Thinking about upgrading your guitar? Wait!!!

The single most important thing you can do for your guitar and one of the most important things you can do for your playing, is to have your guitar professionally set-up. To most players a set-up means adjusting the action and intonation, and a new set of strings - but these are in fact only two stages of a larger process.

Ritchie Wetherell, Barnard Castle: "Awesome work, plays like a dream now, the reduced action gave me much more confidence playing high end bar chords this weekend. No more worrying about bum notes, cramp or shredding my fingers. Already recommended setup to a friend. Cheers."

A good set-up will include making necessary adjustments to all the things that can be adjusted on your guitar; nut slot heights and profile, truss rod tension, fret level radius and dress, saddles radius and height, overall action, intonation and pickup heights.

My professional setup will give you ease of playing on the guitar you love. I will set a guitar up to get the feel that I think is right for that particular guitar. I also make adjustments to suit an individual player’s needs, for example. a hard picking punk bass playing will require a different setup to a fire side jazz man.

Bob Turnbull,: "I've been struggling to learn for the last 3 years. The guitar was killing my fingers. At one point I ever considered my teacher was the problem. John my Les Paul is a completely different guitar and now I can play power chords!"

Everyone knows what it is like, picking up someone elses guitar and going “blimey this is nice to play” or “what a great cheese grater”. Often the guitar (old or new) one likes the tone of, is put aside for another that seems easier to play –

 

Even a new guitar needs a setup…

Typically guitar makers send out their products set to an ‘average’ factory specification (Hello!! I'm looking at you Gibson!) and rarely do they invest in making fine adjustments that will bring the best out of the instrument. The guitar will usually be fairly playable, but that setting may or may not be optimal for the person buying the guitar.

Dave C, Darlington: "I'm not quite sure how you did it but the Chinese Squier that you setup for me plays better than the USA Strat (buzzes all over) that I paid £600 for. I'm definitely going to get my Guild done. Next week if you can please."

I do not offer either a fret-dress or a set-up as a standalone service unlike most Guitar Techs, but a combination of both in my deluxe set-ups. This is because, to achieve consistency and quality in the set-up, there first has to be consistency and quality in the fretboard. A set-up done with no leveling and re-profiling of the frets means that any pre-existing anomalies and inconsistencies in the fretboard may well be carried through into the set-up. In this case, the fretboard dictates the quality of the final set-up.

Deluxe Set-up - £70*

My deluxe setup service ensures that your guitar will play at it's absolute best. To do this I use industrial diamond coated tools to level the frets on your guitar and ensure the neck is absolutely straight as possible. This allows for the string action to be set as low as possible. No more buzzes or hurting hands. You may have thought your machine heads were not very good as your guitar just won't stay in tune. 99.99% of tuning problems are caused by an incorrectly slotted nut. Clean, check/adjust hardware, electronics, polish fretboard, oil if needed, restring, adjust truss rod, bridge, neck, nut slots filed/lubed, pickup height & intonation set.

Katie K, Richmond: "John a quick note to let you know my guitar is bloody brilliant now. Stays perfectly in tune even when I use the whammy bar. Boyfriend has a Futurama guitar he would like doing."

For any other services including broken headstock, full/partial refrets, pickup upgrades please contact me for a freequote.

Whether a guitar is electric acoustic or bass, and regardless of it value, it is a precision instrument that needs to be finely tuned. To get the best from your strings and from yourself as a player it is important that your instrument is set up to suit your playing style and your preferences. But whether or not you require a low action or not (and most players do) it is essential that your frets are level and smooth and your guitar is maintained to the highest possible standard.

John Wesley - March 2013

2010 Epiphone Casino Cherry Finish

The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. It is essentially Epiphone's version of the Gibson ES-330. The guitar has been associated with such guitarists as George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Dave Davies, Noel Gallagher, The Edge, Dave Grohl and Gary Clark, Jr.



This is a 2010 Epiphone Casino made in the Qingdao factory in China. (click the link for a quick tour).



The quality of Chinese Epiphone models seem to get better and better, and this particular guitar is no exception.



The owner wanted a deluxe set-up to set the action as low a possible with zero fret buzz. When the guitar arrived it had very high action (5mm at the 12th fret). The nut channel were also cut slightly smaller than the string diameter - a recipe for tuning problems.



Here the nut is removed ready to level the frets.





Here I am using an offset diamond fret file, from Stew Mac - coated with industrial-diamond particles to re-crown the tops of the frets that have been flattened.

Vintage Flat Back Mandolin Neck Repair.

This is an old flat back style mandolin with a maple top. The tuners appear to be ivory. I do not know the makers name. This mandolin had a little accident breaking the neck into two pieces.



It appears to have been repaired once before using hide glue.





All back together.





Black nitro cellulose lacquer to blend in with the original finish.

Schecter Diamond Series Hellraiser - w/ Floyd Rose - Deluxe Setup.

Schecter Diamond Series Hellraiser - w/ Floyd Rose in for deluxe setup. Customer wants action as low as possible with zero fret buzz.

3 piece mahogany body with rosewood fingerboard ~ EMG Active 81tw/89R pickups (coil tappable) ~ Floyd Rose 1000 Series whammy bridge.

Maple Cap Strat with Don Lace Pickups & Eric Clapton Mid Boost Circuit.

The Fender Eric Clapton signature Stratocaster with active pickups mid boost overdrive is just shy of £1,400. If you are wanting a Clapton Strat it is much more cost effective to have the mid boost circuit installed aftermarket.



