I know this vid is 5 years old but THANKS!!! Recently bought an Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro-IV and this video answered ALL of my questions about setting it up. Great explanations about how and why for every step. My LP sounds and plays beautifully now. Again…thanks!
I literally got the same one too, got it in the worn burgundy color, beautiful guitar, but something seemed off, but after this set up, it truly plays beautifully
I just wanted to add that I have now set up all of my guitars per your instruction and I cannot believe how much better they all play. Noticeably better. Much appreciated John.
This video was amazingly helpful, as I tried to set up my own Epiphone Les Paul for the first time. I bought it used and I'm a new player so I finally took the time to replace the strings and try to learn more about it. I really like how you took the time to show the details around each step. Thank you so much for putting it out there!
It's great to learn how to play guitar, but also important to learn how to care for it. Thanks for this video! Learnt heaps from it, and was relaxing like a Bob Ross video.
THANK YOU! I really appreciate your effort to make this video so detailed. I managed to set up my new Les Paul that came from a factory in an unplayable shape. Great job. Thanks again.
Excellent information John! Thanks for taking the time to show us your skills, so we can look after, or set up our guitars ourselves. Very much appreciated!
Just wanted to give you a big thank you for taking the time to make this video. I finally decided to try setting up my LP myself and have gone through at least a dozen vids tonight trying to find the info I needed but all were lacking in vital tidbits of detail (particularly the parts about adjusting intonation!) that had me ready to jump out a window. This turned out to be a MUCH bigger job than I thought but I'm satisfied with the results and probably wouldn't have been without your help. So again THANK YOU!
You're welcome, Steven. Glad you found it helpful! Once you do it a couple of times, it really goes quick...usually 15 minutes, or maybe 30 if it's really completely out of whack and I need to start from scratch. Maybe I'll do another one showing how it goes if you're just slamming through it as opposed to teaching it.
What great advice! I hear very few people mentioning NOT to use oil on your fretboard, took me a long time to figure this one out. I am by far an expert but after seeing what the oil does to the wood, I will never use it again. I'll go even further, I won't use anything but a damp rag to clean the fretboard, period. Another thing I love about this man is the mention of "using the eyes" vs measuring tools when doing a set up, being a machinist, I know exactly what he means.... the eyes can't fool you. Feeler gauges are a great starting reference point but as many like myself, if you have a light touch, you can bring the strings closer to the frets or just customize the set up your way. Great "no nonsense" video. Thank you for sharing this!
I just sat in bed and watched the whole thing and didn't get bored, I've just learned how to setup a guitar and I will surely do the same things to my guitar as well! Thank you so much!
Sir, you're my new guitar guru. I've been playing for 30 years and always struggled getting decent setups. There's a lot of information, disagreements and myths out there and this is such a nice clear, straight forward explanation. I've learned a bunch of neat tips and I love the whole thing of getting rid of feeler gauges and all that stuff for nut set up and neck relief. Brilliant stuff. I'll definitely be subscribing!!!! Excellent job :)
Thanks! Glad it helped demystify things a little bit. There are definitely lots of different ways to get the same end result, but my engineering/robotics background tends to kick in and I try to eliminate as many moving parts and inter-dependencies as possible. I've had "unplayable" guitars in my shop where the only thing wrong was the setup was way off in the weeds. Once I walk the customer through my 15 minute setup procedure, they can't believe how simple it really is.
You are very thorough, patient, dedicated, and professional. I have an appreciation for people that love their craft because they end up being the best at what they do. I've learned a lot. Thank you. I've subscribed.
thank you for this. Your expertise and passion for the instrument are evident and make a difference. I've just started the guitar journey with a second hand Epiphone LP Special, and now feel confident to replace the strings and do my first set-up.
This is the best, NO BS, guide I have seen!! I loved the explanation of how to adjust the truss based on fret location and using a capo to take the nut out of the equation. VERY well done and explained!!
Great instructions and video, John. I have been playing lots of years and attempted to do my own adjustments and you really have a great skill with all this.
