Official Luthiers Forum!

Welcome to our set-up tutorial. I’ve asked our friends Steve Smith and Brad Combs to help us out with the tutorial and provide their input when and where they wish. They will also be assisting us with your questions.

Both Brad and Steve are graduates of the classes that Ann Arbor Guitars used to offer until we became too busy to continue with them. Brad and Steve have had a full two days of instruction in fretting, nut making, saddle making, full set-ups and more at our shop and they both were exceptional students (and people).

Many thanks Brad and Steve for your assistance!

The tutorial will be presented over several weeks in four main sections:

Where to start, adjusting the truss rod, relief, assessing the instrument and making a mental plan for your approach to the set-up
Cutting the nut slots.
Prepping, cleaning and conditioning the instrument for the set-up
Stringing, adjusting the truss rod for the second time, setting action at the 12th and setting intonation where applicable. Finishing up and stretching strings.

This is not a building tutorial and the information that we will convey here will be just as useful for you in setting up any guitar as well as those you create yourself.

This is not a fretting, nut making, or saddle making tutorial. The tutorial assumes that your instrument building is complete, it’s strung up and tuned to pitch.

This will be the initial tutorial and it is for acoustic guitars. As requested, when this tutorial is complete, we will create and post a second set-up tutorial on electric guitars.

The information offered in this tutorial is how I work every day in our commercial shop in Ann Arbor, MI. We are very busy and turn away over 60% of what comes our way these days for bandwidth reasons.

This method that I pieced together from operations that I learned over time introduces the notion that a great set-up is “sequential” in nature with many operations having dependencies on other operations done in a specific sequence. The benefit of a sequential set-up is you will never be chasing your tail so-to-speak and have to revisit something you already did.

The sequential method is a good way to learn as well what operations have dependencies on other things perhaps down the road that we will be addressing on the instrument.

Do these things in this order and your set-ups will have a beginning, an ending and a middle with no back tracking.

These days I am pretty much the set-up guy doing about 600+ set-ups annually. I made a point of focusing on set-ups although the set-up is not as sexy as say a neck reset for an aspiring Luthier it’s essential, benefits FAR more people and it is the user interface to the instrument. A poor set-up can render an instrument unplayable where a great set-up can make you a better player.

FYI for those interested, a typical set-up takes me 30 - 60 minutes depending on what it is, acoustic, electric, Floyd Rose, 12 string, etc.


Much of what I have learned in the last nearly 20 years came from David Collins my friend and business partner and now the sole owner of Ann Arbor Guitars. I’m now semi-retired but still working mornings setting up 2 - 4 instruments a day. Many thanks to Dave for all he has shared with me including his great pooch Kibbeh.

continued in the next post...

Instrument Set-up
Acoustic Guitar

After getting a customer guitar out of the case and taking the repair tag and guitar to my bench the very first thing I do is tune it to pitch OR the desired tuning that this customer prefers which will be on the tag. We tune to pitch because that impacts the levels of relief in the neck and when tuned to pitch we get a more accurate read of how the customer interacts with this neck.

It’s not uncommon for people to use all manner of alternate tunings with some wild stuff on the electric side such as tuning to low C.

After tuning the instrument to pitch I tip the neck and sight down the treble side of the neck. What I am looking for is the condition of the fret plane as it relates to relief.

Relief is the gentle curvature that string tension provides when the instrument is tuned to pitch. Relief ever so slightly moves the fret tops away from the lash out of the vibrating strings and reduces or eliminates fret rattle.

With this said the more massive the string the more relief is generally a good idea. Or, in other words the bass side should have more relief than the treble side of the neck.

Our reality with factory guitars is very few makers will go to the trouble to mill in more relief on the bass side and less on the treble side, a desirable thing. Several small factories do mill in more relief where necessary though and all small builders can do this too fairly easily if you know how. It’s highly recommended and makes for a superior fret plane.

Our reality is also that if there is more relief on the treble side than the bass side it is what it is and in a simple set-up we are not going to be able to change this without a full on fret dress and reshaping of the fret plane.

So, you are going to learn to deal with what you encounter as well as what is ideal and desirable with the guitars that you craft and build.

I sight down the treble side of the neck and note what I see. Is it in back bow, is there relief, is it flat, is there a kick-up aka ski ramp over the body? Are there any loose frets that I can see the ends proud of their brothers and sisters?

Next, I repeat this look only on the bass side and again I am sighting down the edge of the neck where the fret ends are and concentrating on the fret tops. The ends may be all over the place for you folks who do your ends off the fret board and then install so ignore this and concentrate on the fret top surfaces as the strings see their fret plane.

Note what you see.

