The idea behind this column is to give you additional information about guitar repair and maintenance topics. Whether you would want to perform these procedures yourself or not, knowledge is power. Having more information about these topics will enable you to better understand what to expect when these procedures are performed on your guitar, and whether you might realize a substantial benefit in the first place.

We would caution you that there are many ways to skin a cat, and that there are opinions about these topics that differ from our own. Take what makes sense to you and add it to your information arsenal. Leave behind anything that doesn't sound right. If you know better, let us know. We wanna learn too!

About Fret Leveling
About Fret Crowning
About Fret Polishing
About Setups (Part 1)
About Setups (Part 2)

About Fret Leveling

A common request of a repair person is a setup with "low action, no buzz". However, as the action goes lower on any guitar, the buzz increases, so the standard reply could be "which do you want more?". There is a tradeoff for low action, and it is increased buzz. The action goes lower, the buzz increases, and at some point, you cross a line where the buzz becomes problematic, and this line varies from player to player.

The ultimate determiner of how low the action can get before buzz becomes a problem is the degree to which the frets are level. By this we mean level relative to each other, so if you put a straightedge on the neck (positioning it so that it in the "lie" of one of the strings), it would make contact with the top of every fret. (Don't be confused with the issue of forward bow, or relief, here. When leveling, we want no relief, we want level. Relief comes into play subsequently, during setup.)

When the frets are perfectly level, as a string is fretted, it barely clears the adjacent fret. When the frets are not level, as a string is fretted against a fret that is lower than its neighbor, the string no longer clears the neighboring fret, and so it buzzes against it. The buzz may be fairly minimal, so that you can still clearly hear the note, or it may be so severe that the note is completely choked, or it could be anywhere in between. These are often referred to as dead spots.

So it becomes clear that a guitar that has uneven frets will buzz more in some areas of the fretboard than others. On the other hand, on a guitar with level frets, if you lower the action enough so that the guitar becomes buzzy, the buzz will be pretty consistent across all of the frets. If your guitar has dead spots, or areas where the buzz is noticeably worse in some areas than others, then you will benefit from a fret level, assuming you have enough height left in the frets to accommodate leveling (more below).

Fret unevenness is caused by poor installation/leveling to begin with, wear, movement of the frets due to dimensional instability of the fretboard (which changes with fluctuations in humidity, assuming you have a wood fretboard), and other reasons.

Fret leveling involves abrading the tops of the frets until they are all level with each other. The idea is to take down all of the high spots until they are even with the lowest spots. This can be done with abrasives or files, but as mentioned, there must be enough fret material left to allow you to remove some and still have enough left after leveling for the guitar to feel good. If there's not enough material for this, then a refret is required.

New frets can usually be leveled once or twice, depending on their height. Some wire, such as Dunlop 6100 or 6105, is very tall, and will accommodate more levelings than shorter wire, such as Dunlop 6130 and 6230.

At Acme, we level frets with a 24" long piece of 1" x 2" box-section steel that has had the 1" edges surface ground (a very precise method for flattening a surface). One of the edges was then coated with industrial diamond abrasive. Because the bar is long enough to contact all of the frets simultaneously, and because the two skinny edges (one plain, one diamond-coated) are extremely flat, leveling is simply a process of marking the tops of all of the frets with a marker, and then hogging away with the diamond-coated edge until the marker is removed from the tops of all of the frets, indicating that the bar is making contact with every fret.

This is an over-simplification, but is basically accurate. There are additional steps, such as adjusting the truss rod where we want it first (varies depending on the situation), and locking the neck in place to minimize deflection as we are hogging off the fret tops (a crucial step).

One key point in our minds is the use of an abrasive device that is long enough to contact all of the frets simultaneously, as opposed to using something shorter like a 10" mill file. The long bar is effectively surface grinding the tops of the frets, a proven technique for getting something flat (like some of the internals in your car's engine).

Anyway, this removal of the high spots results in a neck where the tops of all of the frets are level, flat (no longer rounded), and have big scratches on them (a problem); but we are out of time! Next month's newsletter will pick up at this point and talk about the next steps: crowning and polishing.

(back to top)

About Fret Crowning

When we left off last month, we had a neck where the tops of all of the frets are level, flat (no longer rounded), and had big scratches on them (yikes!). If you played the guitar at this point, it would feel like the frets were made of sandpaper, so obviously this situation needs to be addressed.