Thanks, Tim! It's really not hard. The key is doing it methodically and decoupling bridge, nut and trussrod adjustments (and tossing out all of the goofy measurement tools). That's the purpose of all the fretting I do, using the string as a straight edge. It completely decouples all of the adjustments, and assuming that the frets and neck are in reasonable shape it works very well.
This technique relieves all my tensions about setups. Especially the nut slots. Thanks for a great tutorial John! I setup my Les Paul, and my 339 with ease thanks to you.
Thank you so much! Thank you for taking the time to make this video! This gave me all the necessary info that I was looking for. You made it look easy. Greetings from Argentina.
Sure is great to see meticulous attention paid to even the smallest details! Thanks for sharing your setup tips, I think you’ve made a LOT of players feel more comfortable about doing some of their own maintenance- sure have for me.
I am waiting delivery of my first Les Paul electric guitar and all this is new to me, I have learnt a great deal from your excellent instructional video, thank you.
Just purchased my first ever Epi Les Paul. It is an LT, so not the highest end of the Les Pauls but an LP none the less. I really enjoy being able to work on my own equipment. Your video is super helpful in helping me understand my instrument better, so thank you so much for the content.
My Les Paul Custom sounds great now, I had an idea of what to do after working on my own basses for years, but this is my first real guitar set up attempt. Thanks so much for the help!
Well done! I'm getting ready to setup my Les Paul style guitar for the first time and I've watched a bunch of videos on the subject in preparation, comparing various recommendations and techniques. Everyone does things differently, of course, but you demonstrated some fine points that make more sense than those of other full-time professional luthiers including at least one from Gibson. For example, some luthiers on YT actually recommend up to .015 neck relief. Although I haven't setup a guitar before, I'm a very experienced woodworker who has built and restored museum quality period furniture in my 72 years. I restored my 1967 Guild F212 12-string guitar that sat unused in a closet for decades until my (then) teenage son almost totally destroyed it. It was so badly damaged that I almost just through it in the trash. Just before doing that, I decided to restore it and it's more beautiful now, by far, than it was when it left the factory. However, it needed a neck reset so I let a pro do that and he did an outstanding job. More recently, I let an outstanding luthier in my area do a complete setup including a re-fret, new nut, new saddle, etc. It was well worth the money to have experts do those jobs. I know my limitations. But, being a retired engineer who works on practically everything imaginable (cars, motorcycles, and everything but electronics) doing a setup won't be a problem, especially with great videos like yours to help. You made a very helpful video. Thank you very much.
Thanks for posting John. It was informative and interesting. I've been playing a long time, and you still showed me some great tips. And I loved the storm...lol. Cheers
Excellent video, thank you John! I love how thorough and helpful that was! At one point you referred to it as a Gibson Les Paul, but hey, easy slip. Thanks again. I'll be a lot more confident going through my own electric guitars!
Thorough and easy to follow vid. It makes me braver to take on the mods on my chibson, which needs some set up love. I just need a decent tuner. Thanks!
Thanks for the tip on measuring string height at the nut. Very helpful. I discovered that sliding a piece of notebook paper under the strings at the first fret while freting the third fret is a good way to measure this (paper is about one mil). Then lower the nut slot with a file until the paper just starts to feel a little resistance as you pull the paper back and forth
Great video John. Very thorough. I get a bit of a chuckle out of the guys who measure everything. Every guitar is different and yes, you do have have some basic guidelines, but when all is said and done you really have to allow the guitar to give you what it will give you and just play it in. Thanks again for a fine video.
buddy I've watch a lot of how to but this is by far the best!!! best video I have watched!!! your a very good teacher. thank you I watched all the way to the end. if I could give you 2 thumbs up I would actually I can 👍👍
I learned so much from this video, I was wondering why I was having so much difficulty playing even though i've been practicing very heavily lately and it turns out that my set up was off. Thanks again! (btw you have an awesome job)
I had adjusted the truss rod before but not very effectively and this video helped a lot with that. I had also never adjusted the bridge height or the intonation (although my intonation didn’t need messing with).
