J. Thomas Davis Guitar Maker - Online Workshops

A Set Up Can Make All the Difference

August 1, 2000

     Although a high quality instrument should sound better than one of lesser value, there is no need to expect less of an instrument in respect to its playability. Whether you consider your instrument to be a student model or a professional one, it should play easily, in tune, and without problems or buzzing along the entire fingerboard. Just like an automobile needs a periodic tune up to keep it running right, an instrument needs to be adjusted and maintained in a similar fashion. This adjustment procedure is called a Set Up. New Instruments      When an instrument is made, it is set up for shipping. The factory anticipates that completed instruments will be sent to a wide variety of climates. Usually, this means that the strings are unnecessarily high or safe from buzzing. Additionally, the work performed by line personell is often limited by factory specifications that are not as close as the tolerances that a skilled luthier may set for your individual instrument and your personal playing style.
     In order for an instrument to perform up to its full potential, it needs to be set up for playing. After the neck has been adjusted and checked, each of the individual grooves of the nut need to be filed to the proper width and depth, and adjusted for the correct ramping. The saddle height must be adjusted to accommodate the preferences and playing style of the owner and to correctly match the curvature or radius of the fingerboard. The stopping point of the strings at the saddle must be set in order to compensate for string stretch and to correct the intonation of the instrument. Finally, the instrument should be played and examined to ensure that the fingerboard and frets are true and level, and that each note is clear and resonant. Older Instruments      Fretted instruments require readjustment and maintenance due to two principle reasons: seasonal changes and string tension. The radical differential in our particular climate here in the mid-west makes it necessary to readjust some instruments as often as twice a year.   During the cold winter months, the artificial heat inside our homes can lower the relative humidity down to the twenty percent range. In the hot summer months, we’re all aware that the humidity can rise to nearly dripping.
     These extremes in humidity alternately shrink and swell the wood in an instrument. Necks can bow forward or backward causing fret buzzes, and soundboards can pump up or down resulting in action that is too high or low. To compound the matter, the different types of wood used in an instrument do not expand and shrink at the same rate, which causes further distortions in an instrument.
     The constant force of string tension gradually pulls and distorts the thin, delicate wood in an instrument over time. Light gauge strings on a six-string acoustic guitar produce 160 lbs. - 165 lbs. of tension when the instrument is tuned to correct pitch. This tension slowly pulls on and deforms the shape of the instrument, making the action higher and the scale shorter. The end result is an instrument that is uncomfortable to play and one that won’t play in tune with itself.
     Whether these unwanted changes to an instrument’s playability and intonation are a product of seasonal changes or string tension, the older instrument will benefit from the same adjustment procedure described in the set up of new instruments. In fact, customers who failed to have the initial set up performed are astonished to find their instrument both playing and sounding "better that it did when it was brand new!"