Do I need my Guitar set up? If so, how often?

A Good Setup - Think of this as regular maintenance.

What are we talking about here?

A good setup makes all of the difference in the playability and the overall sound of the guitar. Most guitars allow for a large range of adjustment. Setting up your guitar is the process of making all of those fine adjustments to make your instrument play the very best it can.

Where do we start?

It all starts at the Neck. The neck of the guitar should be almost perfectly flat, or straight. I little bit of "relief" will allow the neck to pull forward just a little bit, and this can aid in tone and playability. Neck adjustments are made by tightening, or loosening, the truss rod that is installed within the middle of the guitar neck.

Once the neck is in proper position, I like to measure the depth of the slots within the string nut. These slot depths will determine how far the strings are above the first few frets. For reference, most guitars have about .020" - .030" between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string.

Next we need to adjust the height of the string at the other end of the guitar. These adjustments can be made in several ways. In a Strat style guitar it is common to see individual saddles for each string that allows for individualized height adjustments. On a Gibson style guitar, the entire tailpiece is adjusted for height. The height of the bridge is measured at the twelfth fret. A good place to start is 2mm, or .055". You can go lower or higher from there to suit your preference.

Now that the neck is adjusted and the string height has been adjusted, you need to reset the intonation. This is a MUST any time you change the position, or the gauge, of the strings. More on that in a different article.

Now is a good time to check and adjust the height of the pickups. When adjusting the pickup heights, generally speaking the goal is to have each position of the pickup selector switch to have the same volume output when changing between positions. The change in position should change the tone only, not the output. Although......this is also a personal choice. Some guitar players prefer to have the bridge position to be louder than the other pickups in the guitar.

How Often Should an instrument be setup?

This is unique to each instrument and how often it is being played......and where! Guitars are highly sensitive to temperature and humidity changes. The wood "moves" when these changes happen. Wood can shrink and expand with humidity changes. If you have ever tuned your guitar, then set it down for a couple of days only to find that now the entire guitar is about a 1/2 step flat? What changed over the last few days when nobody was playing it? Most likely it is change in relative humidity. Working musicians think of guitar setups being completed seasonally. Having the guitar setup for summer and winter months. This is a bigger problem in Chicago than it is in Phoenix.

Does a new guitar need to be setup?

YES - absolutely. Setting up a new guitar is akin to adjusting the seats and mirrors in a new car. The first thing you should do is setup the guitar to align with all of your preferences.

Your guitar should do what YOU want it to do. You chose how heavy or light of a string you want to play. You can decide if you like the action higher up, or closer to the fretboard. These are tools to help you express yourself musically in your unique way. Questions? Send us an e-mail. We are here to help!

Ed - Lead Penguin

June 2025