It is argued by many that the way your guitar feels is the most important factor when either choosing a new guitar, or how you relate to the guitar in question. What you actually play, and how you do it (technique), is going to have a significant impact on what you produce as a guitarist, but can you pull that off if the guitar does not feel right?
In order for your guitar to feel good, assuming it is in fully working order, it is important to make sure it is set-up correctly. As supported by my interview with the YouTuber KDH (see my blog post on guitar modifications here), it is useful to recognise when there is a problem, and what that problem might be. Whether or not you can fix it yourself is a different story, and the purpose of this blog post is not a tutorial. I aim to teach you how to identify what the problems might feel like - that way you can do some research and attempt to fix it yourself or take your guitar to a luthier and tell them exactly what the problem is (it will make their job much easier!).
As a reminder, this is a brief overview and not an all encompassing guide.
Action
The action of your guitar is the distance between the topmost point of the fret, and the bottom of the string. Put simply, the action is how high the strings are. Some guitarists like to have a high-action for numerous reasons, but often this means that you have to exert more force in order to play notes clearly. A low action is more commonly preferred, but if it is set too low you might experience excessive buzzing of the strings.
All manufacturers publish what they would consider to be the optimal action for their instruments, and it is as good a starting point as any to determine what you really prefer. One point worth considering is what you are using the guitar for; guitars set-up exclusively for using a slide tend to have a higher action.
Intonation
I feel that this is one of the easiest adjustments to learn how to make on your guitar depending on the guitar you have, but that is not the purpose of this post. Intonation is how in tune the guitar is up and down the neck - the position of the frets are precisely calculated so that when you fret a B note, you actually hear a perfectly tuned B note. Typically, the further up the neck you play, the more likely it will be that the notes are slightly out of tune - this is an issue recently addressed by the production of fanned-fret/multiscale guitars (the ones with a wonky neck!). Poorly intonated guitars do not necessarily feel different to play, but it can affect your playing!
If you notice that higher voiced chords, or melodies, do not sound quite right, but the guitar is in tune, you may need to adjust the intonation.
Neck Relief - The Truss Rod
Adjusting the truss rod always seems to scare guitar players, but doing it slowly and carefully with some simple instruction is not tricky. The function of a truss rod is to balance the tension of the strings, and the forces applied to the neck. If you are playing your guitar and you notice either dead notes, where you fret a note and it does not ring out, or you bend a string and it ‘chokes’, then you might need to adjust your truss rod. Having too much relief, where there is a concave shape to the neck and not having enough, resulting in a convex shape also referred to as a ‘hump’, can both cause issues.
Be warned, the adjustments made to the truss rod do not always appear straight away - the guitar might need to settle for a short while. This is where those who are inexperienced over-adjust and cause further problems. Older guitars may also have a truss rod that can only be adjusted in one direction - this is something a luthier should probably deal with at this point!
Setting Up a Bridge
There are many types of bridge, including various floating types (see my blog post on this here) as well as fixed bridges or Tune-o-Matic offerings. It is often around the bridge that you will find the points for adjusting the action and intonation. It is worth knowing what kind of bridge you have, and what adjustments can be made.
Bridges are often exclusively made from metal, or at least various parts joined together, each made from metal. The quality of the metal can vary, but it is usually pretty hard wearing. However, I recently had to change part of the bridge on one of my guitars - the metal had weakened after over 20 years of use. I needed to simply replace the part, as no adjustments could be made.
A common modification for a guitar with a tremolo system is to block the system with a block of wood, or a similar material. It is easy to do this by yourself, but a technician might do a better job of accurately machining a block to go in the cavity. Doing this to your guitar effectively turns it into a hardtail instrument, and can be a cheap way to counteract issues with a faulty system, without replacing the entire thing. A faulty tremolo system could be constant tuning issues or having certain strings go out of tune when bending others.
Extra Stuff
It is always a good idea to keep the strings and neck of your guitar clean - a build up of dirt and grime can definitely cause an issue if you leave it for too long. Just be sure you use a product that is suitable for the wood type and finish type of your guitar - they are not all interchangeable!
You should always be mindful of how the tuning pegs feel to operate - are they stiff? Do they move too easily? Does the tuning jump rather than move smoothly? Tuning issues like this can also be attributed to the nut. Lubricating the nut with a specific product, or even just some graphite from a standard pencil, can help alleviate some problems. When it comes to replacing a nut, even a pre-filed replacement might need some fettling - I would let someone else worry about this, personally!
One other point to make is that electronics can sometimes become inundated with dust and other miniscule pieces of debris. This results in a scratchy sound when operating the controls, and having a can of compressed air, also known as an air duster, is the best fix for this - it is also self-explanatory as well as safer and quicker than cleaning dust by hand.
Final Thoughts
There are quite a few things to think about here, and maybe you have already experienced them in the past. However, I will now share the biggest, most prevalent tip I can - put some new strings on your guitar!
Not only can older strings be more difficult, potentially more painful, to play, but they can also cause intonation issues amongst others. It is also widely understood that you shouldn’t make any adjustments to the set-up of your guitar without fitting brand new strings first. Many guitar technicians will include the cost of replacing the strings in their fee, unless you provide them yourself.
Many years ago, whilst at college, I had a guitar that suddenly developed an issue with the high E string. Anything above the 10th fret sounded a semitone, sometimes more, lower than it should have been. With nothing visibly wrong, I took it to a local technician who charged me £2 to change the string and all of the problems were solved. The string had worn prematurely. The moral of the story is, change the strings before you do anything else! Trust me when I say that the guitar will feel and sound better, and will also stay in tune better after the strings settle in.
Please see this blog post by Ryan, where he discusses changing strings on your guitar:
Basic maintenance is a skill all guitarists should have, and you can even take courses for guitar repair and luthiery. I wouldn’t recommend going to a guitar teacher to learn how to set the action on your guitar, but any of the teachers at the American Guitar Academy will dedicate a lesson to teaching you how to change the strings.
Alex
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