The fact that the frets are flat on top isn't good either. Assuming the frets are .050" - .100" wide, having them flat on top could alter the string length by .025" - .050", which is enough to throw off your intonation.

Hmmm... does this require additional explanation? Yes? Okay, let's discuss scale length. Scale length is the length of the "vibrating portion" of your strings (from the fretboard-side of the nut to the saddle). On a Strat, this is 25.5 inches before intonation compensation. The width of each interval on the fingerboard is calculated based on this measurement, to 3 or 4 decimal places, using a logarithmic formula:

25.5 / 17.817 = 1.431" (width of first interval, or fret)
25.5 - 1.431 = 24.069 (remainder of scale)

24.069 / 17.817 = 1.351" (width of second interval, or fret)
24.069 - 1.351 = 22.718 (remainder of scale)

22.718 / 17.817 = 1.275" (width of third interval, or fret)
22.718 - 1.275 = 21.443 (remainder of scale)

etc etc etc. Sleeping yet?

The reason the fret placement is calculated so precisely (and the fret slots cut correspondingly precisely, at least on good guitars) is because you would hear it if they weren't. The guitar would be out of tune to the degree that the fret placement was off. Even a small amount, like .025" (25 thousandths of an inch) would be noticeable, you would hear the notes beating against each other. Beating is that "throbbing" you sometimes hear between two notes, especially with distortion.

The accurate fret placement is only effective if the top of the fret corresponds to the position of the slot itself. If the fret is round on top, the string makes contact in the middle of the fret, in line with the middle of the slot. Hog off the top of the fret so it is flat on top, and now the edge of the fret where the string "breaks" is off from the centerline by up to .050". As you move up the fretboard, this error is compounded because the .050" or whatever becomes a larger and larger percentage of the remaining string length.

So it's important that the frets remain round on top.

But our frets are flat on top.

So we need to round them. We can do this with abrasives or files. The idea is to round the shoulders of each fret WITHOUT REMOVING ANY MATERIAL FROM THE TOP. Let's qualify this by saying that we are only concerned with the section down the middle of the top (where the strings will ultimately make contact), because we spent so much time leveling the tops last month. The last thing we want to do at this point is remove material from this section. The easiest way to do this consistently is with markers and crowning files.

If we mark the tops of the frets with a marker, we can see at a glance if any material gets removed from them. Then we can use a crowning file to remove the shoulders (the square edges) while monitoring the marked tops to make sure that the marker is not removed down the center of the tops. A crowning file is one who's narrow edges have a groove milled or formed in them. This groove has teeth cut in it (or is coated with industrial diamond), so that it will leave a convex edge on a surface as it cuts. As the file is passed over a fret, this groove begins to knock off the corners, turning the top from a flat surface back to a rounded surface. Careful monitoring of the marked tops and an experienced hand will result in frets that have the merest sliver of marker remaining down the center of each fret, ensuring that they are nearly perfectly rounded, but that the tops are still level.

Whew! Okay, that's it for this month. Next month, we'll pick back up and finish this topic once and for all with the final step: polishing.

(back to top)

About Fret Polishing

When we left off last time, we had finished leveling and crowning the frets. At this point, the tops of the frets would all be level with each other, and the tops would also be rounded (crowned). However, you'll recall that the initial leveling left the frets with scratches in their tops, and this would make the guitar uncomfortable to play, especially if you bend the strings. The guitar would feel "scratchy".

So at this point, we need to get the scratches out, and this step is typically called polishing.

Here's how abrasives work: As you sand something, the abrasive particles scratch the surface you’re sanding. The sanding may make the surface "flat" (a relative term, as we shall see), but it also scratches it. If you sanded with 120 grit sandpaper, you would have relatively large scratches, and if you looked at a photomicrograph of the surface, you would see that it didn't look flat at all. The scratches would look like huge valleys.

You would then follow up with the next grit, like maybe 220, and this would also scratch the surface, but because the abrasive particles are smaller, the scratches would be smaller than the 120 grit scratches. The idea with sanding is to obliterate the larger scratches from the previous grit with smaller scratches from the current grit. As you move up through the grits, each time completely obliterating the larger scratches from the previous grit, the scratches will get smaller and smaller with each successive grit until you can no longer see them with the naked eye.

