Michigan here.. just starting out on making a hobby and part time business out of rescuing broken or discarded guitars by fixing them up to playing condition. Being new to guitar building / fixing / setup I naturally fell into finding that the neck must be flat in order to cure all fret buzzing issues. I did start out with the slight bow as I watched on other videos but would keep running into every third for fourth guitar having somewhere from around the fret within six of the bridge. After about twenty guitars I realized that I needed to level the frets with flat neck and I needed to pull the neck back to flat once the strings were on and at tension. Amazingly.. problem solved for all but three guitars. Two of those the frets are to low below the sixth fret from the bridge so they needed to be re fretted. The last one I have no idea why it buzzes but it is only on one string and I like the guitar so I guess I will keep it and in the future when I know more about guitars and fixing them I may discover how to fix the issue. I use your videos for guides when I try newer things and like the links to tools.. that is a big help.
You're right Dylan in that if you own a few guitars its a good idea to invest in some tools. I started my collection over 30 years ago so gauges, nut/fret files etc were a must for me and they're still going strong. When I'm setting up, I do (in order): - Relief - Action - Nut - Intonation - Pickup heights (then pole pieces if necessary) Neck relief really depends on the player. If you're a soft player, you might not need too much. If you're heavy handed (like me), then you probably need a little more. Temperature can stuff around with the neck so resetting occasionally is a good idea. Unfortunately most people think because the frets are buzzing it's the action, but 9/10 its the relief. And while it's a good general idea to fret the string where the body meets the neck when setting up, each manufacturer has their own spec's depending on the guitar (usually available at their website under support).
@skratchrapture Adjusting the pole pieces is generally minor changes but it can help a bit with note separation. But adjusting the pickup as a whole helps more, especially if the neck pickup is a little too boomy. Its always too close to the strings on a new guitar for my liking.
The way I always think of setting intonation is “if it’s sharp make it sharper, if it’s flat make it flatter” meaning how my adjustment will effect the pitch of the string before I tune it back to pitch. I don’t know if that sounds convoluted, but it’s the easiest way for me to remember.
Really great video. But it's important to consider that most new guitars do not have perfectly level frets. So you may get lots of fret buzz at 5/64 string height on the bass side. Fenders are well known for this, even the American Pro range. If you do your own fret leveling and recrowning it'll also immediately void the manufacturers warranty on the neck. It has to be done by an authorized Fender dealers tech which means a fair bit of coin for a full fret leveling and filing job. If you aren't worried about any potential problems with the necck within the warranty period, no problem, fixing a couple high frets isn't difficult for the average person to do. I know this wasn't in the scope of this video, but you were pretty confident that setting the relief flat and setting string height at 5/64 wouldn't result in fret buzz. Not trying to troll or hold you accountable, just some folks may find if they follow this set up process exactly they will still have fret buzz and may have to raise their bass side wound strings quite a bit to get the buzz to a manageable level without leveling their frets. On my brand new American Pro II tele my low E and A strings are just about an 8th of an inch, about double manufacturers recommended height, just to get fret buzz to the point where you can't hear it through the amp. This is with flat relief, a decent nut within spec and 2 or 3 high frets using 10-46 strings.
I completely agree. Uneven frets will have a lot to do here. I feel Dylan is too shallow on his explanation. I think for a quick set up, this will do, but a smarter set up will take into account high frets, as well as why neck relief matters, why wider radius necks can be set up straighter than shallow radius necks, rather than saying to "just set the neck straight and be done with it", not literally, but in short it sounds like what he is saying.
I expect a new (or used) guitar will need a set up but I don't set up new guitars out of the box. I play it a while first using a mix of open strings & fretted notes on different strings in different areas up & down the neck. Aside from being impatient, it gives me a chance to feel & hear what I I'll want to work on.
Texas Toast Matt taught us to set the neck totally flat in the tele class I attended as well. You and others in the know say totally flat is the way to go so I'm nobody to argue. I must be doing something wrong though because I always end up with buzz unless I give myself a hair of relief. What might I want to consider checking or trying??
