October 02, 2024
A Beginner’s Guide to Guitar Care & Maintenance, Part 2: When Does My Guitar Need a Setup & Intonation Adjustment?
Understanding the fundamental maintenance tasks that will help your guitar stay in tune.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of having a guitar that consistently plays in tune. Many beginners struggle more than necessary simply because their instrument isn’t set up correctly. Proper tuning and intonation can make the difference between becoming a lifelong guitarist and quitting in frustration.
Keeping your guitar in tune is essential for several reasons, including:
- Harmony and Musical Accuracy: If your guitar is even slightly out of tune, it can cause dissonance and make the music sound off.
- Consistency: Accurate tuning ensures that the guitar produces a consistent sound every time it’s played. This consistency in tone allows you to develop muscle memory and improve your playing technique.
- Recording and Studio Work: In a recording setting, an out-of-tune guitar can ruin a take and require additional time for re-recording.
- Ear Training: Playing a guitar that’s consistently in tune helps develop your ear as a musician, improving your ability to recognize pitches and harmonies accurately.
- Playing With Others: In a group setting, everyone’s instruments must be tuned to the same reference pitch to sound good together.
Getting your guitar set up correctly often involves adjusting the intonation, or the guitar’s ability to play in tune along the entire fretboard. To start, let’s go over a couple of key parts of your instrument that affect its ability to stay in tune.
A word of warning: The information on repairs and adjustments in this article serves only to make beginning and intermediate guitarists aware of when they need to have their instrument professionally serviced. Tasks like adjusting a truss rod, leveling frets or filing nut slots should be performed by a trained professional. Attempting these repairs without the proper expertise can easily result in permanent damage to your instrument.
On electric guitars, the truss rod nut can often be found at the bottom of the headstock, just above the nut, or at the bottom of the neck on some bolt-on models. The truss rod pushes back against the tension created by the strings and keeps the neck from bending.
What’s a Truss Rod?
Your guitar’s truss rod is made of metal and runs along the inside of your guitar’s neck. It allows a trained technician to adjust the curvature (or relief) of the neck, which directly affects the action—the height of the strings above the fretboard. Proper adjustment of the truss rod is essential. If the truss rod isn’t correctly adjusted, several problems can arise, including:
- High Action: If the truss rod is too loose, the neck will have excessive relief, causing high action. This makes the guitar harder to play.
- Fret Buzz: If the truss rod is too tight, the neck can become too straight or even convex (back-bowed), causing the strings to buzz against the frets and produce an unpleasant sound.
- Poor Intonation: Incorrect neck relief can throw off the intonation, making it difficult to stay in tune across the fretboard. This is particularly problematic for advanced playing styles and recording.
- Neck Warping: Persistent misadjustment of the truss rod can lead to permanent neck damage. Warping or twisting of the neck can make the guitar unplayable and require costly repairs.
A Telecaster bridge with individual string saddles for intonation and action adjustment.
What’s a Bridge? What’s a Saddle?
The bridge anchors the strings securely to the body, while the saddle determines the precise height and spacing of the strings above the fretboard. These play crucial roles in string height and intonation, directly influencing the action, playability and overall sound quality of your guitar. Proper adjustment of the saddle keeps the strings at the optimal height, preventing issues like fret buzz and making the guitar comfortable to play. Additionally, the saddle’s position affects the intonation, ensuring that each note plays in tune across the entire fretboard. Many electric guitars have an adjustable saddle for each of the six strings. Together, the bridge and saddle contribute significantly to the guitar’s ability to play in tune.
How Do I Know if Something Is Wrong With My Guitar?
How will a developing player know to take their instrument in for a setup? Well, how does the instrument feel? How does it sound? If the action is too high, the strings will be difficult for the player to fret and bend. If it’s too low the playability will also suffer, and the strings will rub against the frets to create that unwanted buzz. If the guitar simply cannot stay in tune, that’s another telltale sign that it’s time for professional maintenance. Regular tuning and re-tuning should be part of any performance or practice session, but if a player must dramatically re-tune their guitar after every single song or exercise, something is wrong. Of course, if the guitar’s neck actually feels and appears warped, that’s a code red—bring it in, ASAP.
Here are a couple additional strategies for knowing when it’s setup time.
- Start With Fresh Strings: Older strings sometimes play out of tune, so when evaluating your guitar be sure to put on a fresh set of strings and break them in by stretching and playing them.
- Check Intonation: Start by playing a harmonic on the 12th fret and compare the pitch against the fretted 12th fret note. You can also use an electronic tuner to compare the pitch of an open string to the pitch of the same string played at the 12th fret. If they’re not in sync, it’s time for some adjustments.
- Check Neck Relief: Press the low E string at the first and last frets simultaneously and measure the gap at the 8th fret. A small gap (about the thickness of a business card) is ideal. If that spacing is off, and you’re experiencing some of the problems above as well, take your instrument to Music & Arts.
Why Seek Professional Repairs?
While many maintenance tasks and repairs can be done at home, some situations are best left to the pros. Professional luthiers and guitar-repair technicians come equipped with specialized tools and years of experience, allowing them to handle intricate problems that could be tricky for the average DIYer. And again, guitars can be easily—and irreversibly—damaged by poorly executed repairs.
Finding a Reputable Technician or Luthier
With 200-plus expert repair technicians at 140 facilities across the nation, Music & Arts Repairs is a great solution for getting your instrument back into playing shape without missing a beat.
Cost Considerations
Professional services can be pricey, but they’re often worth the investment. Quality repairs and setups can prevent further damage down the line, enhance playability and extend the life of your guitar, making them a cost-effective choice in the long run.
Conclusion
Regular maintenance and basic repairs are essential for keeping your guitar in top condition. By cleaning your guitar, storing it properly and keeping the tuning and intonation set up properly, you can guarantee that it will perform at its best.