<digression>

Surface flatness is something of a science. There are actually gauges made to measure this, and they come in various types and with different levels of accuracy and expense. There are machines that will measure surface roughness in millionths of inches, so you can see that "flat" is indeed a relative term.

One simple type of surface roughness gauge is a cylinder with graduations on the side. You set it on the workpiece, and then look at its reflection in the workpiece. The flatter the workpiece, the less distortion in the reflection, and the more of the graduations you can read. The highest graduation that is readable indicates the degree of flatness. If you want to see something really flat, open an old computer hard drive (you know, one of those old 20G drives) and look at the platter(s). Now that is flat.

</digression>

To get the frets really shiny (meaning that the scratches are really tiny), the final steps may be done with buffing compounds. Some repair people finish with 0000 steel wool, which is pretty fine, but won't leave a finish as shiny as buffing will.

You'll recall that at Acme, we use a surface-ground bar to level frets. One edge is coated with industrial diamond (which is fairly coarse: 220-320), and the other side has no coating. After crowning, we use various grits of sandpaper adhered to this uncoated edge (using the bar in the same way it was initially used for leveling), and finish with 600 grit paper. The final step is to mark the tops of the frets one last time, with the neck still held in the jig to prevent deflection, and use the 600 grit paper to remove the marker from the tops. This leaves the tops with very small scratches, while ensuring that everything is still level.

The final step is to buff the frets. A buffer is just a felt or muslin wheel that is "loaded" with very fine abrasive. This abrasive usually comes in a stick form (in various grits, all of which are very fine), and the stick is pressed against the rotating wheel to load it with abrasive. The guitar neck is then passed across the face of the wheel, back and forth, until the scratches from the 600 grit paper are obliterated. Acme has two buffers, each with a coarse and a fine set of buffs. One buffer is dedicated to polishing metal and the other buffer is set up for finishes (like lacquer).

The frets are first buffed using the coarse abrasive, which obliterates the 600 grit scratches, and then the fine abrasive obliterates the scratches from the coarse abrasive. And at that point, the frets look like little pieces of sterling silver jewelry. They look bee-yoo-tiful!

And the final steps are cleanup, restringing, and setup. Next month we'll discuss setups.

(back to top)

About Setups (Part 1)

Okay, the last few columns dealt with fret-leveling. I stated then that a guitar's ability to play well is dependent on the frets being level, but once they are level, then the setup is critical. Level frets are only half the equation, the setup is the other part.

A setup means an overall adjustment and servicing. Different shops give you different things with their setups, but you should expect that it will include adjusting everything that is adjustable, and making sure that the guitar is as mechanically functional as it can be. Since everyone needs their guitar setup from time to time, we'll take the setup process from the top.

Acme's list includes cleaning the electronics with DeoxIT, cleaning the fretboard, tightening any loose hardware, adding the proper washers to the input jack (if not already there) and tightening it to make sure it stays tight, restringing, and then adjusting the truss rod, nut slots, string height, and intonation. Let's start at the beginning:

Take the old strings off and throw them away. There is no reason to keep them. Throw them away, they are trash. Okay, next step:

Clean the electronics. The best stuff I know of for this is Caig Chemical's DeoxIT. This stuff is squirted or sprayed into the pots, on the switch contacts, and into the jack. The component is then "worked" a couple of times (the pots are rotated back and forth, etc), and voilà, no more crackling when you turn the pot or work the switch! This stuff is amazing at cleaning corrosion from electrical contacts, and is available in different strengths (5% and 100%), and with different types of applicators. The sprays are convenient, but messy, and you don't want the overspray all over everything, especially plastic parts and your paint. I use a little bottle of the 100% solution with a needle applicator that is sometimes difficult to get into tight spaces, but it puts the stuff only where you want it. DeoxIT is available online directly from Caig.

If the component is still crackling after using DeoxIT, replace it or have it replaced, unless it was made before 1965, in which case you can sell it to your favorite vintage dealer and go on a short vacation with the proceeds.

