Having your guitar PROPERLY setup, then properly and accurately intonated, makes a world of difference. What felt like a dud now feels and sounds like a whole new instrument. If you haven’t had your guitar looked at at least once per year, it is almost certainly not setup correctly. If you did your setup yourself, and you’re not a qualified guitar tech, it’s still almost certainly not setup correctly. Bring your main guitars at least once per year to your guitar tech (even if it isn’t me :)). Wondering what prompted me to write this? Read on…

I love guitars, and if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you do too. I’ve been building guitars since 1995, but I still enjoy playing instruments from other companies. From inexpensive budget models, to the high-end gear, there’s always something fun and worthwhile. Granted, a lot of gear is priced five times what it’s worth because of the brand name, but there’s still some good values to be found. TIP: if you’re buying a guitar for thousands of dollars, and the fretboard is synthetic or anything but wood, don’t buy it! It’s crap. Anyway.

I’ve met a lot of cool musicians selling or trading instruments on craigslist. One thing that I find common, is that most people’s guitars are just setup completely incorrectly. I’ve even heard of people selling their guitars because they didn’t like the way they felt. When somebody brings me a guitar, they’re blown away by how different, how much BETTER, their guitar is when I’m done with it.

Well, guess what? The guitar was probably setup really poorly! Even guitars from, wait, especially guitars from large factories (even in the $5000+ price range) come poorly setup. You may go to the store thinking you’re getting an amazing instrument, but when you bring it home the magic doesn’t last that long before you just store it away in the case for months or even years.

I got a guitar in trade today from a relatively local guitarist. Seemed like a nice guy, and had some chops too. After he left I started setting up the guitar and I was a little nervous about how the neck felt. Once I finished adjusting it, setting the intonation and action, I have to say… It’s one of the best feeling guitar necks I’ve played on in the past 20 years.

The moral of the story is that your guitars, your fingers, and your ears, will thank you if you maintain your guitars properly by bringing them in to get setup. At least once per year for your main guitars, and at least once every few years for the guitars that don’t get played as often.