Optimal Les Paul setup tips

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
Just picked up a LP Tribute and it needs some slight adjustments. This is my first Les Paul as most my guitars are tremolo style. Welcome all your suggestions for getting optimal playability. First of all , I prefer the action to be as low as possible without buzzing. The guitar feels great overall but the strings do feel stiffer than I'm used to. I believe 10's are on and I usually do hybrid 9 - 46. The high E/B strings are harder to bend. I understood short scale guitars to have less tension/ therefore easier to bend and such. Perhaps I'm wrong on this. When I'm bending these two strings it feels like it drags on the fretboard and bunching up into the adjacent string if that makes sense. Not sure if i need to adjust the treble side of the bridge to mitigate this or perhaps take a closer look at the nut slots on those two strings...or both. I have yet to take some measurements for the action.
Another question relates to how people are wrapping their strings over the stop tail piece. Is the purpose of this to ease the tension and break angle over the bridge saddles?...
Thanks in advance.
 
Yes, people often use a heavier gauge on a LP scale guitar because of the looser tension.

The over/under is indeed to change the angle over the bridge. I know some people say it feels different or they prefer the height of the tailpiece when you wrap over. I tried it and couldn't detect a difference. I use under since it looks better :).
 
Try raising the bridge on the treble side. That should help with the drag problem. I prefer to raise the tailpiece to change the break angle rather than wrap the strings.
 
based on your descrip I can't help but wonder if you are feeling the frets more than action. low/wide frets can feel a lot dif. your fingers actually touch the board and it drags unless you modify your playing to "float like a butterfly". I tend to probably more pressure than I should and low frets are hard to get used to for that reason. just a thought.
 
Plus if the fretboard is either dry or sticky/tacky.
9-46 on a LP should feel really nice, especially with a great setup.
Maybe you can start by doing a fretboard clean and give it a coating of lemon oil.
This should also give you the opportunity to take a close look at all the frets and the board.
 
Not looser tension, but a bit less bending stiffness. If tension is reduced the pitch drops. Bending stiffness has more to do with the string's overall length beyond the nut and saddles (how much it can stretch), the break angle and downforce at the nut and saddles (how easily it can slide back and forth in the slot), and whether or not the bridge can move or pivot at all like a floating tremolo. The more "give" the string has when bending, the springier and less stiff it will feel, however you'll have to push the string further up across the fretboard to hit the same bend pitch. Top wrapping also lets you screw the tailpiece all the way down to the body for better acoustic coupling supposedly. I prefer mine not top-wrapped mostly on looks.
 
Last edited:
Here's a pretty good Gibson-authored setup video:

After many years of winging my own setups, I finally studied a few setup videos, bought a capo and feeler gauges, and started out with actually measuring my guitars. Below are my measurements on my new Tribute and a few others I have (the numbers for 12th fret height are in 64ths).

1640019814557.png

StewMac also has a good post with their measurements of a few famous guitars:
https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-i...saddle-setup-and-repair/nut-making-and-setup/
 
I took off whatever strings came stock; conditioned fretboard with lemon oil. Wow does it look gorgeous now. It looked quite dry and now the lush redness of rosewood is pronounced. I put on 9-46 slinkys and yeah, i wrapped over the tailpiece. Immediately improved the playability. Like butter. I am heavy handed so I think I need to adjust like a butterfly on these medium jumbo frets. I also dropped half step to Eb as my other guitars are tuned this way. Now my g string is buzzing even when open. Not sure if maybe i somehow deepened the nut slot? I also put nutsauce in the nut slots as well as a bit in the saddle grooves. Adjusting neck along with treble side of bridge up a bit and still getting a bit of buzz. Maybe i just need to let things acclimate a bit as the guitar was in/outside today.
 
ha, is that a Gibson thing? So dropping a full gauge size on that G string...enough so that it maybe dropped deeper into that nut slot...
Despite this very small setback (worst case is a drop a 17 back in the G spot) I know some are tempted to make an innuendo here:) Overall I'm ecstatic with the new guitar. I never imagined my hands could fly on a Les Paul this way. Once you find the one (out of 10 sampled) that speaks to you and then you customize for your playing preferences it's a beautiful thing.
 
Nah, I was just joking. The G string on the Gibson headstock is more about tuning stability with the exaggerated break angle. Lighter gauge won’t sit lower in the slot, unless the slot is too tight with heavier gauge. The light gauge will relieve tension to allow the neck to back-bow, which will cause buzzing.
 
+1 Did you check the trus rod after dropping to Eb?
I did make minor adjustment. I figured giving it a small turn to tighten to compensate for lighter gauge. As the guitar has sat awhile it seems better already. I'm going to wait til tmw to recheck everything. I just found it odd that there isnt' any open string buzzing on the other strings. It's not overly bad when i fret notes along the G string but its there. Both on fretted notes and open string. I should also double check pickup height to see if its not too close and pulling that G down a bit
 
With the Pitch Block being so good (Axe III), I don't down-tune any more. I do use a hybrid gauge though (10-52) for the drop-tune guitar. The 52 helps tighten up the Low E (it's the only string gauge that's different from a standard set of 10's.)
 
I usually play 9s on all of my Les Pauls, some tuned down a whole step. It just takes a little nut love, and a little turn of the truss rod. If you like the feel of 9s, but need to keep tension, hybrid sets are a good way to go too.
 
Back
Top Bottom