Next, we use 0000 steel wool to clean the fretboard/frets, except on maple fretboards, where we use it to clean the frets only (we tape off the wood with masking tape). Steel wool does a great job of removing corrosion from the frets, but there are drawbacks. You want to avoid steel wool that has oil in it, if possible, and you want to be careful not to scratch your finish. Tape off the body around the fingerboard with masking tape (low-tack drafting tape might be the way to go on an old finish), and tape off the pickups while you're at it. You don't want the steel fibers that break off to work their way into the windings (it is a fact that the steel fibers will be attracted to those sexy pickups). Run the steel wool up and down the neck, and clean the corrosion off the frets. Don't worry that the wool is going at right angles to the frets, this is a non-issue.

After cleaning with steel wool, vacuum off the steel wool fibers that remain, remove the tape, and clean the fretboard with naphtha. If you don't have naphtha, you should go buy some at Home Depot, or you can buy Ronsonol lighter fluid at a 7-11 or somewhere (this is 100% naphtha). Naphtha can be squirted on a guitar without fear of hurting anything (just don't light a match!), it is really pretty safe in terms of not damaging your guitar, including plastic and paint (even nitro). This doesn't mean soak your guitar in it, but a little here and there won't hurt anything, and it evaporates really quickly (make sure you have good ventilation). It is a great degreaser, and also really good at dissolving gummy label glue, etc. Handy around the house too, for these sorts of applications. It will clean your fretboard right up, use a white paper towel and you will see that it turns black from the steel wool, so you want to degrease after using steel wool. This will also dry the fretboard, and you can oil it if you want, but I never do. Ebony can almost be considered to be non-porous, its pores are so small, so I don't think oiling it gets the oil very far past the surface; rosewood on the other hand is very oily to begin with. Maple is a non-issue, since it's normally finished. Fretboards pick up oils from your skin as well.

Tighten the jack. Wait, add washers to it first if needed, then tighten it. You want a star washer (internal-tooth lockwasher) on the inside, between the jack and the jackplate, and a flat washer on the outside, between the nut and the jackplate. The fact that some guitar manufacturers don't use a flat washer indicates that they have no one on staff who has ever studied bolting technology. That's why their jacks consistently come loose. They come loose, and then people try to tighten them from the outside of the guitar, but the nut doesn't really tighten because the jack just rotates inside the guitar, twisting the wires, which ultimately break. At this point, the guitar is taken into the shop with the complaint that the pickups don't work, but really the pickups are fine, the jack wires have just broken.

So the sequence is: make sure the jack is a Switchcraft jack (did I mention that? if it isn't, consider replacing it; they cost $2.50 and will last you for the next 40 years; we ship ours with the correct washers), make sure you have a star washer on the inside and a flat washer on the outside, put a drop of Loc-Tite on the threads, and then hold the jack with one hand while you tighten the nut securely with a 1/2 inch wrench, socket, or nutdriver. There. Fixed forever.

Tighten any loose hardware (like the tuner bushings), then restring the guitar, tune it up, and cut the excess string ends off. Really. You could poke someone's eye out.

Next month, we adjust.

(back to top)

About Setups (Part 2)

The last tech article was about setups, and finished up with restringing the guitar. At this point, you need to begin adjusting. There are several adjustments to be made, and they should be made in this order: adjust the truss rod, then adjust the string height (action), then adjust the intonation. Always this order, with the caveat that if you have a floating tremolo there are a couple of additional steps. If you don't have a floating trem, you can skip the section below that's defined by asterisks, as this part pertains only to floating trems.

Also, I left out adjusting the nut slots. This would be done prior to the string height adjustment, but since it requires special tools, I left it out. This is an area where a novice can get in trouble in a hurry; there's a fine line between "it can go a little deeper" and "oops!", and cutting a slot too deep is not something that's always easy to recover from. If you really want to do your own, and you're willing to invest $60-$80 for files, email us and we'll fill you in. Most good guitars have their slots cut relatively well from the factory, but improvement can typically be made, except on guitars where the maker really dials it in, like Anderson, Suhr, Grosh, etc. If you're convinced your slots should be cut lower, consider taking the guitar to a qualified tech, as this is something that will only need to be done once.