I will keep this for reference. You have a few others from which I've learned how to do this for myself. This one is concise a great refresher. Thanks again!!
been gone for a few weeks for my wounds ⛑️at hospital care Thank you sO much Dylan Talks Tone this is great extremely helpful for us to set up guitar 🎸 and not cause damage by making unnecessary mistakes due to lack of knowledge i really greatly appreciate your UA-cam channel so much
I like your method because it's direct and simple. I don't get how touching the string at the midpoint gives me an octave higher note if the wave is going up and down the string. On the other hand if something works, it works, means flat neck works. I just figure if it buzzes near the nut, more relief. Up the neck, less relief. Both, raise the action. Some weird spot, fix the frets. Everywhere, raise the action. Only on open strings, shim or replace the nut. And then I get confused.
intonation is best thought of as string length simplicitar all else being equal, a longer string is flatter and a shorter string is sharper... fix the bridge to shorten or lengthen the string (string length between the 12th fret and bridge)
Great setup video. You like the relief dead flat (paraphrasing), but also to set between .005” and .010”. Is that what you mean by flat-aka almost flat?
I use the Garage Band tuner, which I find to be better than the Peterson strobe tuner. The Garage Band tuner shows me exactly how many cents I'm off. The Peterson does not have that feature. I do use the Peterson strobe clip on tuner to check the intonation on acoustic guitars, though.
I know this isn't the point of this video, but I just want to say your Floyd video from 3 years ago is an effi g God send. It's the only reason I had the confidence to change the strings on my RG550.
I have a MIM tele that has fret buzz regardless of how much I adjust the truss rod. My last resort is it looks like I can raise the height of each of the 6 saddles, but I don't know how to do it and keep the neck right radius....
Simplistically, if you turn every saddle grubscrew the same number of turns, you'll maintain the same relative radius as it has now. But it's not too hard to visually check the string/saddle radius, either with one of those T shaped under string radius gauges, or even just measure the string height at the last fret. If all strings are (reasonably approximately) the same height, the saddle radius is matching the fretboard radius. It's all "just" geometry. I say reasonably approximately cuz it's fairly standard for thick-E to be a smidge higher than thin-E.
@@ChicagoBulls1984 TRAIN... Truss Rod, Action, INtonation. So do your truss adjustment to where you want it first. Then set your string action height by adjusting the saddle heights. Then do your intonation (saddle forward/backwards). I think that also matches Dylan's order. TRAIN is just my way of remembering it.
Depends on where the frets buzz and the severity of buzz. The main culprits to look at are the nut, neck relief, and the action height. They will cause buzzing in different zones. As far as the radius, what I do is measure my action with a mm ruler. I set my low E to around 1.0 mm from the top of the 12th fret and gradually descend to about .5mm on the high e string I measure each string to make sure that they descend evenly, I can tell pretty easily by playing or eyeballing if there is a string that isn't following the radius. I then continue to adjust to make the action across the entire guitar as low as possible without any dead notes or "sitar" sounds. I do a half turn at a time to each screw. Depending on your playing style there can be an acceptable amount of buzz and rattling. I play extremely feather-light with low action so if someone else plays my guitars they will probably find there to be an unacceptable amount of buzzing, but for me they ring clear with plenty of sustain they'll rattle around when I want them to. Some of my guitars have a fret or 2 that buzz too much, and I'll decide whether to spot-level, do a full fret levelling, or just avoid that fret and play the same note elsewhere.
I use a small mm ruler, some people use feeler gauges, some use a coin, some use playing cards. Sometimes I just go by feel. As long as it's consistent and feels good to play.
Epiphone's poor frets are no excuse. A Firebird and an LP special both with terrible frets. Brand new "Inspired by Gibson" . They seem to both have poorly installed frets. Only my Epiphones and Gibsons have that issue and Gibson is my favorite style. My Squier CVs never have that issue. The Gibson/Epiphones seem to need fret levels. So you're saying if I set the neck totally straight that will fix the problem?
Properly cut bone nut is a must for me. I always change out it not bone. My guitars never go out of tune. I picked up an acoustic I hadn't touched for two years last night and it was still perfectly in tune. Expensive tuners aren't really as necessary if you have a good cut nut. IMHO.