Thank you for making this it helped allot. I've been trying to intonate for days. I was ready to give up! //////////subscribing /// Thanks again. Keep on Pushing Brother
Great video. Removing the mystery is always good. So the bridge saddles are reversible. Didn't know that and may need to swap my B string. Still slightly flat fully adjusted as short as can go.
I learned more here about guitar set up than most of what I've watched or read on it in years! Especially valuable were the tips on getting nuts slot height right @ 40:26 and getting the neck relief set @ 49:45. It's completely dialed in my home set up chops. Thanks for the great tips John!
Enjoyed this, thanks! I have a Les Paul Special 2, so I plan on doing many of the adjustments shown for better sound. I'm in Mexico, so this kind of work is better done without the necessary translations.
Excellent, many thanks for taking the time to do this, I followed along and finally got my Epi to stay in tune and play great, what's the total I owe?!
Lolll kinda creepy the end with the storm!!! But man thanks for showing us all that knowledge! I think important for a player to know how to make a basic tuning. We don’t always have a guitar tech close to us! I got a question tho. How do you solve the E string buzz? Got buzz on my E and it turn me crazy!
Thank you. I learned alot. I bought a very very used epiphone sc 350 scroll and the setup it totally over the place. In my country we meseure in mm instead of inch but i can work that out. Tommorow im going to try to setup following this video. Hoping to get the buzzing gone from the low e string because that drives me nuts and get some intonation stuff right. The tum o matic is set at low as it can and i see now that thats not correct in youre video.
Great video, I initially thought it was too long but then I realized this is a full on-line manual. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us. I will do my first setup this weekend for my Epiphone Les Paul Studio Goth, going step by step with this valuable video.
I know this vid is 5 years old but THANKS!!! Recently bought an Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro-IV and this video answered ALL of my questions about setting it up. Great explanations about how and why for every step. My LP sounds and plays beautifully now. Again…thanks!
I literally got the same one too, got it in the worn burgundy color, beautiful guitar, but something seemed off, but after this set up, it truly plays beautifully
I just wanted to add that I have now set up all of my guitars per your instruction and I cannot believe how much better they all play. Noticeably better.
Much appreciated John.
This video was amazingly helpful, as I tried to set up my own Epiphone Les Paul for the first time. I bought it used and I'm a new player so I finally took the time to replace the strings and try to learn more about it. I really like how you took the time to show the details around each step. Thank you so much for putting it out there!
It's great to learn how to play guitar, but also important to learn how to care for it.
Thanks for this video! Learnt heaps from it, and was relaxing like a Bob Ross video.
THANK YOU! I really appreciate your effort to make this video so detailed. I managed to set up my new Les Paul that came from a factory in an unplayable shape. Great job. Thanks again.
Excellent information John! Thanks for taking the time to show us your skills, so we can look after, or set up our guitars ourselves. Very much appreciated!
Just wanted to give you a big thank you for taking the time to make this video. I finally decided to try setting up my LP myself and have gone through at least a dozen vids tonight trying to find the info I needed but all were lacking in vital tidbits of detail (particularly the parts about adjusting intonation!) that had me ready to jump out a window. This turned out to be a MUCH bigger job than I thought but I'm satisfied with the results and probably wouldn't have been without your help. So again THANK YOU!
You're welcome, Steven. Glad you found it helpful! Once you do it a couple of times, it really goes quick...usually 15 minutes, or maybe 30 if it's really completely out of whack and I need to start from scratch. Maybe I'll do another one showing how it goes if you're just slamming through it as opposed to teaching it.
Steven Wilson I
@@jcoloccia Maybe do one on a guitar with a Floyd Rose ?
