Official Luthiers Forum!

Tuesday - April 4th, 2006 @ 12:36 pm

Hello,

I've been playing guitar most of my life, have taken them apart, and tried my best to get the strings lower and do tune-ups to a few guitars.

I had thought that I was going to be able to buy a kit guitar and actually put one together from last years tax money but my kids turned 17 last year and I got a great job so I owe about a thousand dollars in taxes...there goes my chance at trying to be a luthier for awhile.

I want to know how to tune-up a guitar the way most of you guys do. I've set intonations (as long as their adjustable), I've turned a truss-rod or two, and I've shaved the bottom of plastic saddles (or do you call them bridges?). I think I've made a few guitars much sound better but I was hoping that someone could point me to a possible .pdf file or website that can be helpful.

Here's what I do. I first tune the guitar to a tuner that I downloaded called, "ap-tuner", it's found at http://www.aptuner.com. Then I take screenshots for each 'open' strings tuning. After that, I go to the 12th fret and take tuner screenshots of each string there - noting the difference. I also check out how many thousands of an inch the bow is in the neck. I think I read somewhere that if you lay the string down on one of the first frets (which one?) and then lay the string down on the 14th - you should see the neck bow around .015 or .020? Let me know please. (There should be some kind of bow and it shouldn't be perfectly straight right?) I then turn the truss-rod very little bit until I see the above dims.

I also look at how far the strings are up off of the neck near the end and shave the plastic bridge (saddle) until the strings are low but yet don't produce a buzz.

Can any one lead me to an elaboration of all of the above or help me to get things right? What I am doing definitely helps but I my not be going about it all correctly.

Check out my intonation report that I created at: http://www.riseearly.com.

Hope you guys can help me get better at guitar tune-ups. I greatly appreciate all of you!!!

al
Allan Bremer

Hello Al. welcome to the OLF!

I am far from being an expert on this, i've been tuning and playing my guitars by ear for the last 27 years so i'll let the pros chime in!

good to have you here!

Thanks Serge,

I hope someone does get me some information. I wanted to add another question: How high should strings be above the fret board when the string are going across any two frets (or does this dimension vary)???

hi allan,

welcome the OLF,

usually you press down on the 1st dret and the last fret, although if the neck has hump in it where it joins the body this will change, but assuming there is no hump, then hold down the low e string at those frets and check the relief at the 7th fret with some feeler gauges, for an acoustic about .013-.016 would be average, adjust the truss rod until you get a reading in that range,

average action for an acoustic is 4/32 on the bass e, and 3/32 on the treble e, this is the distance between the top of the 12th fret and the bottom of the string, to adjust this you measure the distance at the 12th fret, then assuming the distance is greater than the one you want, subtract the distnce you want from the actual distance and then take off twice that number from the bottom of the saddle, e.g if you want a string action of 4/32 but the measurement is 7/32 then you need to take 6/32 from the bottom of the saddle to achieve your desired string action. you should measure both sides, the bass and treble, work out how much needs to be removed mark it on the saddle then draw a line between the two points so that your high e will be 3/32 and your low e 4/32, the other strings will look after them selves.PaddyD38812.3611689815

Try this book Allan,It should help you a lot.
BOOK

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Thanks PaddyD,

I appreciate your input. You numbers sound like a good system to follow.

There is a very slight radius on the width of most necks, you know the radius most of the average neck? I can check a few of the guitars I have and then use the chord of a circle formula to get it. Also, I'm still wondering how high frets are supposed to average above the neck?

Once again, you've been a great help!

Thank you Dave Anderson!

I will look at your book link right now and get back to you. Your appreciated.