Time for a Guitar Check-Up!

It's time. I have managed to put it off, but I can put it off no longer.

My guitars' intonations have run out. It's getting harder to do demos, and worse yet - sound good on Sunday.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably have one of the following problems:

• Can't play your guitar in tune up and down the neck without retuning or bending strings
  
• Action is too high or low up on the neck
• Excessive fret buzz
• Just bad sound

These problems will happen on every, every guitar - even new ones! Here are a couple tips that will help you maintain your guitar and make it sound great. Please note, I am not a guitar expert, but these have helped me!

• Always bring a string's pitch UP from underneath while tuning. Don't tune down to a note; it will make it more likely to go flat while playing it.
  
• Change your strings more often
• Make sure to break in your strings every time. You can either play the guitar for 30 - 60 minutes after putting on new strings or tune it up a half-step for 6 - 12 hours before you need it to be in playable condition.
  
• Fix your intonation.
  
• If you've never done it, get your guitar "set-up" by a professional. I use http://www.mikelull.com.
  

Let's talk about intonation. It's the most likely cause of you hating or loving a guitar.

Intonation is the general term used to make your guitar's pitch be correct all the way up and down the neck. You can do it yourself, but it is tricky, time consuming and has several parameters. It will also make your guitar sing like a bird (assuming you have decent tone to begin with.) In the end, the goal is simple: make every note up and down the fretboard on any given string the correct pitch. The bad news is getting there isn't simple.

The components of the math are: string diameter, string to fretboard height (aka "action"), fret height, and string length. Since we can make string diameter, action, and fret height constant, the thing that usually doesn't stay constant over time is the string length(!). It is also the hardest component to correct.

The factors that cause string length to change are simple:

• Time causes the bridge and or neck under string tension to warp slightly (especially acoustics)
  
• The dimensions of your guitar change slightly under different temperatures and moistures
• The mechanics of your bridge do move over time. If you have a floating bridge, you're doomed to fight this until you tape it down after every string change.
  

So, now that you know why, here's the short of how you fix this:

• If you have an acoustic guitar - give up. Hire a professional to "cut you a new bone". They will fix your bone or put a new one in to match your strings and guitar as well as set your bridge to get the right pitch.
  
• For an electric, I recommend the same technique. But for the brave and bored, the the process is laborious, but worth it:
  
• Select your strings and get them on the guitar
  
• Set the desired playing hight using the bridge mechanics if you can. Avoid fret noise when playing heavy. If you get fret noise, your action may be set too low.
  
• Make sure your bridge is under string tension and locked down as thoroughly as possible - make sure the pitch will drift as little as possible. Tremblo systems are quite problematic.
  
• Using a strobe tuner (seriously), adjust the mechanics at the bridge to make each string's pitch correct open and at the 12th fret. This means the pitch at the 12th fret must be exactly twice the frequency of the open pitch. You will need to adjust the string length by making it shorter or longer to compensate if it's too low or high respectively. (Yes, it's backwards of what we're used to, but the math makes sense!) You will need to do this over and over again for each string since changing the tension on your neck will make the strings perform differently.
  
• The process should probably take an hour for the non-professional. The first time I did my bass, it took an hour, and I was still figuring out how to do it right.
  

When you're done, always play with the EXACT same strings you used when the guitar was intoned.

The problem is physics and the string's reaction to the dimensions they are put through. If you change the dimensions even slightly (like the width of the string versus where it gets clipped by the fret), your pitch will be off.

If you need to change the type of strings (even to a coated version of the same strings you've always loved), take the time and intone your guitar again.

The entire point of this article is GET YOUR GUITAR SET-UP. Most of the music minsters I've encountered don't know what that means. Now you do.

If you're in Seattle, you have got to go to Mike Lull. He really isn't expensive, but he is the #1 guy anywhere and a treasure to have in our backyard.

No one will thank you for it. They'll just dislike you if you don't.

This article is too long. Sorry.

God bless you in your ministry.