The mid boost circuit gives you 25db of boost and changes the traditional Strat twangy sound into a thicker more Les Paul tone - ideal for solos. You can pick up a mid boost kit for around £50 on eBay and this includes the 25 DB Pre amp circuit, Tbx Tone Control, One Volume Control, a standard Tone Control, Output jack, Tone knob, and all of the other parts you need to convert your guitar into a Clapton custom. This kit is made straight from Fender. The only thing lacking in the kit are clear installation instruction. Please refer to the diagram below:

[caption id="attachment_525" align="alignnone" width="300"] Clapton Mid boost installation instructions.[/caption]



You will need to use a set of noiseless pickups with the Clapton boost. Ordinary single coil pickups will sound terrible when the boost is turned up to full, as the circuit will also amplify any electrical interference. I recommend using either Fender Noiseless, Kinman or Lace Senor pickups. The pickups used in the build are one of the earliest noiseless Lace Senors made by Don Lace, S100 pickups.



The boost circuit needs to be physically mounted inside the guitar body somewhere. A good place is under the scratch plate just above the pickup selector. If you don't want to use a router, sometimes it can be possible to mount the board in the control cavity (if there is space).



Unusually this Strat body has been converted into a hard tail by neutering the bridge block (in this case a large brass block) with epoxy resin. A good place to mount the 9v battery with easy access.

Here's a clip of Cream playing at the Royal Albert Hall is 2005. See if you can spot when Eric is playing with the boost on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2aLtDNe20 And Sunshine of Your Love - at 2:10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYYeM_t6b5c

Faith FNCEHG - Neptune High Gloss Acoustic Guitar

When I was asked to set-up this Faith High Gloss series guitar it had an action measuring 5mm at the 12th fret making bar codes very painful to play. After a fret level/dress, saddle planing and some nut work it now plays with an action of 1.5mm at the 12th fret. It's an all solid wood (Solid Engelmann Spruce top, Solid Rosewood back and sides) mid-range Faith model that retails for under £800GBP.



This guitar has some of the smoothest tuners machine heads I have ever seen. Very good for keep it in tune with a correctly slotted nut. Be aware that most tuning problems are caused by a poorly slotted nut - not by stock machine heads.



Inside shot of the sound label.



Nut removed ready for the work that should have been done before it left the factory.. Before leveling begins, I use a straight edge and adjust the truss rod to change relief on the neck, getting it into a position where it is a straight as possible. This guitar had a hump at the end of the fret board that needed leveling out.



A quick check with a radius guitar - seems Faith use the 12" radius found on Gibsons.



I use a 24" heavyweight steel beam and 320 grit adhesive abrasive paper back and forth checking to see all frets have been touched.



Once the frets are level the 12" radius is put back on the frets.



Here I'm using a diamond crown file to round the flat tops left by the leveling blocks. Depending on how much fret has been removed this can be very time consuming.

Strings back on - work bench a little messy !

Having planed down the bridge saddle the string action at the 12 fret is 1.5mm a very comfortable playing action.

Gibson USA Midtown Custom - Ebony Electric Guitar

This Gibson Midtown Custom is now discontinued. It is essentially a ES335 with a reduced body size and a flat top in place of the traditional arched top found on the ES range.



The action on this model was very high and the nut featured Gibson creative slotting technique - which renders most new Gibsons unplayable out of the box!



The neck had developed a hump between the 14 and 21st fret which needed leveling before the action could be lowered.



If you check the radius curve of all Gibson fingerboards you will find them to be 12". When leveling a fretboard it is important to keep the radius by using a radial sanding block.



Nice shiny frets.

The Specs: Country of Origin - USA Available Controls 3 Position Toggle Pickup Selector Switch Tone Volume Available Finish Antique natural, ebony (as reviewed), heritage cherry sunburst, vintage sunburst Body Style Double-cutaway, semi-solid electric Set Neck Guitar Body Material Mahogany Laminate Hardware Nashville style tune-o-matic bridge and stud tailpiece, Grover 'kidney' tuners Left Handed Model Available No Neck Material Mahogany No. of Frets 22 Nut 43mm Nut Material Corian Scale Length (mm) 628.65 Top Material Maple Weight (kg) 3.6 Pickup Type Gibson Burstbucker 1 (neck) and Burstbucker 2 (bridge) humbuckers

Tokai Love Rock Les Paul 1959 Relic LS75F

This Tokai Les Paul came in requiring a fret dress to remove 10 years of playing wear. This is LS75F a Japanese model made specifically for the UK market. 24 pcs were made circa 2002. A very nice clone of a '59 Gibson Les Paul. The guitar was advertised as having a solid maple top - and it does.



Traditionally Les Pauls have a book-matched flamed maple top (two pieces split) sitting on a mahogany body. The balance of maple-to-mahogany thickness and ratio is important to get that classic Les Paul sound. On closure inspection of this maple top the centre line of the flame does not match the maple cap under it.



The flame is actually a veneer on top of the plainsawn maple cap. Sawmills create plainsawn lumber by cutting a log lengthwise with a series of parallel cuts. This system provides excellent yield because it minimizes scrap, but plainsawn wood does not provide the kind of flamed top seen classic Les Paul models. A pretty veneer cover is a good way for manufacturers to save money. Whether it has a negative effect on the sound is debatable.