What great advice! I hear very few people mentioning NOT to use oil on your fretboard, took me a long time to figure this one out. I am by far an expert but after seeing what the oil does to the wood, I will never use it again. I'll go even further, I won't use anything but a damp rag to clean the fretboard, period. Another thing I love about this man is the mention of "using the eyes" vs measuring tools when doing a set up, being a machinist, I know exactly what he means.... the eyes can't fool you. Feeler gauges are a great starting reference point but as many like myself, if you have a light touch, you can bring the strings closer to the frets or just customize the set up your way. Great "no nonsense" video. Thank you for sharing this!
this is by far the most informative guitar set up video ive seen on youtube. thank you!
I just sat in bed and watched the whole thing and didn't get bored, I've just learned how to setup a guitar and I will surely do the same things to my guitar as well! Thank you so much!
Thank you. This was the best I've found for tuning my Gretsch. Learned exactly what I had to know.
Excellent tutorial. I will NEVER have to pay for another set up ever. Thank you Sir.
Sir, you're my new guitar guru. I've been playing for 30 years and always struggled getting decent setups. There's a lot of information, disagreements and myths out there and this is such a nice clear, straight forward explanation. I've learned a bunch of neat tips and I love the whole thing of getting rid of feeler gauges and all that stuff for nut set up and neck relief. Brilliant stuff. I'll definitely be subscribing!!!! Excellent job :)
Thanks! Glad it helped demystify things a little bit. There are definitely lots of different ways to get the same end result, but my engineering/robotics background tends to kick in and I try to eliminate as many moving parts and inter-dependencies as possible. I've had "unplayable" guitars in my shop where the only thing wrong was the setup was way off in the weeds. Once I walk the customer through my 15 minute setup procedure, they can't believe how simple it really is.
You are very thorough, patient, dedicated, and professional. I have an appreciation for people that love their craft because they end up being the best at what they do. I've learned a lot. Thank you. I've subscribed.
Thank you, Alfred!
I am so grateful for this video! It's very well made and full of great simple methods that do not require specialized tools. Thank you, man!
thank you for this. Your expertise and passion for the instrument are evident and make a difference. I've just started the guitar journey with a second hand Epiphone LP Special, and now feel confident to replace the strings and do my first set-up.
Great series of videos. Thank you for taking the time to make these, and great work on the guitar! Subbed to your channel
This is the best, NO BS, guide I have seen!! I loved the explanation of how to adjust the truss based on fret location and using a capo to take the nut out of the equation. VERY well done and explained!!
Thank you, JRC! I'm glad someone found it helpful. :)
Great instructions and video, John. I have been playing lots of years and attempted to do my own adjustments and you really have a great skill with all this.
Thanks, Tim! It's really not hard. The key is doing it methodically and decoupling bridge, nut and trussrod adjustments (and tossing out all of the goofy measurement tools). That's the purpose of all the fretting I do, using the string as a straight edge. It completely decouples all of the adjustments, and assuming that the frets and neck are in reasonable shape it works very well.
Great video , just bought an Epiphone Les Paul and followed your video , guitar plays like a champ , thank you so much !!!!!!
This technique relieves all my tensions about setups. Especially the nut slots. Thanks for a great tutorial John! I setup my Les Paul, and my 339 with ease thanks to you.
Thank you so much! Thank you for taking the time to make this video! This gave me all the necessary info that I was looking for. You made it look easy. Greetings from Argentina.
Sure is great to see meticulous attention paid to even the smallest details! Thanks for sharing your setup tips, I think you’ve made a LOT of players feel more comfortable about doing some of their own maintenance- sure have for me.
I am waiting delivery of my first Les Paul electric guitar and all this is new to me, I have learnt a great deal from your excellent instructional video, thank you.
Just purchased my first ever Epi Les Paul. It is an LT, so not the highest end of the Les Pauls but an LP none the less. I really enjoy being able to work on my own equipment. Your video is super helpful in helping me understand my instrument better, so thank you so much for the content.
Hey there John,
Thank you very much for your Time to show us how to do it right.
Great Job!
My Les Paul Custom sounds great now, I had an idea of what to do after working on my own basses for years, but this is my first real guitar set up attempt. Thanks so much for the help!