@@joeking433 I've got 11 guitars. But all the nuts have been change to properly cut bone. They didn't start that way. Hate to say it but my Gibsons and Epiphones have the worst frets. They stay in tune but the frets aren't level. And I have much cheaper guitars. I need to learn how to fix frets I guess but I don't plan on buying anymore.
Hey! I was watching a John Mayer short, and I was struck by the quality of his speaking voice, I was thinking, "who does this remind me of", and then I realized that it was you Dylan! Has anyone ever told you that you have a speaking voice that is remarkably similar to John Mayer's speaking voice? Because you do.
This is pretty much exactly how I set up my guitars…works perfectly every time👍
Michigan here.. just starting out on making a hobby and part time business out of rescuing broken or discarded guitars by fixing them up to playing condition. Being new to guitar building / fixing / setup I naturally fell into finding that the neck must be flat in order to cure all fret buzzing issues. I did start out with the slight bow as I watched on other videos but would keep running into every third for fourth guitar having somewhere from around the fret within six of the bridge. After about twenty guitars I realized that I needed to level the frets with flat neck and I needed to pull the neck back to flat once the strings were on and at tension. Amazingly.. problem solved for all but three guitars. Two of those the frets are to low below the sixth fret from the bridge so they needed to be re fretted. The last one I have no idea why it buzzes but it is only on one string and I like the guitar so I guess I will keep it and in the future when I know more about guitars and fixing them I may discover how to fix the issue. I use your videos for guides when I try newer things and like the links to tools.. that is a big help.
You're right Dylan in that if you own a few guitars its a good idea to invest in some tools. I started my collection over 30 years ago so gauges, nut/fret files etc were a must for me and they're still going strong.
When I'm setting up, I do (in order):
- Relief
- Action
- Nut
- Intonation
- Pickup heights (then pole pieces if necessary)
Neck relief really depends on the player. If you're a soft player, you might not need too much. If you're heavy handed (like me), then you probably need a little more. Temperature can stuff around with the neck so resetting occasionally is a good idea. Unfortunately most people think because the frets are buzzing it's the action, but 9/10 its the relief. And while it's a good general idea to fret the string where the body meets the neck when setting up, each manufacturer has their own spec's depending on the guitar (usually available at their website under support).
@skratchrapture Adjusting the pole pieces is generally minor changes but it can help a bit with note separation. But adjusting the pickup as a whole helps more, especially if the neck pickup is a little too boomy. Its always too close to the strings on a new guitar for my liking.
The way I always think of setting intonation is “if it’s sharp make it sharper, if it’s flat make it flatter” meaning how my adjustment will effect the pitch of the string before I tune it back to pitch. I don’t know if that sounds convoluted, but it’s the easiest way for me to remember.
Really great video. But it's important to consider that most new guitars do not have perfectly level frets. So you may get lots of fret buzz at 5/64 string height on the bass side. Fenders are well known for this, even the American Pro range. If you do your own fret leveling and recrowning it'll also immediately void the manufacturers warranty on the neck. It has to be done by an authorized Fender dealers tech which means a fair bit of coin for a full fret leveling and filing job. If you aren't worried about any potential problems with the necck within the warranty period, no problem, fixing a couple high frets isn't difficult for the average person to do. I know this wasn't in the scope of this video, but you were pretty confident that setting the relief flat and setting string height at 5/64 wouldn't result in fret buzz. Not trying to troll or hold you accountable, just some folks may find if they follow this set up process exactly they will still have fret buzz and may have to raise their bass side wound strings quite a bit to get the buzz to a manageable level without leveling their frets. On my brand new American Pro II tele my low E and A strings are just about an 8th of an inch, about double manufacturers recommended height, just to get fret buzz to the point where you can't hear it through the amp. This is with flat relief, a decent nut within spec and 2 or 3 high frets using 10-46 strings.
