Forgive the smug post and probably nothing special for many of you, but I've never actually been that confident in adjusting truss rods and trying to properly set-up a guitar myself. Always been terrified of busting the truss rod or neck.
Anyway, donkeys years ago I bought my eldest daughter an Epiphone LP Special. It wouldn't intonate properly, had an action higher than mount Everest, buzzed all over the neck, had crackly pots, boomed a bit through an amp, and because she preferred acoustic anyway it just sat in her room gathering dust for at least the last 15 years or so.
So I thought what the hell, this is safe to experiment on because its not being used anyway, and I found some good videos on how to properly set up a guitar.
Cleaned the guitar, cleaned the fretboard, and restrung it with D'Addario 009-042 EXL120's, & put some HB pencil lead in the nut slots. There was no travel left on the bridge saddles (GBE) strings, so I took the bridge apart and reversed the saddles which totally did the trick. Stiff as hell to get the saddles out, & then get them back in (the little bastards! - they did NOT fall out or go back in nice & easy as per the video!), and surprisingly tricky to get that pesky little wire retainer back in, but I got it sorted (what I lack in skill & knowledge I make up for in sheer 'I won't be beat' cussedness!
) .
Then, as instructed, I put a capod on the first fret, held the E-string down at the last fret and pressed on the 11th fret per the video to check clearance at the 10th fret - the string didn't move at the 10th fret so followed the instructions, adjusted the truss rod in the right direction, let the guitar settle down for a couple of hours, re-checked and re-adjusted, checking clearance with a bit of card on the 10th fret. Not high tech, no measuring calipers, but after a bit of trial & error and 'fine tuning' my goodness it did the job.
The neck now has just the right amount of relief, the action is nice & low, with no fret buzz, and its now intonated perfectly. Lowered both the pick-ups down (far too close to the strings before) to get a nicer warmer tone from the (surprisingly powerful) humbuckers, took the back plate off and sprayed some electrical switch cleaner in to get rid of crackly pots - and low and behold it's gone from an unplayable piece of junk to a surprisingly very nice and very playable little guitar.
This little exercise has now given me a lot more confidence - and an extra guitar to play! As I said, no great shakes to many of you experienced with all this, but for a sad old git like me, this was a real eye-opener that with a bit of guidance I could do more than I thought I could!
As Kryten says on Red Dwarf 'End of smug mode'!
I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve)
Comments
I learned to do it on the Harley Benton for the modding challenge. YouTube is such a useful resource.
Congratulations.
It was an Epiphone - not a Terry Morgan!
It actually had a truss rod???!!!
And this one for the saddles:
I actually knew the trick about reversing the saddles from over 40 years ago when I had a Shaftesbury Les Paul Copy, but it was a helpful reminder.
Thanks for posting. Now I just need a beater to practice on.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
The humbucker p/ups are powerful, the guitar is nicely balanced weight wise, and the 14:1 geared tuners hold tune very well. Now its set up properly I kid you not, it's actually good enough to gig! I might even tune it to open D, E or G and use it for slide guitar.