Do you track your setup preferences?

Budda

Budda

Axe-Master
Continuing thoughts from other threads:

Do you write down or otherwise track your setup info once you get a guitar dialled in?

Feel free to include if you do your own setup changes or not. If you dont do your own adjustments, do you provide the info to your tech?
 
I try to setup all of my electric guitars the same.

Relief: between 0.005-0.0075 inches measured at the 7th fret
Action: Measured at the last (22nd or 24th) fret
E: 1.59 mm
A: 1.51 mm
D: 1.43 mm
G: 1.35 mm
B: 1.27mm
E: 1.19 mm
For guitars that don't allow for individual string height adjustments I just dial in the two E strings.
 
Nope, I know pretty much how I like everything set its more of a feel thing for me. I kinda let the guitar tell me how its gonna be set, but there all usually around 1.5mm on the low E at the 12th fret and 1.25mm on the high E necks as straight as possible with slight relief. but nothing gets written down.
 
Rich5150 said:
Nope, I know pretty much how I like everything set its more of a feel thing for me. I kinda let the guitar tell me how its gonna be set, but there all usually around 1.5mm on the low E at the 12th fret and 1.25mm on the high E necks as straight as possible with slight relief. but nothing gets written down.
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This is what I did until last week when I went “these all feel right. Make sure it can be done a second time”. Lots of humidity swings even though I run a dehumidifier, plus seasonal changes. Makes it easier/faster to get back to “just right” instead of the ballpark.

I may change the R9 setup (still considering a lightning guitars bridge for some or all pauls) but everything is finally there.
 
Budda said:
This is what I did until last week when I went “these all feel right. Make sure it can be done a second time”. Lots of humidity swings even though I run a dehumidifier, plus seasonal changes. Makes it easier/faster to get back to “just right” instead of the ballpark.

I may change the R9 setup (still considering a lightning guitars bridge for some or all pauls) but everything is finally there.
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Im at the point now that if something is off I know its a turn of the truss rod either way depending on the weather, and that will usually get it back to where its good. I always keep an ey on the humidity in the room as well. I run a humidifier in the winter but summer time it stablizes at around 45% and the temp is usually around 68-70. I also don't use crazy tunings everything is in Eb aside from 3 guitars that are in E, Im sure if I was doing drops id probably write stuff down to keep track.
 
I've always just gone by feel. The only time I've measured is when I've swapped pickguards. Before swapping, I measure the height of the pickups on the treble and bass sides, from the top of the pickguard, to make it easy to get things where I had them with the new pickguard.

For those of you that measure, what's your preferred way to do that?
 
When I'm changing strings or doing basic maintenance I mainly just go by feel. If i'm doing a full pickup swap and removing things I'll look up the suggested action measurements for the particular guitar I'm working on as a benchmark to get me back in the ballpark and then fine tune by feel. I use the force.
 
Fro68 said:
Everyone should learn how to do their own setups.
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FWIW, I completely agree. I've been doing my own setups forever and I know what works for me and what doesn't. And when something isn't working, I know I can get it back quickly.

I do use a ruler to measure, mostly to judge the results of any changes or to get things back to a baseline when changing pickguards, pickup rings, bridges, stuff like that. The exception is when I'm comparing one guitar to another or want to get one close to another, but once I get them there, I rarely keep the notes.

Other than that, it's by feel these days.
 
secondwindow said:
I've always just gone by feel. The only time I've measured is when I've swapped pickguards. Before swapping, I measure the height of the pickups on the treble and bass sides, from the top of the pickguard, to make it easy to get things where I had them with the new pickguard.

For those of you that measure, what's your preferred way to do that?
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I bought the d’addario multi-tool.
 
secondwindow said:
I'm going to look in to those. I may have better results with something like that than I have with a ruler.
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I started with the traditionally recommended tools; feeler gauges for relief measurements and a ruler with markings down to the 1/64 range for action. I always felt like I was guessing rather than measuring when using those tools. The digital readouts and purpose built designs of the two tools I use now make it so much easier to know what the measurements are with confidence. The measurements are repeatable and unambiguous.

Unfortunately, Luthier's Mercantile International (LMI) went out of business earlier this year so you may have trouble getting ahold of their string height gauge. G-Tech Guitar Works makes a very similar design, but I find it is harder to use because the feet of the gauge are very narrow.
 
The Apple “Notes” app works well for me.

I will list factory specs for the guitar and document changes that are more towards my ideal setup.

Also very easy to add images of wiring diagrams and other tips, tricks etc. to have all in one place
 
OrganicZed said:
I started with the traditionally recommended tools; feeler gauges for relief measurements and a ruler with markings down to the 1/64 range for action. I always felt like I was guessing rather than measuring when using those tools. The digital readouts and purpose built designs of the two tools I use now make it so much easier to know what the measurements are with confidence. The measurements are repeatable and unambiguous.

Unfortunately, Luthier's Mercantile International (LMI) went out of business earlier this year so you may have trouble getting ahold of their string height gauge. G-Tech Guitar Works makes a very similar design, but I find it is harder to use because the feet of the gauge are very narrow.
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The LMI site now has a nice handoff to StewMac, but it doesn't look like they're continuing to make the LMI string height gauge, maybe because they have their own.

Here's a nice comparison of the two tools:
https://www.projectguitar.com/product_reviews/tools_and_consumables/lmi-string-height-gauge-r10/
 
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