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What’s
more, these are the same steps—presented in the same order—as the ones taken by a
professional repair shop.
We’ll briefly discuss each procedure and tell you what tools are required. Then, we’ll tell
you how to perform them. We’ll also include a rating system to indicate the level of
ease: from 4 STARS for easy to 1 STAR for those jobs best left to the most experienced
players.
If the neck is perfectly straight, there will be a tiny gap—just enough to slip a piece of
paper or business card through—between the string and the frets in the middle of the
neck. If the neck has too much bow, or relief, the gap will be wider, and so the truss rod
must be tightened. If the neck is back bowed, the strings will lie flat against the frets,
and the truss rod must be loosened.
An experienced repair tech might simply sight down the neck (PHOTO 1) or use a
straightedge (PHOTO 2) to take a precise measurement of neck bow. When adjusting
the truss rod (PHOTO 3), turn the nut in minute increments—say, quarter turns—
checking the relief frequently, and use as little torque as possible.
As mentioned, adjusting an acoustic guitar’s bridge height requires some surgery to the
bridge saddle. Unless you have experience with this modification, leave it to the pros.
Once you’ve adjusted the truss rod and bridge, it’s time to test the guitar for clear tone.
Play FIGURE 1 in 1st positing as shown, then transpose it up to 5th position, 9th
position and so on, until you’ve covered every note on your guitar.
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2
Listen for buzzes as well as false notes—for instance, fretting an E note or bending to
what should be an E and hearing an F.
Excessive buzzing and widespread false notes mean that you’ve either dropped the
bridge too low or excessively counter-bowed the neck. If so, go back and check your
work. One or two false notes on an otherwise well-adjusted guitar indicate an
improperly crowned fret, something best corrected by a skilled tech.
3. Check
the Nut
Height
With the truss rod
and bridge fine-
tuned, we enter the
final phase of action altering. Although these days, the vast majority of nuts are well
made, even some expensive production guitars can slip through the cracks with nut
slots cut a bit too high or too low.
TOOLS A compete set of nut files, shim stock for raising the nut, X-Acto knife and
other miscellaneous tools for removing the nut, electronic tuner
HOW TO DO IT If your bridge and truss rod are up to snuff, play each string open,
then at the 1st fret (FIGURE 3).
FIGURE 3
If any open string buzzes, its string slot is low and the nut must be shimmed up. Of
course, this means the other slots must be deepened to compensate for the higher nut.
If all is clear, check the pitch with an electronic tune. A high slot will cause the notes at
the 1st fret to sound 10 to 15 cents sharper than they should. Again, the slots must be
deepened. This is serious surgery. A set of nut files is an investment for a dedicated
luthier, and cutting properly shaped nut slots takes an artisan’s touch.
D.I.Y. FACTOR ★ You need not only moderately expensive tools but also a
specialized skill. The good news is most guitars don’t need nut adjustments. If they do,
it’s a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime procedure.
HOW TO DO IT Simply remove the plastic cavity plate on the back of your axe, then
plug in and listen for the source of the noise. (On some guitars, you might have to poke
beneath the pick guard to get to the guts, but with a gentle touch you should be able to
access the offending component.)
The can of contact cleaner should have a nozzle extension that allows you to spritz any
point where dirt or oxidation is causing a noisy connection. Also, spray into the volume
and tone pots at their openings, next to the solder lugs and directly onto all switches.
Rapidly flick each switch—or twist each knob—back and forth, and then play for a
while, listening for persistent noises. Repeat as needed. Nine-volt batteries can be
tested with the old tongue test: if its terminals tingle on your tongue, the battery is fine.
D.I.Y. FACTOR ★★★★ Just don’t spray the cleaner in your eyes.
HOW TO DO IT On most
electric guitars and some
acoustics, the strings
simply slip through the
bridge or tailpiece and
are held in place with
string tension on the ball end of the string. Most steel-string acoustics use bridge pins
to hold the strings in place, and it’s important to 1) align the slot in the bridge pin with
the string, and 2) pull up on the string as you push down on the bridge pin. Nylon-
string guitars require that the string be brought through the bridge, back around, and
then woven in an under-and-over knot, as shown inPHOTO 8. To wrap the strings
properly around the tuning posts, follow the step shown in PHOTO 9.
Pass the string through the tuning post, saving about an inch of slack, as in PHOTO
10A. Hold the “speaking length” of the string tightly and bring the loose end around the
post in the direction opposite to the one in which it will wrap around the post when
tightened (PHOTO 10B). Wrap it tightly around the tuning post, beneath the speaking
length, then wrap the free end over and around the speaking length (PHOTO 10C) and
give it a downward tug (PHOTO 10D). Now bring the string up to pitch. Finally, clip
your strings with a wire cutter, or coil them neatly.
Once your guitar is tuned close to pitch, give each string a gentle tug along its entire
length, including the section between the tuners and the nuts and between the bridge
saddle and tailpiece. Give each string a series of whole- and half-step bends along its
entire length as well. Steel-string acoustics and electrics will settle to within 20 cents of
their correct pitch using this method, and nylon-string guitars will require only one or
two more tunings over a two-hour period before settling into pitch.
D.I.Y. FACTOR ★★★★ Just be gentle. These small, fine-threaded parts damage
easily under excessive wrist or arm pressure torque.
10.
Adjust
the
Pickup
Height
Here’s a little- known modification
that can really customize the response
of your electric guitar. Bring the
pickups closer to the strings if you have a
very soft touch or if you want to
compress your signal a bit with a
slightly fuller, more midrangey tone.
For players with a
heavier pick attack or for those
seeking wider dynamics and a more “airy” tone, lower the pickups slightly. Adjusting
the height of each pickup also helps to balance the output between them. Angling the
pickups—most often, sloping them down toward the low E string—may help to even out
the response across the strings.
HOW TO DO IT First, get one pickup to sound the way you want. Plug in, jam along
with a favorite CD, and try adjusting that pickup’s height up or down, using the height
adjustment screws on either side of the pickup—not the pole pieces on the pickup itself.
Some pickups with strong magnetic fields can cause a fluttering out-of-tune-ness when
they’re positioned too close to the strings, so listen carefully as you adjust, and be sure
to play along the entire fretboard after every tweak.
Then, adjust for pickup-to-pickup balance by fretting the 1st and 6th strings,
individually, at the highest fret. (There is about the same distance from the bridge to
the bridge pickup as there is from the highest fret to the neck pickup.) Play each string
as you switch between pickups. The sounds of the pickups should be nearly identical.
Conversely, you can bring one pickup closer to the strings if you want that one to ”jump
out.”
Finally, adjust for string-to-string balance by playing the 1st and 6th strings together at
different points along the fretboard (FIGURE 4); the strings should have equal
volumes at all points. Again, to achieve this balance, you’ll usually end up angling each
pickup away from the thicker strings a bit.
FIGURE 4
HOW TO DO IT With a fresh set of strings tuned to pitch, play each string at the 12th
fret. Check its pitch with the electronic tuner. It should be the same as that of the
corresponding open string.
If the fretted note is sharp, adjust the saddle so that the string’s speaking length is
longer; if it’s flat, adjust the saddle to shorten the length.
An adjustment of about 1/16th of an inch will make a noticeable difference. Note: If you
own a guitar with a floating tremolo system, such as a Floyd Rose, leave this job to a
good repair tech. Of course, most acoustic guitars have nonadjustable saddles.
D.I.Y. FACTOR ★★★★ It’s not too difficult on most electrics. But subtract all four
stars if you’ve got a floating tremolo system or if you’re working on an acoustic guitar.