School me on getting a guitar set up. I'm fairly new to electric guitars, but i've got an epiphone les paul that i've had about a year and it just doesn't sound as good as it used to, so i'm thinking of getting some work done. What exactly do they do? will it eliminate a little fret buzz? where should i take it and about how much would it run?

10/17/2005 8:43:07 AM

Not sure exactly what's in a standard setup...probably check for fret buzz and set the intonation.

I've never had a setup done, but I took my acoustic to Fat Sound when I wanted to get the bridge shaved down to lower the action. Cost about $100 (and worth every penny), but that was way more work than just doing a setup on an electric.

10/17/2005 8:59:42 AM

Not to be too stupid but what what does this mean?

Quote :

"it just doesn't sound as good as it used to"

Is the only thing wrong a buzzing noise? Change the strings. It's a good $5 fix and you would be surprised. After a while old strings make a guitar sound bad. They get all gummed up with dirt/oil/etc. and lose quality.

10/17/2005 9:49:51 AM

yea list the problems you have

10/17/2005 10:45:28 AM

Fat (or is it Phat?) Sound in Cary does a good job for a good price.

One time when I was in there, someone from Pearl Jam was on the phone trying to convince the guitar tech to take a vacation and come on tour as stoneys tech.

10/17/2005 10:48:20 AM

my personal fav guitartech in Raleigh is MadScience guitar works butttt you wouldnt really need to go to him for something just small that lots of diff ppl could fix.

10/17/2005 10:50:14 AM

or


you could learn how to properly set up your instrument yourself.....its not a good option for everybody, but i've saved $idaho by learning how to do my own trussrod adjustments, intonating, and whatnot.

10/17/2005 10:56:02 AM

yea ive figured out how to do quite a bit. but i wasnt going to mess with the wiring inside of my guitar to install two active pickups when i didnt have any before. plus i had one single and one double coil and the two active pickups were both doubles so the whole had to be widened and stuff. i was too afraid to mess the guitar up haha.

10/17/2005 10:58:08 AM

yeah... i'd leave all the electrical and wiring stuff to a proffesional.....they dont make T-40's anymore, so i wouldnt want to screw it up either

10/17/2005 10:59:40 AM

haha good call

10/17/2005 11:10:54 AM

putting in actives really isn't that hard... just a few wires and a battery pack.

10/17/2005 11:14:09 AM

still, ive never done it before and this thing had a crapton of wires. and i needed it done asap for a show. ill figure it out someday

10/17/2005 11:17:41 AM

give up

10/17/2005 1:44:23 PM

i can do anything to anything.

and yes, every guitarists (whos semi serious i guess) should be able to set up their intrument. its really not hard and takes 30min max. google for 'guitar setup' and be off.

10/17/2005 3:28:51 PM

A decent setup is easy to do by yourself. There are about 50 books out there about guitar repair/setup that can talk you through everything you are trying to do. Like Dan said, check the net, your bound to find somthing. Fret buzz can be several diff. things. It may be as simple as raising the bridge a bit (an LP should have a tune-o-matic bridge). The only thing with active pickups that you might have an issue with is where to put the battery pack. I dont know where they usually put them on an LP but it may require routing a small cavity somewhere.

10/17/2005 3:57:36 PM

thanks for the replies, as assumed i'm a guitar noob, but i'll spend some time on google and see what i can find out. i replace the strings about every 5 or 6 weeks, so that's not an issue i would imagine, but it had a slight buzz on the 3rd fret when i got it, but its gotten slightly worse as far as i can tell over time. if time doesn't permit in the next week or two, where would you recommend me take it?

10/17/2005 7:26:22 PM

http://harrysguitarshop.com/

10/17/2005 7:27:04 PM

man bring it to me and ill do it while you wait. you need a good ruler and some allen keys. done and done.

but be forwarned that is an epiphone and not all guitars are garunteed to be able to be perfectly setup and stay setup. on lower end guitars fret buzz can be a simple setup fix, or a bad fret job or even a bad/warped neck. if its the latter two its probably not worth fixing.

also, what size strings do you use? too light or too heavy can make things harder to setup as well. id go w/ 10s as a beginner on a LP. i think they come w/ 9s.. but i'm not totally sure on that.

do you find your strings corroded after that long? when i used to practice a lot id have to change them weekly. i dunno what it is about me but my strings corrode like crazy. but thats not really the point and wont cause a setup issue as long as youre keeping it in tune.

10/17/2005 11:01:57 PM

Phat sound charged me an assload for intonation, general maintance, grover tuner changes, ect ect. Mark does a good job but its expensive.

10/17/2005 11:19:03 PM

acidic sweat can wear strings out prematurely

and some strings stay 'cleaner' longer than others....my Dean Markley Blue Steels sounded awesome, but they didnt last very long since they tended to 'soak' in more sweat/dirt or whatever.....the D' Addarios i have on there now are lasting quite a bit longer, since they stay clean easier

10/17/2005 11:21:00 PM

hey experts,

i have a bass and whenever the cord moves a bit near the plug in jack, there's a loud POP, like if you were to unplug and replug into your amp with the volume up. do you think this problem could be easily/inexpensively fixed at a repair shoppe?

10/17/2005 11:40:47 PM

Dawg,

Try buying a new cable, or reversing your ends and secure the input jack and input on the guitar so that nothing is moving around. I'm willing to venture theres a loose connection somewhere.

10/17/2005 11:50:57 PM

oh, it's definently not that. i've tried multiple cables and multiple amps. same problem every time.

and it's ok if i'm sitting perfectly still, but it doesn't seem to lend itself well to live standup performance.

[Edited on October 18, 2005 at 12:03 AM. Reason : for clarification.]

10/17/2005 11:57:28 PM

^that sounds like your input jack connection is iffy...you might need to get a new one, or get the existing one re-soldered....its a simple job, and shouldnt be expensive at all to have fixed

[Edited on October 18, 2005 at 12:10 AM. Reason : the problem isnt with the cables or the amp]

10/18/2005 12:09:33 AM

^^the tip connecter on cheap jacks stretches/bends over time and loses contact w/ the plug eventually an does that. you can fix it temporarily by bending the tab/contact inside inward to make better contact.

or i'll fix it for $20 including parts and use a high quality switchcraft replacement jack.


oh and another reason its helpful to know how to setup your guitar yourself is that things change! your guitar changes w/ the weather, w/ strings, w/ switching tunings, etc, etc. if you paid somebody everytime it needed to be done youd be broke. its a good skill and *really* its not that hard.

10/18/2005 4:57:44 PM

^
I usually have to give all my guitars a slight crank on the truss rod whenever
the seasons change. I pretty much just leave the covers off.
What I do is fret the 1st and 14th fret on the low e string.
check the height of the strig over the 7th or 9th depending on the guitar,
but you know the midpoint. If it's touching the fret then you need to loosen the truss rod.
If it's way high, then tighten.
works for me at least.

10/18/2005 5:21:34 PM

^^ we might have to set that up. i think you sold me your acoustic guitar pickup once. we've BONDED.

10/18/2005 11:28:53 PM