#1 Too much effort
You’re torturing yourself trying to learn to play anything on a guitar not properly set up, and exerting too much effort just holding down the strings.
#2 Tuning
in the “please read” section we talk about how out of tune a guitar can be because it’s not properly set up.
#3 Tone
Ever here the term “got a bur under your saddle”?
Well your guitar might! The surface where the strings contact the bridge saddle and the nut often becomes deformed. Burs or sloppy fitting nut slots cause buzzing and tuning problems in a big way. Your instrument can not produce a clear strong sound or good tone in this case. GET IT LOOKED AT!
- The 1st PHASE or action you can take is get your instrument set up.
- Get the frets leveled and crowned. It might surprise you, but 90% of guitars have fret issues. Please see the “please read” section about “frets” for more detailed info.
- Your pursuit of better tone will be modifications.
This often gets bumped to the front of the list due to high pressure marketing and the lack of knowledge. “These pickups will fix my tuning problem.” or “You need new tuners dude.” In reality, the poor guitar was never constructed right in the first place.
The following is a customer testimonial from an individual well versed in how inadequate guitar manufacturing can be.
Hey People, how many times have you sat down to play, and you figure out that you are engaged in the fight of your life because your guitar is holding you back? Then you go and watch one of the big boys and he makes playing look almost effortless.There is a reason for that. Have you ever listened to someone playing a strat and realized that a strat does not produce the sounds you are hearing? That there is more sound between your fingers than is making it to the amp…and it doesn’t matter how much you paid for the guitar…there is something seriously wrong with this picture..everybody should have a guitar that helps them to do what they are trying to do.
So you take the guitar to somebody and they set it up and you get it back only to find that the luthier did only just that? Guess what, you just paid 50-100 bucks to someone who just wanted your money, did the bare minimum handed back your guitar and now it plays in tune but you are still fighting the guitar. John is someone who takes the time to evaluate the guitar and figure out what needs to be done to take it from being a attractive looking wood sculpture, to making it an actual instrument you can play and do something with.
I’ve had brand new instruments( out of the box) that needed a fret level…Fenders are notorious for this. The frets can actually stifle the sound the guitar produces imagine the disappointment with that, 1200.00 for a frikin wood sculpture, about all you can say about that is uhmm shiny. John will help you with all of this and it won’t be voodoo vintage crap. It will be what it needs, I can personally recommend the series/parallel strat wiring, and the fret leveling you won’t believe how much that will help you!!!