About

12 Step GDR Setup Standards

• The first thing is, there should be no surprises for the customer.  They brought the guitar in for a setup or repair and were quoted a price.  If there are any additional issues not discovered at take-in, they need to be uncovered on the bench before time is invested.
• Your customer expects you to be the expert and to treat their guitar as though it is the only job you have.  Your job is to live up to their expectations.  Never put a job out without a QC check – preferably by someone who did not do the original work.
• Don’t just hand off the guitar when you’re done.  Show that you appreciate their business.  Visit for a minute and encourage your customer to try the guitar out to ensure they’re happy.  Assure them that you’re happy to make any minor adjustments right then and there.

If you do the setup and afterward discover a broken tuner, lifting bridge, bowing soundboard, or electronic issues, etc. – you’re likely to have an unhappy customer.  You need to inform your customer of any extra issues before you’ve invested enough time to have to bill them.

Ideally, this is done at take-in but always have your techs inspect the instrument before they begin work.

Plug into an amp and check each pot and switch position.  I tap pots with a 6″ metal ruler to be sure which one I’m hearing.  Why do this if the job doesn’t call for electric work?  See Step #1

Check tuner key screws & nuts, neck bolts, strap buttons – anything that could come loose or rattle, etc.

With the guitar tuned to the customer’s preference, fret at first and last fret and measure neck relief at 7^th (acoustic) or 8^th fret.

As our setup workshops and courses illustrate, you cannot rely on action gauges for small measurements such as neck relief.  We recommend a b-string clipping – look for a slight bend to illustrate proper spacing.

Have you been led astray by the T.R.A.I.N. setup method and wondered why your setups were inconsistent?  Then attend one of our workshops or apply for our guitar tech apprentice course.

Isolate the nut from any other potential influences by fretting at the highest fret. 

Using G & D-string clippings from a set of nines, measure at the 1st fret.  You want a slight bend under the wound strings with the D-string and the same under the solid strings with the G-string clipping.

Our workshops and courses show how to make a cheap, electronic tester to ensure open strings do not contact the first fret. 

Now that two of the influencers (relief & nut) have been isolated and set, you can adjust string height.  Our shop has ballpark settings that make 97% of customers very happy and only require slight adjustments for the 3% with unusual playing styles.

For most electric guitars, we set wound strings at 0.070″ and solids at 0.060″, measuring at the 17th for S & T-style guitars and 12th for all others.

If obtaining proper heights leaves saddles with little room for further adjustment, a neck shim may be required for bolt-ons or a reset for others.  Note that we discussed  acoustic guitar soundboard bows and lifting bridges at the top of this page.

Saddle heights & relief will need to be re-checked after the setup is complete since necks may move after being restrung.  We like to let the guitar set overnight before doing this final check.

It’s important to check the gap between pickup poles and string bottoms while fretting at the highest fret, before removing the old strings.

Often, missing springs or hardened foam prevents the raising of pickups, and it’s nice to discover that now rather than after you have the new strings installed!

Gaps between 3/32″ and 1/8″ are generally preferred.

We mentioned earlier that you need the vertical neck angle set so saddle heights have room to be further adjusted.  But now you want to check the horizontal spacing also.

Bolt-ons can have neck screws slightly loosened so you can push the neck in the desired direction, then re-tighten the screws when the horizontal position is correct.

Other designs should not have a horizontal neck problem.

Worn, damaged and unlevel frets are a common and serious problem.

It’s generally agreed that the minimum fret height for good playability is 0.025″.  So that’s how much fret height must remain after your fretwork.

A good tech must be able to help the customer decide whether to do a full refret, partial refret or just a level & crown.

Most high fret issues are caused by loose frets.  If a tech merely does a level & crown job without first reseating loose frets, the fret problems will never resolve.

Fret ends must not be sharp.  Frets should be properly polished with each setup. 

Fretboard should be cleaned (Naptha is helpful) and conditioned – liquid furniture polish with “lemon oil” or beeswax for unfinished fretboards, car polish for finished boards.

While strings are off, clean bridge & saddle area (jewelry cleaners are helpful), & body area under strings.

When finished with the setup, poly finishes can be polished with cream consistency car polish, while softer finishes (lacquer, etc.) call for a spray type furniture or cabinet polish.

Quality strings should be properly installed, properly stretched all along their length until they barely drop a couple of cents in tone after a stretch cycle, then intonation should be set.

The customer should receive documentation with the description of their instrument and details of all work that was performed.

The shop should keep a copy of these records for at least five years.

Certified GDR Member Shop

Details soon – in short, this shop’s lead tech has completed the Guitar Tech Academy 8-week course.