Dave, do you do your own tech'ing?

[Ekim]

I'm guessing Thomas Nordegg helps out on the road, but at home do you do your own setups and repairs? I'm cheap and don't want to pay folks to work on my guitars, but I'm still learning this stuff.

[Bluestreak]

Originally Posted by Ekim

I'm cheap and don't want to pay folks to work on my guitars, but I'm still learning this stuff.

While I know just enough to monkey around with my guitars for smaller adjustments, I'd suggest consulting an experienced luthier/tech. It's hard to damage a guitar through adjusting it, however, an experienced tech will return your guitar to you with a setup that is nothing short of astounding if you find the right technician and can convey to him how you want your guitar to perform for you.

I used to be stubborn about paying others to work on my guitars, too. However, I recently invested in having a luthier perform a complete setup on a new guitar I acquired - and immediately after getting that guitar back, I budgeted to have my other guitars adjusted by this technician. The action was the most astounding part of the setup; it is incredibly low with zero fret buzz. The guitar had some issues (too complex to describe here) that I never would have found myself, but he managed to work it out for me, for $60.

Trust me, spend the $$$. With the right technician, you'll be very glad you did.

-R

[DavejWeiner]

Yes at home I do all my own stuff. I learned from Thomas. Perfect everytime.

[Val]

Cant really think of anyone better to learn from than Thomas.

[DavejWeiner]

Yeah, just learn how to dit properly, you never need to rely on anyone else to keep your guitars playing great.

[Val]

I took my guitar to get set up yesterday at a shop called Donovans, apparently Vai knows the brother of the guy who owns it, and he's even signed a tom skin which is hung off the wall. I got told off for putting my strings on badly lol. I really need to learn this stuff..

[Bluestreak]

Originally Posted by DavejWeiner

Yeah, just learn how to dit properly, you never need to rely on anyone else to keep your guitars playing great.

I don't know about that one, Dave.

My brand-spanking-new, imported RG2770 freaked out when it got into the humid atmosphere in central Florida. The neck almost went into a backbow situation, and even with the truss rod completely loose, it still wouldn't come into any relief. In order to kill the fret buzz, I had to set the action cumbersomely high. Now, I'm pretty good at working on my guitars, but after a couple of days of frustration, I took the guitar to a luthier to get some help.

What the luthier discovered, I'd never have found myself.

Turns out that the neck had developed a very slight S-shaped curve in it when under tension of the strings. This caused the action to be very high in the upper fret registers, and very low around frets 5~7. To remove this small "hump", the neck was placed in a jig and the frets were shaved a little. From there, he was going to take another step to correct the problem, however, I don't know what that is... as the luthier still has my guitar.

My point being... that even after 15 years of playing, and being damn good at most adjustments, I'd never have picked up on something like that. Every now and again I think it's healthy to have a more skilled set of eyes jump in and take a look at your axes. You have Tommy at arm's length when you're touring, 99% of the rest of us don't have that luxury.

-Roger

[DavejWeiner]

Right but if you learn everything, you don't need anyone else.

[Bluestreak]

Originally Posted by DavejWeiner

Right but if you learn everything, you don't need anyone else.

Right on. But... there's just something about taking a file to my guitar that doesn't sit well with me. I'll leave that to the guys who know how to build 'em.

-Roger

[marksound]

Aw, it only hurts the first time.

[Jim Antonio]

I think the point here is that when something goes wrong and you can't or won't be able to figure it out by yourself, that should be the time to take an axe to a pro. Then if the luthier is not a jackass and won't be too selfish to let you in on some tips, be able to learn from him so that next time something similar happens, you would no longer need to take it back to him.

Even though we don't know Dave that well, i'm sure most of us here agree that he's a bright kid and learns d-a-m-n fast! And i see him to be a very practical person who's way mature for his age, so i give him props for being such a whiz kid! I mean, here's a guy who can take care of his business and still have an awesome time rocking the world! I admire that savvy and always try to put that ethic in me.

Jim
www.jimantonio.tk

[marksound]

There are a lot of good tutorials here:

http://www.projectguitar.com

[rgr]

The trick is to make friends with a good tech, one that isn't afraid to teach you. Sure, they are worth paying for the jobs you don't feel qualified to do, but, if you can learn from them, you can start doing alot of it yourself. I did that over 20 years ago, and now I do my own fret levels and pretty much everything else, except jobs that require tools that I don't have, i.e. fret replacement, I just don't feel like investing the time and money for the tools and to learn to use them for my own guitars, I will leave that to the pros. If I do have some high frets, I do know how to level them and get it playing right. Anyone that plays my guitars usually loves them too.

I wouldn't suggest trying this for the first time on a J Custom though8-0

Roger