James IV Guitar

And now for a sometimes overlooked part of a good setup: pickup height. After you've set your guitar's action/string height, you need to set the height of the pickups too. If you haven't already set the action, take a look at my previous post here:  How to Set Up a Guitar Basics: Pt 2 - String Height Changes in the distance between the strings and pickup will affect its sound and possibly the guitar's playability. Adjusting their height is how to get the best performance and sound from your guitar's pickups. Like string height, you just need to find what works best for you, but there are some guidelines that I use. Keep in mind, however, the affects of pickup height are subtle; it isn't like turning a tone control. Yet that subtle difference can sometimes be the "lacking" in your tone that you can feel but can't put your finger on. Adjusting pickup height is done by turning the two screws at the ends of the pickup to move either side u...

So after you've adjusted your guitar's truss rod you can now set the action, or height of the strings. This is where you really get to customize the feel of your guitar. If you haven't already adjusted your truss rod, or checked to see if it needed adjusted, check out part one of this series here:  How to Set Up a Guitar Basics: Pt 1 - Truss Rod Adjustment The string height (distance between the strings and the frets) is adjusted at the bridge. On Fender style guitars, this is set by individually adjusting the height of each bridge saddle via the little set screws in it. Use an allen key to turn the screws, and try to keep the saddle level as you raise or lower it. On a Gibson style guitar, the string height is set by changing the height of the two mounting posts, which is done by either turning the posts with a screwdriver or turning the thumbwheels on the posts, depending on the type of bridge. Now you could just go and randomly start raising and l...

Setting up your guitar is the number one - if not the only - change you can make to your guitar that will automatically make your playing better. Other modifications, such as changing the pickups, can make your guitar sound better, but a good setup will make your playing much easier and more effortless. A basic setup has four steps, which should be performed in order. I'm going to dedicate a separate post to each step. Adjust the truss rod (this post) Set the string height Set the pickup height Adjust the intonation Adjusting the truss rod : Contrary to what some people think, the truss rod is not something you turn to make the strings higher or lower. Rather, its purpose is to adjust the straightness of the guitar neck. The pull exerted by the strings bend the neck, as a general rule, in the same way that a bow and arrow bend when the bowstring is pulled. The truss rod controls how much relief (bend) the neck has. Turning it to the right will straighten the ne...