the three main uses for EQ, how to do each, parametric EQ, many tips
This short page covers standard preventive maintenance in only a superficial way, although the truss rod typically doesn't need adjustment more than once per year at the most, unless you take the guitar to a much different climate. Changing the atmospheric pressure or especially the humidity can drastically alter the guitar's equilibrium. If you'll be in new surroundings for only a few days, I wouldn't adjust the guitar to them, but if you'll be spending several weeks or more, it would be worth it. I recommend waiting until you've been in the new area for at least a week, to allow the guitar to do most of the complaining it's going to do. That way, you should only have to adjust anything once. I'll address how to fix problems that arise in a future update. Another option when setting up your guitar so that it plays exctly like you want it is to have the instrument set up using a computer-controlled PLEK machine. It straightens the neck, dresses the frets, adjusts the intonation, and other precise tasks - to tolerances of 0.0005"! Want to learn a little more? Of course! Just click the word: PLEK
When all else fails....find a Luthier For more detailed coverage of this topic, please see the page dedicated to it. A few excellent general luthier sites are the Liutaio Mottola Lutherie Information Website, the Guild of American Luthiers, the Official Luthiers Forum, the Luthier Music Corporation, Luthiers Mercantile International, Inc., and the Luthier's Collection. They're loaded with excellent general information. There are also independant luthiers, who typically do excellent work since the field is so competitive; these include Guitar Doctor. If you plan to pay someone to use powerful tools to work on your favorite axe, better get a few people whom you trust vouch for the work done by your prospect. Also, all reputable luthiers will have portfolios of "before" and "after" photos of various reconstruction or similar jobs they've done, along with contact information for previous customers. If any of these documents aren't available or look anything other than ideal, or if something in your gut just feels wrong, keep looking. There are lots of excellent luthiers around, although you may have to travel a little, and the search is most definitely worth it!
When you've tried everything! I recently did terminal damage to my DiMeola Ovation, where the top wooden sounding board was cracked all the way through. The guitar lists for over $4K, but Ovation replaced the top for a little over $500, shipping included. I'll guarantee that there's no independent luthier who could have done the same job for anywhere near that price. So keep the factory in mind, especially if it's in this country! |
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| Copyright ©2009-2012 - T. Howard Black Last Modified: Webmaster |
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To summarize,
the intonation at the 12th fret is the true octave, and the note
resulting from fretting the string at the same fret should be
identical. If the fretted note is sharp, the string is too short; use
one of the screws in the bridge to pull the bridge for that string
farther back to lengthen the string. Similarly, if the fretted note is
flat, the string is too long and must be shortened. In the photo
to the left, the intonation is being adjusted by using the six long
screws, each of which threads through a steel anchor through which each
string passes and is held.
would be amazingly
easy without the truss rod. The photo to the left shows a guitar
neck being assembled; it is ready to have the truss rod (on the left)
inserted into the groove cut for it in the neck. On the right we get a much closer view of the truss rod; it can be seen that the rod is
never just a simple round rod, but has variously shaped steel holders
for it, whose job it is to suppress any tendency to warp or bend.
Remember - six steel strings, pulled tight enough to reach the six
notes that they are tuned to, exert a tremendous amount of tension on
the wood neck, such that, without the reinforcement of the truss rod,
the neck would bend hopelessly out of shape in a short time.
