Taking guitar for setup... some advice needed

Amber · 27th January 2012

So I have a PRS style guitar I like the sound of but it needs a good setup, new nut etc. It has a Tuneomatic bridge on it.

I'm sick of trying to get my strat perfectly in tune across the fretboard. With a band it sounds fine but when I'm mixing it with sampled Pianos, strings, synths sometimes it's ever so slightly off and I want this guitar to sound over produced, generic if that makes sense and be perfectly in tune.

I know there are nuts you can have installed for compensate for the intonation not always being right and just wondered what other people do with their studio guitars.

Early21 · 29th January 2012

A good setup works for me. First a straight neck with just a very small amount of "relief" (forward curving) is essential.

Second, the nut has to be shaped right and cut low but not so low that it causes buzzing on open strings. It's the stretching of the strings on the low frets that sometimes puts chords a little out of tune, if the nut is high, and the player presses hard. Also, I put paraffin wax on the nut to help the strings slide easily without binding in the nut slots.

Third, the bridge has to be adjusted to ensure that the 12th fretted note equals the harmonic at that point.

Any experience guitar tech would do these adjustments. I usually do them myself. I've never used a nut compensation system, so someone else will have to explain that.

tyguy335 · 29th January 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amber

So I have a PRS style guitar I like the sound of but it needs a good setup, new nut etc. It has a Tuneomatic bridge on it.

I'm sick of trying to get my strat perfectly in tune across the fretboard. With a band it sounds fine but when I'm mixing it with sampled Pianos, strings, synths sometimes it's ever so slightly off and I want this guitar to sound over produced, generic if that makes sense and be perfectly in tune.

I know there are nuts you can have installed for compensate for the intonation not always being right and just wondered what other people do with their studio guitars.

Just a thought!I have moved nuts on Epiphone and other Chinese gits as wouldn't play in tune with itself much less with other instrumenst.Easy to check.play open(high E)tune with meter,put tuner on chromatic and check F at first fret.If it's more than 2/3 cents off the nut needs to be moved
(in all my cases it had to be moved in).The best!

27th January 2012	#1
Amber Gear addict Joined: May 2010 Location: London Posts: 486 Thread Starter	Taking guitar for setup... some advice needed So I have a PRS style guitar I like the sound of but it needs a good setup, new nut etc. It has a Tuneomatic bridge on it. I'm sick of trying to get my strat perfectly in tune across the fretboard. With a band it sounds fine but when I'm mixing it with sampled Pianos, strings, synths sometimes it's ever so slightly off and I want this guitar to sound over produced, generic if that makes sense and be perfectly in tune. I know there are nuts you can have installed for compensate for the intonation not always being right and just wondered what other people do with their studio guitars.

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29th January 2012	#2
Early21 Gear nut Joined: Feb 2011 Posts: 111	A good setup works for me. First a straight neck with just a very small amount of "relief" (forward curving) is essential. Second, the nut has to be shaped right and cut low but not so low that it causes buzzing on open strings. It's the stretching of the strings on the low frets that sometimes puts chords a little out of tune, if the nut is high, and the player presses hard. Also, I put paraffin wax on the nut to help the strings slide easily without binding in the nut slots. Third, the bridge has to be adjusted to ensure that the 12th fretted note equals the harmonic at that point. Any experience guitar tech would do these adjustments. I usually do them myself. I've never used a nut compensation system, so someone else will have to explain that.