I completely agree. Uneven frets will have a lot to do here. I feel Dylan is too shallow on his explanation. I think for a quick set up, this will do, but a smarter set up will take into account high frets, as well as why neck relief matters, why wider radius necks can be set up straighter than shallow radius necks, rather than saying to "just set the neck straight and be done with it", not literally, but in short it sounds like what he is saying.
Dylan, I like your idea of using the DAW to setup pickup height. I'm gonna give this a try.
Best guitar channel on UA-cam, thanks man!
i really really
like that green 💚
finish on your
strat style guitar 🎸
I expect a new (or used) guitar will need a set up but I don't set up new guitars out of the box. I play it a while first using a mix of open strings & fretted notes on different strings in different areas up & down the neck. Aside from being impatient, it gives me a chance to feel & hear what I I'll want to work on.
Every guitar I've bought from a $200 Squier to a $1500 Rickenbacker needed a set-up of some sort. My luthier always takes care of me.
That body is one of the few that would look killer w/a mint green pick guard.
I have that exact same screwdriver set, Amazingly good tool for the price, thank you blue home improvement store.
This is EXACTLY the information I've been searching for! Yhank you!
That is a BEAUTIFUL green on that body!
Texas Toast Matt taught us to set the neck totally flat in the tele class I attended as well. You and others in the know say totally flat is the way to go so I'm nobody to argue. I must be doing something wrong though because I always end up with buzz unless I give myself a hair of relief. What might I want to consider checking or trying??
I will keep this for reference. You have a few others from which I've learned how to do this for myself. This one is concise a great refresher. Thanks again!!
Very Cool, Thankyou. Such an Awesome Setup demo. Very Useful. All the best, Cheers.
A home made Strat-O-Sonic. Nice!
been gone for a few weeks for my wounds ⛑️at hospital care
Thank you sO much
Dylan Talks Tone
this is great
extremely helpful
for us to set up
guitar 🎸 and not cause damage
by making unnecessary mistakes due to lack of knowledge
i really greatly appreciate your
UA-cam channel so much
I like your method because it's direct and simple.
I don't get how touching the string at the midpoint gives me an octave higher note if the wave is going up and down the string.
On the other hand if something works, it works, means flat neck works.
I just figure if it buzzes near the nut, more relief. Up the neck, less relief. Both, raise the action. Some weird spot, fix the frets. Everywhere, raise the action. Only on open strings, shim or replace the nut.
And then I get confused.
intonation is best thought of as string length
simplicitar all else being equal, a longer string is flatter and a shorter string is sharper...
fix the bridge to shorten or lengthen the string (string length between the 12th fret and bridge)
One of your guitars is on my bucket list
This is why I subscribe to your channel, Dylan! Great usable information.
Great setup video. You like the relief dead flat (paraphrasing), but also to set between .005” and .010”. Is that what you mean by flat-aka almost flat?
Dylan - please do a pickup video about Dynasonics! such an underrated pickup
I use the Garage Band tuner, which I find to be better than the Peterson strobe tuner. The Garage Band tuner shows me exactly how many cents I'm off. The Peterson does not have that feature. I do use the Peterson strobe clip on tuner to check the intonation on acoustic guitars, though.
Thanks for spelling “set up” (verb) correctly 👍
GLORIOUS!!!
Hi Dylan. Are those Kluson's locking tuners staggered?
excellent set-up video ! --- I just took a Squier Sonic strat and put in 2 P-90's.... I hope it sounds close to yours.... (guitar fetish p-90's)
Yeah, man! The new guitar is like an off-the-rack suit. You gotta tailor it.
Can you recommend a tuner for intonation that is reasonably priced?
P.S. Great tip on the P90. I received my DTT Soapbars recently and will keep that in mind. Always good stuff here.
I know this isn't the point of this video, but I just want to say your Floyd video from 3 years ago is an effi g God send. It's the only reason I had the confidence to change the strings on my RG550.
"Built" this guitar means?
You've done all the craft by yourself from scratch or did you just order parts as I suppose?
Thank you for this one question, should you test frets for level prior to all of this with a fret rocker? Is there an assumption all are level?
I want one!!! 🤩
Were do you get your body and necks?
Very useful !