Been searching for days for a guide for the nut cutting height. Finally a good tutorial, cheers
Well done! I'm getting ready to setup my Les Paul style guitar for the first time and I've watched a bunch of videos on the subject in preparation, comparing various recommendations and techniques. Everyone does things differently, of course, but you demonstrated some fine points that make more sense than those of other full-time professional luthiers including at least one from Gibson. For example, some luthiers on YT actually recommend up to .015 neck relief.
Although I haven't setup a guitar before, I'm a very experienced woodworker who has built and restored museum quality period furniture in my 72 years. I restored my 1967 Guild F212 12-string guitar that sat unused in a closet for decades until my (then) teenage son almost totally destroyed it. It was so badly damaged that I almost just through it in the trash. Just before doing that, I decided to restore it and it's more beautiful now, by far, than it was when it left the factory. However, it needed a neck reset so I let a pro do that and he did an outstanding job. More recently, I let an outstanding luthier in my area do a complete setup including a re-fret, new nut, new saddle, etc. It was well worth the money to have experts do those jobs. I know my limitations. But, being a retired engineer who works on practically everything imaginable (cars, motorcycles, and everything but electronics) doing a setup won't be a problem, especially with great videos like yours to help.
You made a very helpful video. Thank you very much.
Best tech on UA-cam learn so much from you mate keep them coming pal
You answered my setup questions. Can't thank you enough. Your my Hero!
dude you kick ass sir. you helped me out greatly! thank you keep em coming!
Thanks for posting John. It was informative and interesting. I've been playing a long time, and you still showed me some great tips. And I loved the storm...lol. Cheers
Excellent video, thank you John! I love how thorough and helpful that was! At one point you referred to it as a Gibson Les Paul, but hey, easy slip. Thanks again. I'll be a lot more confident going through my own electric guitars!
Awesome, awesome video. Lots of good information and easy to follow along with. Thanks for the help!
Dude your voice is soothing as hell, makes me actually listen,amazing video
Great video. I appreciated all the information, including your personal opinions vs what others might think.
Thankyou for these videos john!
Thank you you have made lot of complicated things really easy
I like that your talking and explaining details
Thank you so much for this video! you covered everything i wanted to know and helped confirm some things all already did know
Thanks John, I actually learned a lot from this!
Thank you Jonh I will use your words of wisdom and great explanation in setting up my black beauty Epi .Thank you
I dont know who these people are that gave this a thumbs down, but I found this to be very informative. Love the attention to detail. Thank you, sir!
Thanks very much for this video. I watched the whole thing and picked up some excellent tips. Cheers
Great video! I'm only about half the way though but I had to comment. This is very well explained and detailed for the viewer. Thank you!
Great video! .. you taught me a lot more things than others could ❤
Thanks for taking the time to explain this.
What a nice man clear spoken and very informative 👍
Thorough and easy to follow vid. It makes me braver to take on the mods on my chibson, which needs some set up love. I just need a decent tuner. Thanks!
Thanks mate you just saved me some money and taught me some stuff. Appreciate it
Great job! Much appreciated! I've wondered the why & wherefore for many years. Thanks again! :-)
Awesome video man. Thank you for this. I just got an Epiphone Les Paul Vintage Edition. This should help a lot with the setup.
35:50 I needed to see this, been having major tuning instability and this explained why soooo well. Thank you sir!
You're welcome. :)
Another great video you explain things so well much appreciated.
Thanks, Dave!
Thanks for the tip on measuring string height at the nut. Very helpful. I discovered that sliding a piece of notebook paper under the strings at the first fret while freting the third fret is a good way to measure this (paper is about one mil). Then lower the nut slot with a file until the paper just starts to feel a little resistance as you pull the paper back and forth
Thank you so much for posting this.
Thank you for such great information. I understand much better the setup process.
Very good video. It takes the voodoo out of setting up a guitar. Pure common sense approach. It worked perfectly for me.
The Bob Ross of luthiers. Thanks for the tutorial!
