TL;DR - I taught myself how to setup my guitars and bias my amp myself. This made me happy. If you are not doing this stuff yourself, I think you should consider it. Probably a lot of you here already do this stuff yourself.
I used to be the guy that took all my guitars in to be setup, to have new tuners installed, etc. I would not even consider adjusting the truss rod myself out of fear, nor would I even know how to do it. Not anymore.
I was never completely happy with the setups I paid for as the techs I encountered just wanted to take the action as low as it would go. I hated that much fret buzz, plus I liked being able to get under the string just a tiny bit. When I would ask them to not take the action so low, they literally didn't know how to do it any other way. They had their one way to set it up. I had one guy get really pissed because I questioned his setup. I have worked with three different techs in my area. Don't get me wrong, these techs have happy customers, so I don't want to completely shit on these guys.
As of today, on my Jackson Rhoads I upgraded the 1000 Floyd to an Original myself. The 1000 was not holding it's tuning at all. Beside the knifes already being worn, I discovered by troubleshooting the posts were loose and moving, and also the locking nut wasn't stable.
I replaced all the 1000 parts such as the claw, the posts, the locking nut, etc. with original parts. I fixed the loose locking nut and the loose posts. I also installed a FU-Tone brass big block and silent trem springs, Gotoh locking tuners, and a Red Bishop pop-in trem arm. I have the trem 100% level and intonated everything myself. I set it up myself starting by first setting it to factory specs by adjusting the truss rod, setting the string height, etc. Then I set the action I wanted though trial and error. It now stays in tune 100% regardless how much you pull up or dive with the Floyd.
On my Jackson Dinky I did a full setup, leveled the bridge, and intonated everything myself as well and now it's Gotoh trem is 100% stable.
I also checked the bias on my amp for the first time and set it back to factory specs.
Next up is the works for my Charvel, replace the 1000 trem, install locking tuners, etc., and for my Ibanez Iron Label 7 string is a new hipshot bridge and Black Tusq XL nut. (It already has locking tuners.)
I learned how to do all this stuff from reading forums, watching many YouTube videos, and reading Dan Erlewine's book "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!", and a lot of trial and error. It took me a couple of months of working on the first guitar alone to figure everything out.
It feels great to be independent and to be able to do all this stuff myself without spending money and relying on someone else to try to do it the way I want it done. I highly recommend considering learning how to do this stuff yourself as I find it very rewarding, and I have never been happier with my guitars.
Now if I could just play better...
I used to be the guy that took all my guitars in to be setup, to have new tuners installed, etc. I would not even consider adjusting the truss rod myself out of fear, nor would I even know how to do it. Not anymore.
I was never completely happy with the setups I paid for as the techs I encountered just wanted to take the action as low as it would go. I hated that much fret buzz, plus I liked being able to get under the string just a tiny bit. When I would ask them to not take the action so low, they literally didn't know how to do it any other way. They had their one way to set it up. I had one guy get really pissed because I questioned his setup. I have worked with three different techs in my area. Don't get me wrong, these techs have happy customers, so I don't want to completely shit on these guys.
As of today, on my Jackson Rhoads I upgraded the 1000 Floyd to an Original myself. The 1000 was not holding it's tuning at all. Beside the knifes already being worn, I discovered by troubleshooting the posts were loose and moving, and also the locking nut wasn't stable.
I replaced all the 1000 parts such as the claw, the posts, the locking nut, etc. with original parts. I fixed the loose locking nut and the loose posts. I also installed a FU-Tone brass big block and silent trem springs, Gotoh locking tuners, and a Red Bishop pop-in trem arm. I have the trem 100% level and intonated everything myself. I set it up myself starting by first setting it to factory specs by adjusting the truss rod, setting the string height, etc. Then I set the action I wanted though trial and error. It now stays in tune 100% regardless how much you pull up or dive with the Floyd.
On my Jackson Dinky I did a full setup, leveled the bridge, and intonated everything myself as well and now it's Gotoh trem is 100% stable.
I also checked the bias on my amp for the first time and set it back to factory specs.
Next up is the works for my Charvel, replace the 1000 trem, install locking tuners, etc., and for my Ibanez Iron Label 7 string is a new hipshot bridge and Black Tusq XL nut. (It already has locking tuners.)
I learned how to do all this stuff from reading forums, watching many YouTube videos, and reading Dan Erlewine's book "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!", and a lot of trial and error. It took me a couple of months of working on the first guitar alone to figure everything out.
It feels great to be independent and to be able to do all this stuff myself without spending money and relying on someone else to try to do it the way I want it done. I highly recommend considering learning how to do this stuff yourself as I find it very rewarding, and I have never been happier with my guitars.
Now if I could just play better...
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