5 Reasons to Get Your Guitar Set Up Regularly

Has your guitar changed over the past few months? Perhaps something is buzzing, or it’s getting harder and harder to play comfortably, or it just won’t stay in tune. You may be in need of a setup.

Guitar setups are usually inexpensive, and incredibly effective in making your guitar play like new.

Your guitar needs to be maintained. As most guitars are made of wood, it tends to adjust with nature. If you keep your guitar in a warm, humid environment, it is prone to cracking and warping of the body and neck. This can lead to major intonation problems, rendering a perfectly beautiful guitar unplayable.

Don’t let this happen to your instrument! You paid good money for that thing. Take it in for a setup and experience these five benefits:

1) You get new strings.

Depending on the technician, new strings are usually included in a setup. Pick the gauge you like and enjoy the bright, clear tone of brand new strings! And you didn’t even have to put them on yourself!

2) Your guitar will stay in tune.

Have you ever tuned your guitar, only to have it fall out of tune when you bend your first note?

Over time, strings can wear into the nut and create traction. The string gets pinched while you are tuning, and loosens slightly when you bend it, causing it to go out of tune.

This is problematic, and very frustrating. You can tune your guitar constantly, and it will never keep.

A good guitar technician will recognize this, and lightly sand the valleys of the nut with special files until the string slides smoothly and doesn’t get pinched.

I don’t recommend you try this at home. You can wear into the nut too much, and create much bigger problems, sometimes leaving a guitar unplayable.

Leave it to the professionals. When you get your guitar back, it will be easy to tune, and it will stay in tune.

3) Your intonation will be perfect.

This is another matter of keeping your guitar sounding in tune.

Play the harmonics of each string at the twelfth fret, one at a time. Then push down the string on the twelfth fret and see if they sound the same. If they sound slightly different, then your guitar needs an intonation adjustment.

This is a little bit easier to do at home, depending on the guitar. Most electric guitars have a comprehensive system of adjustment near the saddle or bridge. It may require an Allen key or a flathead screwdriver.

You can find useful resources on the wide web if you are looking to do this yourself.
Play an ‘E’ bar chord up high on the fretboard (frets 12, 13 and 14). Then play an open ‘E’ chord (frets 1 and 2). Do they both sound in tune? Great! If one of them sounds out, then you need your intonation set up.

When your intonation is set up perfectly, you will be able to play a chord anywhere on the neck, and it will always sound in tune.

4) Better action.

What is action, you might be asking? Action is the distance between the underside of the string, and the top of the frets.

High action means the strings are far from the fret board. Low action means the strings are very close to the fret board.

Over time, the neck of your guitar will bow. This can raise your action to the point where your guitar becomes too hard to play and won’t play in tune. Or, it can lower your action to the point where you are getting fret buzz at certain parts of the neck.

Fret buzz happens when the string is touching more than one fret at once. This causes the string to produce very little tone, and lots of ‘buzzing’ noise. It does not sound pleasant!

A technician will adjust the tension rod inside the neck, which will guide the wood guitar neck to adjust one way or the other, raising or lowering the action based on what the guitar needs.

A guitar with good action is not only much easier to play, but will play in tune, with no fret buzz.

5) You will be informed on any problems or concerns.

Technicians should be able to spot any problems or warning signs on your guitar. This includes cracking, twisting, fret wear, and electronics malfunctions.

He or she should also be able to answer any of your questions or concerns.

Don’t shrug off a sign or concern when it comes to the integrity of your instrument. Take care of it. If you don’t know what it is, take it to somebody who does. Things like twisting of the neck and fret wear can be treating with more frequent checkups.

A crack can lead to a split. A split will devalue any guitar drastically, and in some cases affect the tone and look of the instrument.

Stay on top of the well being of your guitar. It will keep it in gig-ready shape, and maybe relax your mind a little, too.

Proper maintenance is extremely important to the longevity of your guitar. Invest the extra few bucks and keep it properly set up (or learn to do it yourself). Your instrument will be much easier to play, and much easier to listen to.