Extremely comprehension and well explained thank you very much
Very informative, just bought the same guitar, thank you!
I was gonna pay guitar center to do this but I feel confident doing it on my own, thank you!
Great video John. Very thorough. I get a bit of a chuckle out of the guys who measure everything. Every guitar is different and yes, you do have have some basic guidelines, but when all is said and done you really have to allow the guitar to give you what it will give you and just play it in. Thanks again for a fine video.
buddy I've watch a lot of how to but this is by far the best!!! best video I have watched!!! your a very good teacher. thank you I watched all the way to the end. if I could give you 2 thumbs up I would actually I can 👍👍
I learned so much from this video, I was wondering why I was having so much difficulty playing even though i've been practicing very heavily lately and it turns out that my set up was off. Thanks again! (btw you have an awesome job)
what did you do to your guitar? was it your first time adjusting?
I had adjusted the truss rod before but not very effectively and this video helped a lot with that. I had also never adjusted the bridge height or the intonation (although my intonation didn’t need messing with).
@@LQ2DARESQ nice to hear! what tools did you use?
Thank you for making this it helped allot. I've been trying to intonate for days. I was ready to give up! //////////subscribing /// Thanks again. Keep on Pushing Brother
Great video. Removing the mystery is always good. So the bridge saddles are reversible. Didn't know that and may need to swap my B string. Still slightly flat fully adjusted as short as can go.
thanks for your video. It helped me a lot to setup my guitar
thank you for making this video, as it will come in handy for when I do maintenance on mine lp standard plustop...
Thanks for the video. Helped out a lot!
Thanks. Just what I needed.
A fountain of information here. Thank you sir 👍
Thanks for sharing this, awesome video 👍🏻
40:29 Action, intonation.
cheers
Great video.
I learned more here about guitar set up than most of what I've watched or read on it in years! Especially valuable were the tips on getting nuts slot height right @ 40:26 and getting the neck relief set @ 49:45. It's completely dialed in my home set up chops. Thanks for the great tips John!
Super good video !!!
Enjoyed this, thanks! I have a Les Paul Special 2, so I plan on doing many of the adjustments shown for better sound. I'm in Mexico, so this kind of work is better done without the necessary translations.
Excellent, many thanks for taking the time to do this, I followed along and finally got my Epi to stay in tune and play great, what's the total I owe?!
Thanks for the kind words...we're even. :)
Great video, man, thanks.
excellent john
Lolll kinda creepy the end with the storm!!! But man thanks for showing us all that knowledge! I think important for a player to know how to make a basic tuning. We don’t always have a guitar tech close to us! I got a question tho. How do you solve the E string buzz? Got buzz on my E and it turn me crazy!
Great video
great info, many thanks!
Good shit right here, thank you
I swear to god your voice is massaging my brain
Thanks John!
Great video! Would love to learn more what exactly is the effect of changing the tailpiece hight (i.e. the break angle). Can you elaborate on that?
wow great video! Its going to really help...
Thank you. I learned alot. I bought a very very used epiphone sc 350 scroll and the setup it totally over the place. In my country we meseure in mm instead of inch but i can work that out. Tommorow im going to try to setup following this video. Hoping to get the buzzing gone from the low e string because that drives me nuts and get some intonation stuff right. The tum o matic is set at low as it can and i see now that thats not correct in youre video.
Great job. Thanks John
Sufferin' Succotash, great vid mate
McGuire's mirror glaze is the pothankslish that's used on plastic to take very fine imperfections off I use 10or 17 thanks for the info peace bro
Wow, a college credit course in LP Setup. Will there be a Cliff notes version to study before the exam.
Thank you, sir!
Great video, I initially thought it was too long but then I realized this is a full on-line manual. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us. I will do my first setup this weekend for my Epiphone Les Paul Studio Goth, going step by step with this valuable video.
I have just subscribe to your channel. The thing I like is you are not mister perfect you make things simple .good job sir. Nicola frome the UK
Sure wish u would make videos. I like them.
Just got me 1 of these last week