After typing the rest of this article, I decided to add this paragraph near the top. I hadn't realized until I started typing how much information there is to impart on this subject; it seems simple to me, but it really is a lot of information (and undoubtedly I've failed to mention some key points and will be taken to task), and might seem a little overwhelming. But here's the deal, you can become knowledgeable about this subject and learn to make adjustments to your guitar yourself, but it might take you a little while to master it. If your guitar needs a setup, you might as well try your hand at this, because the worst thing that would happen is you'll get things a little out of whack and have to take it to your tech, but if it needed a setup you needed to do that anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. But over time you'll get the hang of it, and you might very well save yourself some money over the long haul. So we would encourage you to roll up your sleeves and give it a shot.

***********************************************************************

Regarding floating tremolos, the original Strat tremolo was designed to float (meaning that the tremolo's rear edge is raised up off the body), anyone who doubts that this is true should look at the patent drawings submitted by Leo Fender. That doesn't mean that you need to set your bridge to float though, set it how you like it.

A floating tremolo has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that the pitch can be modulated both above and below "zero" (actually, this is only an advantage in some people's eyes, others consider it to be a disadvantage); and the other advantage is that the "action" of the trem is really nice, especially if you use a trem to sweeten up chords like SRV did on Lenny and Riviera Paradise.

The big disadvantages of a floating trem are a) if one string breaks, the others go instantly out of tune, and b) when you bend one string, any droning open strings go flat. This is caused by the fact that the trem is being balanced between two forces: the strings pulling it on the top and the springs pulling it on the bottom. When a string breaks, the force on the top is reduced, upsetting the balance. When you bend a string, this pulls the bridge forward, again upsetting the balance, and causing the other strings to go flat. There is a tool called a TremSetter that was designed to minimize this, but I think that it really changes the feel of a nice floating trem, so unless you just can't live with this "flatting of the other strings" phenomenon, you might want to steer clear of TremSetters. This article won't attempt to explain how to adjust a TremSetter.

If your guitar has a trem and you want it to float, you will want to lock it in place until all of the other adjustments are made, especially if it's designed to float at an angle (the front of the trem against the body, with the rear of the trem raised). This applies even if your bridge seems to be floating in the correct position. Trying to make the action and intonation adjustments while the bridge is floating can be an exercise in futility, so do yourself a favor and lock it in place. The easiest way to do this is to wedge it in place.

By the way, the "correct position" referred to in the last paragraph will vary depending on the bridge type. The Fender vintage trem and American Standard (two-post) trem are designed to float with their front edge down and their rear edge up, with approximately 3/32" gap between the bridge and the body at the rear edge. Floyd Rose and some Wilkinson trems, on the other hand, are designed to float parallel to the face of the guitar. If your trem is other than the ones mentioned, you'll need to research how it should be positioned.

So here's how you lock the trem in place while you perform the other adjustments. First, loosen the two screws that hold the claw in the rear of the guitar (ideally, you'll want a #2 Phillips screwdriver with an 8" or longer shank). This claw holds the springs that apply force to the bottom of the trem, loosening its screws will allow the bridge's rear edge to rise. You don't need to loosen them to the point where the screws fall out, but loosen them several turns so the rear edge of the bridge is higher than it should be.

Now, in the rear of the guitar, look for the gap between the trem block (the metal block that the springs plug into) and the rear wall of the trem cavity (the wall closest to the butt of the guitar), and push a small wedge into it. This wedge is something you can make out of wood; it should be about 1/2" wide, 1.5" long, and taper from roughly 1/8" to 3/8" in thickness. The thickness is not set in stone, you may need to alter it based on how wide this gap is. As you push the wedge into the gap, you'll see that it forces the rear edge of the trem back down towards the top of the guitar. Push it in until the bridge is positioned in its proper floating position.

Be sure to push the wedge in at the center of the block, that way you'll be able to use the long screwdriver a little later to adjust the two claw screws without moving the wedge.

Now, with the wedge in place, you'll see that you can tune the guitar to pitch without the bridge pulling up. The wedge has locked the bridge in place, but you have to be careful during the rest of the adjustments that you don't dislodge it since the wedge will be sticking out of the back of the guitar. Take care when you hold the guitar, and especially if you lay it down on a bench or table, that you don't dislodge the wedge.

Now you're ready to make the other adjustments.