I have a MIM tele that has fret buzz regardless of how much I adjust the truss rod. My last resort is it looks like I can raise the height of each of the 6 saddles, but I don't know how to do it and keep the neck right radius....
Simplistically, if you turn every saddle grubscrew the same number of turns, you'll maintain the same relative radius as it has now.
But it's not too hard to visually check the string/saddle radius, either with one of those T shaped under string radius gauges, or even just measure the string height at the last fret. If all strings are (reasonably approximately) the same height, the saddle radius is matching the fretboard radius. It's all "just" geometry.
I say reasonably approximately cuz it's fairly standard for thick-E to be a smidge higher than thin-E.
@@PaulCooksStuff so should i make my neck straight with no relief before I do this?
@@ChicagoBulls1984 TRAIN... Truss Rod, Action, INtonation.
So do your truss adjustment to where you want it first.
Then set your string action height by adjusting the saddle heights.
Then do your intonation (saddle forward/backwards).
I think that also matches Dylan's order. TRAIN is just my way of remembering it.
Depends on where the frets buzz and the severity of buzz. The main culprits to look at are the nut, neck relief, and the action height. They will cause buzzing in different zones. As far as the radius, what I do is measure my action with a mm ruler. I set my low E to around 1.0 mm from the top of the 12th fret and gradually descend to about .5mm on the high e string I measure each string to make sure that they descend evenly, I can tell pretty easily by playing or eyeballing if there is a string that isn't following the radius. I then continue to adjust to make the action across the entire guitar as low as possible without any dead notes or "sitar" sounds. I do a half turn at a time to each screw. Depending on your playing style there can be an acceptable amount of buzz and rattling. I play extremely feather-light with low action so if someone else plays my guitars they will probably find there to be an unacceptable amount of buzzing, but for me they ring clear with plenty of sustain they'll rattle around when I want them to. Some of my guitars have a fret or 2 that buzz too much, and I'll decide whether to spot-level, do a full fret levelling, or just avoid that fret and play the same note elsewhere.
Links to the body and neck (reverse?)...I know where to get pick ups
How to measure height of strings 2-5 without spending big $ on a digital gauge?
I use a small mm ruler, some people use feeler gauges, some use a coin, some use playing cards. Sometimes I just go by feel. As long as it's consistent and feels good to play.
@@nicholasaragon4126 Great ideas. Thanks!
am always going to
like 👍
channels i follow
like you
and support
content / plus + the algorithm yAa
P90s… So tasty
what pickup is this?
Our P90
🙂
That guitar would give me wood...but not tone wood...
Dylan, why does everyone want to skin a cat, poor kitty didn't do anything.... lol
Epiphone's poor frets are no excuse. A Firebird and an LP special both with terrible frets. Brand new "Inspired by Gibson" . They seem to both have poorly installed frets. Only my Epiphones and Gibsons have that issue and Gibson is my favorite style. My Squier CVs never have that issue. The Gibson/Epiphones seem to need fret levels. So you're saying if I set the neck totally straight that will fix the problem?
@@captainkirk70That’s disappointing QC … btw you can edit your original comment, rather than posting a comment on it 👍
And you can return the guitar instead of commenting about it
Properly cut bone nut is a must for me. I always change out it not bone. My guitars never go out of tune. I picked up an acoustic I hadn't touched for two years last night and it was still perfectly in tune. Expensive tuners aren't really as necessary if you have a good cut nut. IMHO.
@@joeking433 I've got 11 guitars. But all the nuts have been change to properly cut bone. They didn't start that way. Hate to say it but my Gibsons and Epiphones have the worst frets. They stay in tune but the frets aren't level. And I have much cheaper guitars. I need to learn how to fix frets I guess but I don't plan on buying anymore.
@@derekclacton Troggy's show seems to know about the Epiphone QC. He's always ready for it when he reviews a new one.
Strings too low = loss of resonance.
Hey! I was watching a John Mayer short, and I was struck by the quality of his speaking voice, I was thinking, "who does this remind me of", and then I realized that it was you Dylan! Has anyone ever told you that you have a speaking voice that is remarkably similar to John Mayer's speaking voice? Because you do.