New Guitar Setup…

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been showing a friend of mine how to make a guitar. This past weekend, he completed the final steps of construction known as guitar setup.

Guitar setup consists of several steps that include setting the neck relief, the saddle height, the nut slot depths, as well as setting the saddle intonation. The goal of guitar setup is essentially to set the height of the strings low enough for the player to be able to fret notes with ease without having the strings incorrectly contact the guitar so that the strings “buzz” against the fingerboard’s frets. In addition, setting the intonation of the saddle, which allows each individual string to be of a slightly different length, ensures that a string will play the correct note no matter where it is fretted along the fingerboard.

There is still some sanding and finishing to be completed on his guitar, but it already looks great and plays very well. It is loud without being “boomy” and has a rich tone. I will post a picture of the guitar when the finishing of it is complete.