Complete, now for the set up, but...!

[jrc127]

I stupidly kept putting off buying a long shank truss rod wrench, so I can't complete the set up. But I have a few questions.

I could get a little better action at the lower frets by taking the nut slots down another 1/32 or so. But does it make sense to leave them a little shallow with the idea that wear and tear will lower the slots a bit?

The 1st string is deadening out at the ninth fret up. It looks like the string is about 1/32 low at the 12th fret - 2/32 compared to the 3/32 I was going for. Should I shim the saddle at the treble side?

Otherwise, she is sounding great as the strings have settled in over the day. Clearer and louder than my cedar top Seagull.

I'll post pictures and sound clips later in the week (are sound clips allowed?)

Yaaaaahhoooooooo!

jrc

[tippie53]

A good set up starts with the basics. First level the frets then string up the guitar. Adjust the relief by hold the the bass string down on the 1st and on the 13th. This lets you see the plane between the 1st and 12th fret. You want to adjust the relief between .004 to .010 under the strings at the 7th fret.
Once you adjust the relief you can adjust the nut slot now you set the saddle to the action height. You want to be about 5/64th on the 1st string and 7/64th at the 6th. this gets you into the ball park.

[jrc127]

Tip: I use a capo at the first fret as a "third hand" when measuring relief. I think I learned this from Erlewine's book.

[Ken Hundley]

If you are low in the saddle, rather than shimming the saddle (which I have done when screwing up a whole bunch of slots), you could fill the slot with baking soda and CA glue, or even use some fine grit sand paper and fill it with bone dust. Then recut your slot. If you shim it, you should shim it all the way across with a thin veneer peice of hardwood. Better off filling the slot and recutting it. If you do it right, you will never see the repair.

[jrc127]

After poking the git for a while - I rechecked my FB level and sure enough there were a couple of high frets between the 11th and the 18th....there's a lesson there somewhere....

[Dan Bombliss]

When checking fret level, you'd want to use something like the Stewmac fret rocker or something. When checking for high frets you only want to check off of 3 frets at a time. It narrows down exactly what fret is high, unless it's very obvious which fret is high.

Seeing as how your fingerboard has relief in it, using a straight edge isn't a very accurate guide, as it lays over all of them. And if you're fingerboard dips at all at the body, where you force clamped it down to glue it, it would be higher between 11-18... More like 12-14 range, where the fingerboard dips. That wouldn't necessarily meaning your frets are high either, just means the playing surface is off, which you would have to file it level into your frets anyhow.]

For nut slots, I use a capo on the 3rd fret, and I use feeler gauges at the first fret. Each slot should meausure .002"-.004" over the first fret with the string fretted at the 3rd. If you went under .002" it's too deep, and you'll get buzzing.

When doing your setup you start with the truss rod. I go with fretting the 1st and the 15th fret and measure .005-.008" at the 7th fret. John said something different in and earlier post, but it's similar enough. If you don't start with your truss rod, when you set the nut and saddle, they will change and be wrong when you set the truss rod.

So fretting the 1st and 15th remove the nut and saddle's string height from the equation. And you start at that like I said.

Then you slot the nut. Like I said before fret the 3rd fret and measure at the first with a feeler gauge. .002-.004" is what you want.

Then you fret the first fret, and measure your string height at the 12th. A generic action is .090" at the 12th on the low E and .060" at the high e. The others you kind of blend between. E- .090" A- .085" D-.080" G- .075" B- .070" and e- .060" (for example.. there's a little leeway in the midde of those 2.) I personally have my playing preference set at about .075"-.50" just for how I play. I get some buzzing sometimes, but usually I can deal with it.

A quick way to rough out you're projected string height at your saddle is to use a straight edge. Shim your 12th fret at the string height you want (.090" for example) and project the straight edge to your saddle, and mark it with a pencil. And then shim your high e with the string height you want (.060") and mark it at the saddle. Then use a radius template which matches your fingerboard and connect the dots you marked to lay out the 16" (for example) playing surface onto your saddle. Since the low E is higher than the high e, it will have that tapered look to it when your done. That allows you to rough in the string height pretty quickly, and generally sets the middle string height for you automatically. If you get the top of the saddle proportionally correct, you can then just take material off of the bottom to quickly lower the height.

That's acoustic setups in a nut shell.

-Dan