***********************************************************************

1) Truss Rod Adjustment

The truss rod's purpose is not to adjust the action, but to adjust the neck's straightness. Ideally, you would want a perfectly straight neck, where the tops of all of the frets would be in a level plane. However, due to the elliptical vibration pattern of the strings, having a straight neck creates more buzz than most people can live with. This is because the strings' excursion is greater at, say, the 7th fret than it is at the 2nd fret. So most fretboards need to have a slight forward bow (called relief) where the curve of the fretboard mimics the strings' elliptical pattern.

If you start with a perfectly straight neck with no strings on it, and then string it to pitch, you might find that the string tension would pull the neck forward and introduce exactly the right amount of relief. On the other hand, it might not, so the neck needs to be adjustable. Also, because most necks are made of wood, they are highly affected by fluctuations in humidity. Necks can move all over the place solely due to humidity changes, so this is another reason that they must be adjustable.

Once the guitar is tuned to pitch (the pitch where it will live, E, D, C, whatever), then the idea is to adjust the neck so that it has a slight amount of relief. How much? Well, that depends on who you ask, but less is better if you can get away with it. In any case, probably between .004" and .015" or so, but there's really no right or wrong, you have to take in on a case by case basis. The more perfectly level the frets are, the less you'll need. Here's how to do it:

Hold the guitar in playing position. Assuming you're right-handed, fret the G string at the first fret with your left hand and fret it at the 14th fret (or thereabouts) with the pinky of your right hand. Now use the first finger of your right hand to tap the string somewhere near the middle (halfway between the two points where you're fretting it) and look at the gap between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret where you're doing the tapping (tapping will help you see the gap more clearly). This gap is the relief. If you consider that your high E string is probably between .009" and .011" in diameter, this will give you a frame of reference. If the gap under the strings is approximately the same as the thickness of the E string, you're in the ballpark.

If the relief is not in the ballpark, then you need to adjust the truss rod. How much? Well, that depends on whether you have excessive relief or not enough. Consider that string tension will pull a neck forward (logical, right?), and tightening the truss rod does the opposite, it pulls the neck back. So if you have too much relief, you need to tighten the rod to force the neck back, and if you don't have enough relief, you need to loosen the rod and allow the string tension to pull the neck forward. Try making adjustments in 1/8 to 1/4 turn increments, depending on how far you need to go.

A word of caution here, NOT TOO TIGHT!! If you're trying to tighten the truss rod (turning the nut clockwise just like you're tightening a screw) and it doesn't seem to want to move, understand that you can break or strip the truss rod! If you are in this situation, use caution. Try to loosen the rod first, and then tighten it. If it still seems like too much force is required, take it to a qualified tech, you DO NOT want to break the rod (the voice of experience here).

If your truss rod adjusts at the heel like on vintage Fender necks, there sometimes is nothing for it but to remove the neck enough to get at the truss rod adjusting nut, make a change, string it all back up, and see if you got it right. To minimize the "trial and error" approach dictated here, I find that if I get the neck dead straight with no string tension, then normal string tension will tend to bring the neck into the ballpark, so only minor adjustment will typically be needed.

2) String height adjustment

Once the truss rod is dialed in, you need to set the string height. Again, the more perfectly level the frets are, the lower the action can go before fret buzz becomes a problem. If you like low action and your frets are in good shape and level, you can adjust all of the strings so they're 1/16" at the last fret. Hold the guitar in playing position and adjust each string so that the gap between it and the top of the last fret is right on 1/16". You'll need a machinist's ruler for this, and be sure to slide the ruler right up against the string, otherwise it's easy to misread the height. So put the end of the ruler on the top of the last fret, and slide it right up to each string so it makes contact, and then look at the ruler, you want the 1/16" mark to just be visible under the string.

If you want higher action, or if you have some fret problems, you'll have to adjust accordingly. Note that saddles typically have two set screws to adjust their height, so make sure you adjust both screws so that the saddle remains level, you don't want the saddles cocked if you can help it (Tele bridges with vintage-style brass saddles are the notable exception).

Once you have the action adjusted, play the guitar and fret every string on every fret, listening for excessive fret buzz. Don't go crazy, when you start to really listen for fret buzz you can bet you'll start to hear some, and that's okay. Really, some fret buzz is pretty much a fact of life with most electric guitars (unless you just love really high action), and you won't hear it when the guitar is plugged in and turned up. If the buzz is pretty consistent across the neck, and not excessive, then try bending the plain strings at least a whole step all along the neck and make sure they don't "fret out". If they do, you'll have to raise those strings slightly (you'll probably only have this problem with a 7.25" radius).

