5 Tips to Make Your Guitar Play Better
If you’ve ever wanted to improve the playability of your instrument but you don’t want to spend a fortune on upgrading to a more expensive guitar, here are 5 tips that you can do yourself to improve any guitars playability.
All these tips can be done at home with a few simple tools and some patience. All you need is an allen key, pliers, or a wrench to fit the nuts on the guitar, a Phillips head screwdriver and a flathead screwdriver.
When adjusting your guitar, be sure to move slowly and make small tweaks each time, checking as you go. Never over tighten or over adjust anything on the guitar.
Adjust the String Action
The string action is the height of the strings from the fretboard. This is the distance you have to push down in order to make a note sound clear.
How you set the action is subjective, some players enjoy the feel of a really low action, and some prefer a higher action. You can adjust the action to suit your preferences and needs
Action can be easily adjusted by raising or lowering the bridge, or the individual string saddles, on different guitars. If you are lowering the action, be mindful that lower action can sometimes lead to fret buzz problems. Check out the full length video on the Blackstar YouTube channel that talks about setting the action in depth.
Tighten Everything Up
When you get a guitar, especially if its been shipped from overseas, things can sometimes end up being loose. When you set your guitar up, make sure everything is tight. Check all the screws in the tuning peg heads, the nuts that hold the tuners in place, the input jack nut and the nuts around the volume and tone pots.
Keeping the tuner nuts tight will ensure the tuning is rock solid and the tuners have nowhere to move. The nuts that hold electrical components in place should be tight to ensure the components are held firmly in place.
Never overtighten anything. Only turn it as far as it will naturally go without any excess force.
Set the Intonation
The intonation is the tuning across the entire string. This is a vital part of making sure that your guitar sounds in tune all the way up the fretboard. If the intonation is out, the notes can sound in tune at the open string, or even on the lower frets, but as you climb the fretboard the pitches can drift making chords and notes sound out of tune.
The intonation is adjusted by moving the bridge saddles back and forth to either lengthen or shorten the string. Check out the full-length intonation video on the Blackstar Youtube channel to find out how to do this for your guitar type.
Adjust the Pickup Height
This step is often overlooked, but it can make a huge difference. The height of your pickup, or pickups, can greatly affect the overall tone and balance of the guitars sound when plugged in.
The pickups are magnets which pick up the vibration from the guitar strings and convert that into the sound we hear from the amplifier.
If you find your guitar is sounding under powered, the pickups might be too far from the strings. Most pickups are adjusted by adjusting the screws either side that hold them to the pickup surround, pickguard or body of the guitar.
The further away from the strings the pickups are set, the weaker and quieter the tone will be. The closer they are set, the brighter and louder the tone will be. Somewhere in between all the variables is your ideal height.
If you have a guitar with multiple pickups, its important to balance the pickups. Setting the height of each pickup so that you don’t experience any volume drops when switching pickups.
Adjust the Truss Rod
This is the step that you may not want to attempt if you are unsure. If you are underconfident in this, check with your local luthier before doing this yourself.
Inside the guitar neck is a steel rod called a truss rod. The job of the truss rod is to counteract the tension of the strings. When you tune your guitar, the strings apply pressure on the neck, pulling it towards the bridge. The truss rod pulls the opposite way to balance the tension out.
Truss rod adjustments may also be needed if you’re trying to get the action super low.
There are three main ways to think of the truss rod:
- Perfectly Straight: This is when the truss rod tension, and the string tension are balanced so that the neck is perfectly straight. This is a desirable setup with players who love very low action.
- With Some Relief: If you allow the truss rod tension to be slightly lower than the tension of the strings you get what is known as neck relief. This is when the neck appears to curve upwards ever so slightly. Many players who do a lot of big string bends, or play with a slightly higher action often prefer a slight bit of neck relief as it lends itself to keeping the action slightly higher.
- With a Backbow: This is the least desirable option because a backbow can cause the guitar to be unplayable. Some guitars, especially budget friendly guitars, can arrive from the factory with a slight backbow from shipping so this is something that will need to be adjusted.
Take Your Time and Get Help If Needed
As mentioned earlier in the lesson, these tips can all be performed at home by you but if you are unsure of anything then it’s always best to consult your local luthier for advice and assistance and they can help you take care of any issues that you may not be comfortable handling yourself.
These tips will help you get your guitars playing better, but remember to take your time and don’t over do it!
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About the Author
This article on guitar setups and 5 great setup tips for your guitar was written by Leigh Fuge. Leigh is a professional guitarist and content creator and also works alongside musicteacher.com to create guitar focused, educational and entertainment content.
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