Joined
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43 Posts
Hey! Excuse the lack of brevity, I'm a wordsy fellow sometimes.
TLDR follows the dotted line which is precluded by, and identical to this one.
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Just bought an AZ prestige and I was madly in love, until I had it set up.
I liked everything about it. Sold to me in E with 10's, but I always play with 13-56, tuned down to C# Standard. I had it setup totally different than either of these (against my instinct) by who I imagined would be a professional at guitar center, out of convenience, and also a degree of ignorance. Like they wouldn't just randomly hire anybody to do this stuff right?
While it was left there a day, I began to research because I had no issues setting up my own super sturdy epi, gibson, and fender acoustic, exactly how I like. I wanted to know more, but was really unsure of how to work with the trem. Also, the tech there made it seem like it would be more involved and need more "springs", and the "claws" adjusted. (new stuff to me, Never heard the terms before, new expensive gear, always had hard tails, and so did all my buddies) I thought the pro should at least get it setup so I can get going right away. screw around with it later knowing I bought the protection plan. The tech seemed really skittish about doing 13-56 on that guitar and said i would lose tuning stability and the trem might not be able to take it so he talked me all the way down to 11's... setup ended up being ~$70-80.
So in my research, I called sweetwater and asked what needed to be done to an AZ to get it down to C# with 13-56 strings, he stated nothing, I asked about the extra, or even "High tension" springs the tech went on about. He said it would be fine.
Emailed a dude who has a trippy ass ibanez fansite thing, and seemed to know a lot, who was kick ass enough to even answer my question. and did so expediently.
he also said that I didnt need to do anything, and even said that 13-56 tuned that low is pretty dang close to 10's tension wise.
so im sketched out and nervous already.
get my guitar.
he didn't ask me to check his work.
I open it there, and stum through each string and fret a little, theres more buzz than I expected but he said it wouldnt translate to an amp.
and the b sounded weird but I attributed that to it being unwound.
anxious because hes kinda standing over me since theres no counter so im sitting on the floor with it.
I get out, take it home, and I hate the strings because the feel just as sloppy as the 10's to me and i'm accidentally bending them, just fumbling around and feeling drunk, but willing to adapt.
Then I keep hitting that b and cringing, the string has this ugly sharp bend in it ~1 cm from the saddle. "YIKES!"
It looks like it was tightened over the saddle and then slipped up afterwards, if this was prior to me receiving it, then he did some pretty sloppy and rushed work. not worth $68 plus strings which are now damaged goods.
As I'm moving around I can feel tons of buzz, so I switch to clean, and holy heck it sound like a dirty little clean channel. every bit of buzz I felt came out of that amp.
And I still miss playing with 13-56.
totally willing to settle back to 12's.
I really liked the dude, and I hate confrontation, and bad attitudes, and being out in the world, not just because of covid but because of the way that the world just is, I'm nervous about going back or complaining at all... especially because it seems like he did such a rush job. but I could be totally ignorant and that's as good as it can get buzz wise with 11's at C# standard.
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TLDR
What the heck should I do? (guitar center didnt set up the guitar the way I like, and its worse to me than when I gave it to them.)
1. screw it and accept it the way it is, he knew what he was doing and I'm ignorant. (totally willing to accept this)
2. set it up myself, or
3. find another tech?
if so how the heck do you find a reputable tech?
or
How do I set this up or at least a trustworthy resource.
and whats the freaking truth about 13-56 in C# on this beast? can it be done, done well, and with buzz that doesnt come through with low enough action? (I dont need it crazy low, but im up the frets past 12 often enough to care.)
to those who read any of this,
thank you for your valuble time.
-S
TLDR follows the dotted line which is precluded by, and identical to this one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just bought an AZ prestige and I was madly in love, until I had it set up.
I liked everything about it. Sold to me in E with 10's, but I always play with 13-56, tuned down to C# Standard. I had it setup totally different than either of these (against my instinct) by who I imagined would be a professional at guitar center, out of convenience, and also a degree of ignorance. Like they wouldn't just randomly hire anybody to do this stuff right?
While it was left there a day, I began to research because I had no issues setting up my own super sturdy epi, gibson, and fender acoustic, exactly how I like. I wanted to know more, but was really unsure of how to work with the trem. Also, the tech there made it seem like it would be more involved and need more "springs", and the "claws" adjusted. (new stuff to me, Never heard the terms before, new expensive gear, always had hard tails, and so did all my buddies) I thought the pro should at least get it setup so I can get going right away. screw around with it later knowing I bought the protection plan. The tech seemed really skittish about doing 13-56 on that guitar and said i would lose tuning stability and the trem might not be able to take it so he talked me all the way down to 11's... setup ended up being ~$70-80.
So in my research, I called sweetwater and asked what needed to be done to an AZ to get it down to C# with 13-56 strings, he stated nothing, I asked about the extra, or even "High tension" springs the tech went on about. He said it would be fine.
Emailed a dude who has a trippy ass ibanez fansite thing, and seemed to know a lot, who was kick ass enough to even answer my question. and did so expediently.
he also said that I didnt need to do anything, and even said that 13-56 tuned that low is pretty dang close to 10's tension wise.
so im sketched out and nervous already.
get my guitar.
he didn't ask me to check his work.
I open it there, and stum through each string and fret a little, theres more buzz than I expected but he said it wouldnt translate to an amp.
and the b sounded weird but I attributed that to it being unwound.
anxious because hes kinda standing over me since theres no counter so im sitting on the floor with it.
I get out, take it home, and I hate the strings because the feel just as sloppy as the 10's to me and i'm accidentally bending them, just fumbling around and feeling drunk, but willing to adapt.
Then I keep hitting that b and cringing, the string has this ugly sharp bend in it ~1 cm from the saddle. "YIKES!"
It looks like it was tightened over the saddle and then slipped up afterwards, if this was prior to me receiving it, then he did some pretty sloppy and rushed work. not worth $68 plus strings which are now damaged goods.
As I'm moving around I can feel tons of buzz, so I switch to clean, and holy heck it sound like a dirty little clean channel. every bit of buzz I felt came out of that amp.
And I still miss playing with 13-56.
totally willing to settle back to 12's.
I really liked the dude, and I hate confrontation, and bad attitudes, and being out in the world, not just because of covid but because of the way that the world just is, I'm nervous about going back or complaining at all... especially because it seems like he did such a rush job. but I could be totally ignorant and that's as good as it can get buzz wise with 11's at C# standard.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TLDR
What the heck should I do? (guitar center didnt set up the guitar the way I like, and its worse to me than when I gave it to them.)
1. screw it and accept it the way it is, he knew what he was doing and I'm ignorant. (totally willing to accept this)
2. set it up myself, or
3. find another tech?
if so how the heck do you find a reputable tech?
or
How do I set this up or at least a trustworthy resource.
and whats the freaking truth about 13-56 in C# on this beast? can it be done, done well, and with buzz that doesnt come through with low enough action? (I dont need it crazy low, but im up the frets past 12 often enough to care.)
to those who read any of this,
thank you for your valuble time.
-S