If your testing reveals excessive fret buzz, or inconsistent buzz along the neck (some frets are fine, some frets have excessive buzz), then you'll either have to raise the action a little or level the frets. Inconsistent buzzing along the neck is a sure sign of fret unevenness.

Once you get the action adjusted to a level that feels goods and where the buzz is manageable, you're done.

3) Intonation

This is a whole lesson in itself, and we aren't going to get into the finer points of tempered tunings, and the merits of systems like the Buzz Feiten system (I used to be an authorized installer, in another life). Suffice it to say that you can read about this subject in all its detail on the Web.

For our purposes, we're going to discuss straight-up, old-fashioned intonation. Intonation involves changing a string's length to compensate for string height. Basically, fret positions are determined by a given scale length (such as the 25.5" scale as used on most Fenders), and if you then actually make the strings 25.5" long, they'll be out of tune when you fret them. The reason for this is because since they are hovering above the fretboard, the act of fretting them actually stretches them, and you know what happens when you stretch a string, it goes sharp. The higher the action, the more pronounced this out-of-tuneness becomes.

So string lengths are altered to compensate for this, and this is done with intonation adjustment. Here's the procedure:

Hold the guitar in playing position, and tune it using as high a quality tuner as you can get your hands on (the higher the quality, the more accurate your adjustments will be). Once all of the strings are tuned, adjust the intonation one string at a time. Tune the open string, and get it as perfect as you can (it may help to use the 12th fret harmonic instead of the open string). Now, fret it at the 12th fret, and compare the reading. Was the fretted note sharp? If so, you need to make the string longer, so adjust that saddle towards the butt of the guitar. Now re-tune the open string, and then check again. Keep at it, lengthening the string if the fretted note is sharp, shortening if it's flat, until the open string and the fretted string both read in tune. Do all of the strings, and you're done.

A couple of tips: as you're checking the tuning for each note, continually pick the string (not too hard, just steadily), every couple of seconds. This applies to both the open notes and the fretted notes, and will help you get a steadier reading on the tuner. Also, as mentioned, use the most accurate tuner you can. We have a Peterson 490 strobe tuner, but you don't have to have something this accurate for general intonation setting. Peterson has a new tuner called a StroboStomp that is a really good tuner at a reasonable price; it simulates strobes, so you can really see very small changes in pitch. Needle-type tuners are going to give somewhat questionable results, but they will certainly get you in the ballpark.

At this point, people with floating trems would still have the wedge sticking out of the back of the guitar, so this would be the final adjustment. Basically, since everything else is completely adjusted, you would tune all of the strings one final time, then simply screw the two claw screws in a few turns at a time, until the wedge begins to feel loose. Once the wedge will slip right out, you'll know you've stretched those springs to the point where they're exerting the right amount of force on the bottom of the trem to balance the string pull. Take the block out, and then hold the guitar in playing position, and check the tuning (don't tune the strings with the machine heads, just check whether they're in tune). If they're slightly flat, tighten each of the claw screws a quarter turn, and check again (if the guitar is sharp, you would loosen the claw screws a quarter-turn). Keep going in quarter-turn increments until the guitar is in tune.

Finally, once all of the adjustments are made (and assuming you don't change string gauge), understand that the only adjustment that will change on its own is the neck relief, due to humidity fluctuations. Six months from now, if the action is too high or too low, it's not because the saddle height changed all by itself, it's because the neck moved. A simple truss rod adjustment to correct the relief should bring everything else back into adjustment. You may find that once every year or two is enough to do a complete setup, with just the occasional truss rod tweak needed in the interim.

If you have a floating trem, be advised that switching from one string gauge to another will throw the trem completely out of whack, as the new strings will exert a different amount of force on the trem than the old strings. This will require a new setup.

Also, if you have a trem and you don't use it, and you want to completely lock it down so it can't move, this is easy to do. Just put all five springs on the trem and tighten the two claw springs all the way down, and this should take care of it.

Have fun, and good luck!

(back to top)