Now we have a mental pic of the fret plane both treble and bass side and it’s time to get out the truss rod wrench.

Let’s say that our guitar had more relief on the treble side and less on the bass side. Not a desirable thing but 50% of the guitars on planet earth are this way so we deal with it.

I adjust the truss rod under full string tension and tuned to pitch to flatten out the bass side nearly completely but leaving maybe 3 - 4 thou (0.003-4”) of relief. This will also flatten out the treble side that had more relief than the bass side but not completely.

In this example this is as good as it is going to get.

Let’s say we have more relief on the bass side and less on the treble side. Welcome to a great neck this is what we want to see.

In this example I use the truss rod to flatten out the treble side until there is minimal relief in the neighborhood of 0.002 - 3”.

We like a pretty straight neck which also helps eliminate body humps when you straighten the neck.

Remember always adjust the rod when it’s tuned to pitch.

To adjust the rod a clockwise turn will engage the rod to produce a backward bow of the neck.

A counter clockwise turn of the truss rod will adjust the neck into forward bow either releasing tension on the rod or engaging the double action nature of a double action rod.

A double action rod is active in both directions and HIGHLY recommended. I literally save guitars from the trash pile every few days after they have been permitted to dry out if they have a double action rod. Please do us all a favor and use a quality double action truss rod.

I only turn a truss rod no more than 1/8th of a turn at once and then observe what resulted.

Below are some diagrams made in the past by OLFer PeterF so thanks again Peter!!! You will also find some pics that I recently took of how I sight down the two sides of the neck.

This was a very difficult pic to take and I even consulted some professional photographers to verify my hunch that I need a long lens, F22 and to get away from the guitar. Although not a perfect pic by any means you can see the gentle level of relief between frets 1 - 12 and then after that this neck has fall-away, a desirable thing and something that you can mill into your own creations. You also see more relief on the bass side, a desirable thing. This is what I would call a perfect neck - kudos to Collings Guitars this is my personal I-35 as it arrived from Collings of Austin, TX.

Fall-away is what the name implies it is a gentle lessening of fret height after the 12th fret to the last. When we play, pluck or pick we dig in close to this region as the last fret is next to the sound hole. So the strings lash out more in this region and we are creating some space so the frets do not interfere.

More on truss rods: Be sure when you build to test your truss rod and your truss rod access it’s going to be super important over the life of the instrument that your truss rod works, works correctly and is easily accessible. Adjusting a truss rod will likely be necessary 2 - 3 times annually for the first maybe 5 years of an instrument’s life and then less so after that. Please don’t make your service center struggle and use a quality truss rod with verified clear access to the adjustor.

After we have adjusted the rod and set relief which need not be a number or spec by the way it simply can be what we come up with that works for the specific instrument the next and last step of this section is to assess the rest of the instrument.

I literally sight the entire instrument now observing the tuners, the fret ends and I may run my fingers over the fret ends to see if they are proud and sharp. Now over the body is there a pick-up? If so I may unclamp the instrument from my vice and shake it gently to hear if the pick-up wires or battery need to be secured or if the jack is really loose.

Next I view the bridge and saddle paying attention to the back edge of the bridge. Is there any gap, is it lifting? How is the saddle does it look like the neck angle is decent or is the saddle too high, too low, leaning, etc.

Check any strap buttons and make sure they are secure. If there is a pick-up I make sure the output jack is tight? I have a Jack the Gripper tool that I have used on over 15,000 instruments I’ve set-up and as a matter of practice I always use Jack on output jacks.

If there is a pick-up I plug in, turn it up, does it work, does it have a battery, etc. I may not address the pick-up in any manner if I was not asked to do so but I will make myself aware of it’s condition and if there are any structural issues with it I typically will resolve them and move on.

A quick flip of the instrument eyes everywhere are there any cracks and if so have they been repaired?

With all this information we are ready to dive in and go to section two after completing section one here. A Luthier Checklist is included below to use in your shop.

See ya in Section II we will be learning one of the most difficult skill sets in Lutherie, learning to cut nut slots properly and very low.

Please ask your questions below and we are happy to help.

Luthier Checklist
Initial assessment
Tune the guitar to pitch.
Sight the neck:
Assess relief on the treble side.
Assess relief on the bass side.
Assess the condition of the fret plane.
Determine if the relief is appropriate for the instrument.
Adjust the truss rod (Ensure adjustments are made with the guitar tuned to pitch):
Flatten out the bass side while leaving minimal relief or…
Adjust the treble side to minimize relief.
Assess the overall condition of the instrument:
Check tuners.
Check fret ends.
Check pickup components (if applicable).
Check bridge and saddle.
Check strap buttons.
Check output jack (if applicable).
Check for cracks or structural issues.
Prepare for the next section

OK folks this will get us started and even though there is a lot here to unpack you are really only doing a very few things and accomplishing these first steps should only take a few minutes tops.

