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OK I wanted to suggest to folks who want to follow along by doing that you prepare yourselves with a guitar that you want to set-up.

So that we are all on the same page this can be an existing, f*ctory guitar or one that you crafted. Below is where the guitar needs to be since we are only dealing with set-up stuff and not making nuts, saddles, fret work, etc.

1) Six string acoustic guitar. Other instruments will of course benefit but I want to use our time to address the nuances of an acoustic guitar for now. I'm open to doing this for any stringed instrument that I work on routinely but later.

2) Strings on and tuned to pitch also meaning it has a nut installed and a saddle.

3) Working truss rod and proper wrench to adjust.

4) Strung with the EXACT strings you intend to use meaning both gauges and brand. Brand you might say does that make a difference? Yep it can various brands have slightly different tension and at times vastly different intonation points. We recommend to our clients that if they don't like our D'Addarios that they bring new string of their choosing and we insist that we are working with new strings that will be tensioned and relaxed multiple times. Older strings that go through this are prone to breaking and we don't sent customer instruments home with something that may ruin a player's day and break.

5) A method to have the neck and nut area immobilized such as a vice.

6) Very good lighting and what ever you need so that you can see several thou of space.

7) Safety glasses, no puddles where you will be standing and don't be working during a tornado You knew I had to address safety didn't you.

My plan is the acoustic class will take a month or a bit more with new posts once a week and then we all go do it and then discuss.

You will walk away with what is my hope the best set-up instrument you have ever played or owned and you will now have a new standard for how an instrument should be set-up. You will also be capable of setting up your guitar world if you want to.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Forgot to mention I'm not wanting to address classical guitars right now there are enough differences that they are a subject all their own to set-up.

One example is action. Concert classical action for the diehards is WAY higher than desired action for the guitar player who buys a classical by mistake and just wants to play black bird. So no classical guitars in this one all steel strings please.

We can do classical in the future if folks want.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Happy to help. Also we have the Google drive from the OLF Roundtable account. You’re free to use it to store and create links to any content along the way. For example, it’s where we stored the Stringed Instrument Craftsman issues for Chris. If you would like to use it I’ll share a password to you in PM.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

I will be happy to post if I think I can contribute.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I received a setup lesson much too late in my building career and it has helped me immensely. I am very much looking forward to this tutorial.

I made my own string lifter by filing a notch in an old, unused screwdriver. It works ok, but if you arent careful you can damage your strings (or fretboard, yikes)

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

BF here ya go this is what he used: https://www.amazon.com/16407-Brass-Sheet-0-032-Thick/dp/B0006MZOBW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2WGXAUVFT754W&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9JMCLsZn4-bp7tehlr0kGO4Nc4Z0OuVlAWzXhwsIs8xzUTsl8vkfMTUzp54hpz8FM_FlMCuScxdwiIjdKhJALpE1QlO9sYmZRbyaVWQDzIX19wS6FB6-2u7NwrauNVo3vy7XZZkozmfIRNCWtTDaWdSkJYDYzypX2UwUZ-awfuL4tOxObqp_m8jTS8sizoxlTRu67k3VDj5v6TAOldhiKtWowopoRySlvPlls2tfNOI.N4W66EVhqmeNiJ3HQxPzn-jGzYsyCf5ryqwfUrSGiSw&dib_tag=se&keywords=K%26S+brass+sheet&qid=1713372133&sprefix=k%26s+brass+sheet%2Caps%2C114&sr=8-3

Also not sure if you can tell from my pics but the handle is folded over and soldered so that part it doubled. The small extension with the curl that lifts the string is not doubled.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

That's what I've been using for many years.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Great idea but I'm clueless about such things these days. You know IT you read and study all day long and get in the car to drive home from the office and you are state of the art baby. By the time you get home you are obsolete.... So even though I am an IT guy from 20 years ago I'm struggling with some of it now in my old age so I may ask you for help with this if you don't mind.

PS: I bought an Alienware gaming machine two months ago and have arrested development with the Call of Duty games.....

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Great please jump in whenever you want you know this material very well and put it into practice too which made us very happy to see.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hey Buddy you might want to make one of these anyway and compare the two. My bet is you will like it and never go back

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Marcus I have a question that I think would be interesting to ask you. Since you did get some set-up education did you find that anything in your building changed now that you know what you will have to deal with in a set-up?

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Definitely.

Once you start familiarizing yourself with the target numbers for different elements, it makes it easier to check them as you build (rather than try to fix them too far down in the process). Here are a few examples off the top of my head:

-Neck angle is crucial. I have learned the hard way that if you dont hit your numbers for this (1.5 deg in this case), you'll have to have a bigger bridge or a giant saddle and those introduce all kinds of added complexity. It's much easier to dial that in during build than to fix in the end.

-Fretboard flatness. Checking the fretboard 3 or 4 times during your build will save you loads of time and effort when you finalize the frets.

-Standardizing measurements means standardizing your process and your parts. If I standardize a 1.75" nut spacing and a 2.25 width at the body, then my bridge pin spacing will be 2.25 always. That means I can make my bridges whenever I want and not create a unique bridge every single time.

The biggest "eureka" moment for me was just learning the empirical data for things. This is what a "normal" action at the 1st fret measures. This is what it measures at the 12 fret. This is a good target number for your relief, etc. Once I knew that, it was much easier. My understanding of the geometry just snapped into place and I was able to think of the guitar (and build) more holistically. Before I was always crossing my fingers and praying because it "felt right" to me (and I dont even consider myself a player).

I hope that helps!

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Fantastic and everyone should read Marcus's excellent post here. Learning do to a proper set-up WILL make you a better builder and help you avoid mistakes that could make the entire build not turn out very well in terms of playability.

You will be receiving hard specs that could inform you from now on in your builds and I strongly suspect that your factory guitars will soon end up on your benches too.

Not being a player can be a real set-back too so specs can bridge that gap for the most part. I can set-up a guitar by my specs, hand it to a player and they love it as is with no additional tweaking required.

Just be sure to do all the tweaking in the playing position because gravity does make a difference sometimes.

Good stuff Marcus you are going to love the set-up course here and thanks for your excellent post.

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Ann Arbor Guitars