HOW TO: Set up an acoustic guitar and save $46.63

Got a guitar that's lacking some TLC? Is it just sitting there in the corner collecting dust because every time you try to play it just doesn't "feel right"? The strings are too high and your fingers just never seem to go where they're supposed to? Don't spend $50 at guitar center - save yourself $50 and spend $3.37 on sandpaper.

Well, part of the reason it doesn't work is because you probably need some practice. I don't mean that in a "I'm better than you" way, because I still need practice too. Practice makes perfect, and no one is perfect.

The other reason might be that your guitar was never properly set up, or that Texas humidity has done a number on that malleable wood, causing the neck to bend, the wood to expand and contract, and the strings to raise up way too high off the fretboard.

How do you know if your strings are too high? Look at your guitar. It's a preference. Normally strings are supposed to be around 2-3mm above the 12th fret (not the wood, the metal bar), but it's more so a personal preference. It's kind of like smelling food to see if it's bad - go with your gut feeling - it should be obvious.

Recently, I was gifted a new acoustic from a good friend (thank you Carrie!). It's a great brand and a great guitar, but it needed some lovin' in order to express it's true potential. Here's what my strings looked like prior:

Aside from my lack of photography skills, do you see how further up the neck the strings are closer to the frets than the bottom of the neck? I've got action problems. 

Generally, setting up a guitar should be done in three steps:

1. Adjust the nut (the white piece at the top of the neck)
2. Adjust the truss rod (the metal bar running down the neck used to counteract torsion)
3. Adjust the saddle (the white piece on the body that the strings run over)

Adjusting these in order is important because the steps preceding can have a big impact on the individual steps.

Confused as to which adjustment you need to make? As this article states: "The truss rod should not be used to adjust the string action, its job is to straighten the neck and compensate for the upward pull of the strings. If the action is too high at the nut, it is the nut that needs adjustment. If the action is too high in the middle and upper positions, it is usually the saddle that needs to be lowered"

Let's discuss all three.

#1 - Adjusting the nut.

How do you know if your nut is set right? Look at the action (distance between strings and fretboard) on your first fret (highest up the neck). Does the string height look correct there? In most instances, probably so. Nuts are usually adjusted correctly when guitars are purchased and you don't normally need to modify them. On my guitar (the photo below), the strings are adjusted pretty well at the nut, so I'm not going to cover the adjustment steps in this article (use the Googs).

#2 - Adjusting the truss rod. 

First - what does the truss rod do? It counteracts the string tension. If you take a board and attach strings at both ends and then tighten those strings, what's going to happen? The board will bend and concave out. How can we prevent that? Throw an adjustable metal rod in there. Voila - you just made a guitar neck. Tighten the rod, and the neck will come closer to the strings, loosen it and it will bend away.

So how do you tell if your neck is too concave, too convex, or just right? Look at it down the neck:

As a user in this forum states: "When properly adjusted with the strings tuned to standard tuning, the fretboard should be flat from around the 5th fret to the body, and have a very slight dip in the fretboard from the nut to the 5th fret."

The picture above was after I made some adjustments, but I actually decided to tighten it a bit more. Essentially, you want a small bow at the top of the neck (as pictured), and a straight fretboard closer to the body. 

Here's a cool trick: if you have a capo, put it on the first fret, then press down on your strings on the highest (as in 20th) fret. Now look at the action of your strings. Is it equal the whole way down the neck? This is a great way to check out neck bend.

So how do you make a neck adjustment?
Preface #1: if you've heard terrible horror stories about adjusting your truss rod, read this post.
Preface #2: I'm not responsible if you break your guitar (you won't). For all you know I'm a Nigerian Price writing this article so you'll send me money to support my sister-in-law who's held captive by Somalian Pirates. 

1. Make sure you're in standard tuning
2. Get a 5/32" allen wrench and lay your guitar down on a comfortable work bench.
3. Insert the allen wrench into the truss rod nut on the inside of the body where the neck connects
4. Make small quarter-turns either clockwise (to tighen) or counter-clockwise (to loosen). Full or half turns are not recommended.
5. Let the guitar sit for 5-10 minutes in between each turn to let the wood set. Wood is a soft material and you need to let your baby adapt.
6. Look down your neck, check your progress, and repeat if necessary. Don't worry if you go too far, it's possible your neck will convex out. In that case, just loosen (I would always end with a tighten). This took around 40 minutes for me.