What is most important here and the value that we hope to provide with this method or approach is a sequential approach to a set-up where the operations we do are done in a specific order resulting in the desired out come.

One way to look at this specific order and I will keep reviewing this throughout the course is this:

1) tune to pitch
2) set relief/truss rod
3) cut nut slots
4) full inspection and cleaning
5) restring, tune to pitch, set action, set intonation (for electrics AND some acoustics)
6) test by playing all over the neck with a simulated specific player attack
7) stretch strings

Done

So with that said the very first thing I do is observe the neck and adjust the truss rod AFTER I'm sure it's tuned to pitch. I'll add I also use the strings it came in with for these steps.

I tip the neck, look at both sides, pull the appropriate truss rod wrench and make an adjustment and observe if that got me where I wanted to go.

So why do we adjust the truss rod and relief before cutting the nut slots?

Because if there is too much relief the nut slots will be higher than they should be. If there is not enough relief I can cut them too low.

With this said nut slot cutting is a direct example of something that is a function of something else, relief and there needs to be a sequential order.

As you may have noticed too in only these very few steps that Section one covers with three more sections to come there are a LOT of nuances here. For example if there is to be a string gauge change will that affect my adjustment now? The answer is it may although one gauge up or down rarely have much impact on the nut slots which is what you will learn about in the next section.

Other nuances are what if the builder has an inaccessible truss rod or what if the truss rod does not work or what if the rod is very difficult to turn, etc, etc, etc.

But if you got through all of this and for those who didn't yet this is all about what a neck, a good neck should look like, the goal in our adjustments if you will and how to observe what you have and adjust accordingly.

Now the pics are pretty interesting and I did manage to capture what I see or close to it what I see with my eyes when I sight a neck. On both the treble side and the bass side I can see a gentle curve downward, relief and then after the 12th fret fall away. I typically have to move the neck from side to side a few inches to be sure what I am seeing.

There is one more technique for verifying relief that I will shoot video of this week and post here. It involves using both hands and the strings as the natural straight edges that they are to verify the presence of relief.

So for now please feel free to ask questions and make comments. There are as many ways to set-up a guitar as there are to bake a cake. I'm aware of that and I'll add with what you see here people are thrilled with the results every day and say so and that is very, very rewarding to me. It's nice to be appreciated.

Questions, comments?

Printable luthier setup checklist attached.

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Hi Brad,

I'm being asked for credentials to Microsoft Purview in order to open the PDF. Any suggestions?
Dan

Hallo Brad, I too can not open your PDF.
" This document uses encryption powered by
Microsoft Information Protection. You're seeing
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That´s what I get.

Juergen

Gah! This is what happens when your employer thinks anything created on your work laptop is work product. Well, maybe it should be, that is a different discussion. Anyway, please accept my apology and re-download the file!

Brad

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Hi Brad, now everything is perfect. Thank you so much!

Juergen

OK so what we are doing here is adjusting the truss rod in preparation for cutting the nut slots. We are also getting familiar with the neck and it's shape for better or worse and we are starting to develop that mental picture of the instrument and what we want to do to it in a set-up.

Bet you didn't know that I could condense 10,000 words to 35 did you

We also learned about relief, why it's important, fall-away, the benefits of minimal relief on necks with body humps and how a truss rod wrench should be used, sparingly being sure to observe changes.

And lastly most important we learned that some things are a function of something else. For example you will learn to cut the nut slots in Section II and the reason we do this in Section II is that setting the action in Section IV is a function of cutting the nut slots first.

F*ctory instruments are notorious for having uncut, very high nut slots because cutting the nut slots requires skilled labor that costs more and needs to be trained. There is also risk of going too far and having to fix something.

As such I had nut slots on a Fender last week that were literally 1/8" too high for the B string..... It was unplayable in the first several positions. If I set the action first and then lowered these nut slots last the action would change at the 12th going 1/16th" lower than we want and the instrument would buzz out. Action setting is a function of cutting the nut slots which should be done first. Cutting the nut slots is a function of tuning to pitch and adjusting the truss rod.

With all this said spend a little time tipping up your necks and learning to see the fret plane as I show it in the photos I took. There is no harm in adjusting your truss rods now and even over and under adjusting to see what happens. Put some back bow in it and try to play it? Get this part down, adjusting the truss rod and it will serve you very well.

This step in Section one is a very fast operation and really my introduction to a guitar I am going to work on.

Questions?