Charlie Chandler - The Guitarists Guide to Set-Up & Maintenance

Before you start any work on your guitar its essential to prepare a safe work area. I know that its tempting to get stuck in straight away, but a few minutes spent following the guidelines below will prevent you from damaging your guitar, and will make any repairs that you have to carry out easier and faster.

Preparation checklist:

1. Prepare a solid table in a well-lit area

2. Cover with a towel or similar soft bed for the guitar this will avoid any damage to the finish

3. Wrap a Yellow Pages or similar thick book/magazine, and pad with soft cloth to create a neck rest to support your guitar. Proprietary neck rests are available for this purpose.

4. Keep your tools, tuner and measuring gadgets in a safe place where they cannot fall onto the guitar or get lost underneath it

Having prepared your work area, you can now evaluate the current state of the guitar.

1. Ensure that the guitar is in tune

Using a steel rule, measure the distance from the bottom of each string to the top of the 12th fret. Note down the measurements for future reference.

Measure using a steel rule

Capo at 1st fret, hold down E string at 17th fret and measure distance at 7th fret

Measure the gap between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string

2. Fit a capo at the 1st fret

Hold down either E string at the 17th fret and measure the distance from the bottom of the string to the top of the 7th fret.

The gap here may be very small (there may even be no gap), so use either feeler gauges or off-cuts of strings of the appropriate thickness to measure the distance. (Refer to page 48 for a full description of the guitarists toolkit, which includes these items.) Again, note down the measurements.

3. Move the capo to the 3rd fret

Measure the gap between string bottom and fret top at the 1st fret. Again, this is likely to be a small gap, so your feeler gauges may be needed.

4. Remove the capo and play the guitar acoustically and (if its an electric) plugged-in. If appropriate, note down your likes and dislikes, paying special attention to fret or string rattle and any noisy or crackly electrics.

removing strings a step-by-step guide

Having made the initial inspection, its time to move on and make any necessary improvements. To achieve an optimum set-up on any type of guitar it is essential to have a new set of strings correctly fitted older strings usually sound duller, dont intonate accurately and may cause or even mask fret buzz.

Acoustic guitar steel strung

1. With the guitar on its back, detune the machineheads so that the strings are completely slack.

A plastic string winder is a worthy investment at this stage. Theyre cheap, they speed up a tedious task and the resulting winding is neater. Most string winders will fit most machineheads, but check before buying to make sure that your chosen model will work with your guitar, and that it will fit snugly on your machinehead buttons without rubbing on the finish on the side of the headstock.

Use your string winder for speed and efficiency

2. Starting with the high E string unwind it from the machinehead.

Beware! Make sure that the tail of the string that you are removing doesnt scratch the face of headstock as you unwind it from the machinehead.

3. Carefully remove the relevant bridge pin and pull the string out from the bridge.

Be sure to put the bridge pin somewhere safe so that you can retrieve it later.

Unwind the loose string from the machinehead

If the bridge pin proves difficult to remove, try pushing it from inside by reaching through the soundhole.

You may need to slacken the other strings to allow access in this way.

4. Coil up and discard the string safely and then repeat the process for the other five strings

Remove the relevant bridge pin

Acoustic guitar nylon strung

1. As Step 1 above

2. Unwind and remove the strings from the machinehead

3. Untie the string from the bridge

4. Coil up discard the string and repeat for the other strings

Electric guitar non-tremolo equipped guitars and bass guitars

1. As Step 1 above

2. Unwind and remove the strings from the tuners and from the bridge and/or tailpiece

TIP: if the guitar has a floating bridge or has any bridge parts held in place by the tension of the strings (e.g. the bridge saddles on some tune-o-matic bridges) be sure to tape these parts in place or note their position(s).