Google around for some more information. This was my first time doing a truss rod adjustment, so by all means I could be talking out of my ass (worked for me though!).

Here's what the process looks like:

 

#3 - adjusting the saddle

Okay so your nut is set, your neck is straight, but your strings are still too high off the fretboard! OMGWTF?!? 
Time to adjust the saddle. (This is the fun part)

Required materials:

• Sandpaper
• Needle-nose pliers
• String winder (recommended)
• Motivation

The bridge of the guitar is the wooden part on top of the body. On top of the bridge are the saddle (probably white) and the bridge pegs. The reason your strings are too high is because your saddle is too tall and forcing the strings up too high. How do we lower it??
We sand it down.

Preface: If you're planning on changing your strings, do it after adjusting the saddle. These steps require tightening / loosening your strings multiple times and will definitely put some wear on them.

1. Take a picture of your saddle. This is just for safety in case you forget which way it goes once you take it out. It will also help with a before / after comparison.

2. With your guitar in standard tuning and no capos on the neck, measure the distance from the 12th fret to the string. Remember all that shit from chemistry class about measuring the meniscus? Do something similar here. Make sure your viewpoint and tape measure are in a constant position when you check your progress. My strings were about 7mm off the fretboard (not the fret).

3. Loosen all of your strings (don't take them off). This is where the winder comes in handy. You want your strings loose enough that you can pull them off of your saddle.

4. Use your pliers to gently pull out your saddle. Sliding it out allows you to keep your strings on, as opposed to having to take them off to pull it straight up.

5. Sand the bottom of your saddle down. It might help first if you shade the bottom edge with a pencil so you can distinguish if you're doing a level job. Try to keep equal pressure on all areas of the saddle while moving it in back-and-forth motions. Also try not to over-think it. You're just sanding a piece of plastic down. If you go too far, you just buy a new one. For me, around 30 back-and-forth strokes yielded a 1mm improvement, but this really depends on a bunch of factors. I used 100 grain sandpaper.

[insert cocaine joke here]

6. Slide the saddle back in (make sure it's in the correct way), tighten the strings (make sure the strings are sitting in their notches both on the nut and the saddle), tune back up to standard tuning, and then re-measure.
Measuring was a little difficult for me because of the many ways you can look at the strings, the slope of the strings etc. The important thing to remember again is to not over-think this. Are you making an improvement? Do your strings look like they're lower? Are you happy with their action?

7. Rinse and repeat. It's better to repeat this process a few times than to sand your saddle too low and have to go buy a new one (and repeat the process again). I went through three rounds of de-tuning, sanding, tuning, and measuring. Have a beer and put on some good music. It's fun.
Side note #1: The third time I actually just sanded down the side of the saddle that houses the 4th, 5th, and 6th (biggest) strings because my 1st (smallest) string was at a good height but my big E string was still too high. I don't know if this is correct, but I did it anyways.
Side note #2: Watch out for your 1st fret action while you're doing this. You don't want to lower your action so much that your strings start buzzing further up the neck.
Side note #3: As the prestigious Bob Ross would say: 
“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”

After all of this, I lowered my action from about 7mm off the fretboard (I found it easier to measure from the fretboard and not the metal fret) to around 4.5mm off. I actually ended up slightly tightening my truss rod a bit more too. Then I threw some Elixir strings on there, and now the beauty sounds fantastic. 
There's also "intonation" - the refinement of pitch of your saddle and strings, but I didn't get to that. Maybe I'll cover that in another post.

In addition to the links I've provided throughout the post, I also found this article to be extremely helpful and simple. Basically they're all saying the same thing, but different.

Also, throughout this I've been jamming Jungle, a funky group I just came across. Check them out.

Finally, thanks to Tyler for the advice. Glad you're back in Texas.

Jam on!