You play electric guitar or electric bass guitar and you want to know how to do your own setups–and do them right. You’ve seen how much bad information there is out there on the subject and so have I. That is why I made this site. I took the best information I could find, geared it toward everyday players so you can fix your broke-ass guitar. (And by “broke-ass” I mean it don’t play right, or not as well as it should.)
Maybe you’re a beginning player. Maybe youv’e been playing for years. Lots of people, new and experienced players, don’t know how to do a proper setup. Some are afraid to try. That ends now. I’m going to explain exactly what to do, which tools to use, and the correct order of operations.
If you follow my instructions carefully and use the tools I tell you to, you’re going to find success. And, by the way, the tools I’m going to recommend to you are inexpensive and readily available. Final note: Unless you bring me your instrument for me to personally setup for you, I make no money from any of this. Ready to begin?
Latest Blog Entries
Hostility Toward Measuring
I'm gonna go there once again. There are those, like myself, who not only measure things like neck relief and string heights and pickup heights, we suggest that others do likewise. There are those...
Amps And Cabs And Watts, Oh My!
This hasn’t got anything to do with guitar or bass setups. But I see so much confusion out there on the inter webs that I thought I would share what I know* on the subject. “I read somewhere...
My Strings Are Flat Against The Fretboard!
I saw someone post this in an online forum earlier. Mostly they were getting decent advice: needs a setup, might need a truss rod adjustment, etc. Someone even thought to mention that this could be...
About That EHB…
So I have had the Ibanez EHB1505MS for a while now and I have found time to play it. I even played it at a gig a couple of weeks ago. Here's my rundown. On the positive side It's beautiful. I opted...
Ibanez EHB1505MS…in California
Having now moved to the same town in southern California as my pre-pandemic bandmates did about three years earlier, I apparently have my old gig back. I arrived back in October, but I have been so...
MusicNomad FTW
So I'm clicking around on Reddit and there's someone asking about how to do a setup on a new bass he just ordered. There's only a few responses so far. One of them suggests that YouTube, and in...
Oh, Sweetwater…
It’s infuriating. The amount of shit advice on how to do guitar/bass setups is just maddening. And from sources who should know better! The latest one I have come across is in the “knowledge base”...
Practice Bass Amps
Do not buy a bass amp that has a speaker smaller than 10 inches in diameter. Don't do it. Forget about being loud enough to play in a band–it will not faithfully reproduce the sound of the...