Fixing your own guitars

[Justinvs]

Just an informal poll, but how many of you work on your own guitars? Do you do your own set-ups or have it done? Have you ever switched pick-ups or other electronics? Is there anyone here who has never taken the faceplate off and pulled all the guts out?

I do my own work, although sometimes I shouldn't!

Justin

[gatego]

I would not call it fixing - I prefer customizing or even modding
To me it is a need, therefore I can afford cheaper guitars from stock only I need to do some fine tuning til they meet my expectations...

[Stevie 202]

LOL!

Around here, a better question would be "Who doesn't?"

Seriously, before joining the TDPRI = Never
Since joining = wiring, pickups, bridges/saddles, setup and intonation....all in a day's work.

With 9 geetars I'm saving a bundle of $

[refin]

I can pretty much do everything except structure repairs,so I have a blast swappin' necks and bodies,rewiring,ect.......

[6942]

I've learned a lot by replacing pick-ups and rewiring guitars.


Steve

[Radspin]

I can do everything except fret work and finishing, and would like to learn how.

[Telarkaster]

I have a soldering iron and I'm not afraid to use it: replaced pickups, switch, pots, input jack, and flipped the control panel on my Tele. I've filed frets, cut out a pickguard, took apart a bridge, filed a nut and adjusted the truss rod. I've never replaced a bolt on neck however, never had a need.

I had Grovers put on my Casino by a luthier and asked him to set up my Epi Les Paul Goldtop 56RI. Some things I know would be better handled by a pro, other times I just don't have the time to fool around. I've realized that I'll never be a luthier and that I should concentrate on my playing instead. I'm still thinking about putting together my own 52 HotRod Tele...

[musicalmartin]

I couldnt bear to own a guitar that was perfect.I love modding ,lowering an action to within a tad of its minimum possible and swapping parts around .I bought an SX Strat thinking it would keep me going for months and it was almost perfect as a player,most disappointing .I do do my own fret levelling , dressing, and soldering.I also rework the nut usually.
The most work I have ever done was to completely gut an Epiphone Dot of everything except the wood, binding ,and frets and put all new parts on plus a fret level and nut work .It was well worth it though the stock Dot was OK.Some even strip the paint .I didnt quite pluck up enough courage on a my Dot with all that binding ..

[brokenjoe]

Used to do everything. Refret, body mods, all electronics.

Now I'm too lazy. I bring it into the shop and have my buddy do it for me.

[F6_FullMelt]

yeah i do all of the above, but I would call it "learning" before I called it "fixing"

[Ed P]

I can do the basics: checking the oil and tire pressure. But I've gotten into a whole lot of trouble trying to do more.

[TxTeleMan]

I do almost all of my own fixin', which includes action, pickups, pots, bridges, etc, although I farmed out a neck reset on my acoustic, and had a top notch tech set the nut and neck on my Tele once.

[electric]

I do all my guitar stuff myself. but I would like to find someone I could trust to do some things.

[kman900]

I built my first guitar at the age of 16 with the help of my late brother. Not easy finding some parts in 1975. I still remember my bandmates and me, carrying a walnut body blank, sitting in a bar (in Germany we are allowed to do so at the age of 16) and one of them said: now THIS is gonna be your new guitar . . ! LOL!

The only thing that i have'nt done yet is fretting and a neck.

[Worn]

Setup, modding, wiring painting, relicing, unrelicing (refinishing a Strat that was "reliced"), and generally just spending way too much money and having fun and a great deal of satisfaction doing so.

[Strat62]

Before joining TDPRI, never; since then I'm doing everything, including building my own!

[rhh7]

All my life I have been afraid to touch a truss rod. Came home with a 10 year old Squier Standard Strat last week. Beautiful guitar at a fair price...but to my horror, discovered a bend in the neck. So, with a trembling heart, took up an allen wrench, and turned the truss rod tighter by a quarter-turn. Let it sit for 24 hours, repeated...24 hours later, one more turn...the next morning - my neck is perfectly straight with a nice low action.

Necessity is the mother of invention...guitar techs here quote $60-$80 per hour bench time, with a minimum of two hours, and a three-week wait if you did not purchase your guitar in their store. I am not stingy, just simply can not afford to pay those rates.

So my next job, going to install a pre-slotted Tusq nut in my Warmoth Strat neck.

[tazzboy]

The only thing I don't do is fret work and Wood Work other then that if I can do it myself then I will do it.

[Wardpike]

I've broken or screwed up so many guitars, I had to learn how to repair just about anything or else be stuck in a pinch... so I can do everything, but I have an expert tech I take things to most of the time. More for the social interaction than anything else!

[nvilletele]

though I have relatively little knowledge or skill, I have done increasingly more set-up type work on my guitars over the years. I managed to swap out a bridge pickup once on my own without destroying anything too badly, but it made me realize I needed a better soldering iron and a little more solder knowledge. So I got a Hakko soldering station and ordered the funadamental soldering skills DVD . . . been buying some more tools as well. I figure there is not much rocket science or art involved in the basics - setting action, intonation, etc., so I muddle through with help from The Guitar Handbook and other resources for the ignorant/imcompetent like myself. I have plans to swap out a bunch of pups, once my order finally arrives from justpickups.com . . . I also hesitate to mess much with truss rods, so when I have a need I seek assistance from my guitar teacher . . . yeah, I know it's not so scary really, just always prefer to have someone more experienced than myself. I dont expect I will ever do much in the way of real repair, or fretwork or the like. But I figure it will save tons of money and waiting time if I do the basic stuff by myself, plus have a lot of fun and learn more at the same time. And maybe I will begin to learn more about the electronics, wiring and what all those little parts between the pots actually do . . . .

[Joe-Bob]

Originally Posted by Justinvs

Just an informal poll, but how many of you work on your own guitars? Do you do your own set-ups or have it done? Have you ever switched pick-ups or other electronics? Is there anyone here who has never taken the faceplate off and pulled all the guts out?

I do my own work, although sometimes I shouldn't!

Justin

I do all my own stuff except new nuts and fretwork, although I will eventually.


I take great pride in the care of my instruments: the deal-breaker for me was paying someone else good money to put dents in my headstocks and gouges in my bodies. Of course, when you point out the new damage, naturally they know nothing about it, but we both knew that was always a lie.

[MickM]

Originally Posted by rhh7

All my life I have been afraid to touch a truss rod. Came home with a 10 year old Squier Standard Strat last week. Beautiful guitar at a fair price...but to my horror, discovered a bend in the neck. So, with a trembling heart, took up an allen wrench, and turned the truss rod tighter by a quarter-turn. Let it sit for 24 hours, repeated...24 hours later, one more turn...the next morning - my neck is perfectly straight with a nice low action.

Necessity is the mother of invention...guitar techs here quote $60-$80 per hour bench time, with a minimum of two hours, and a three-week wait if you did not purchase your guitar in their store. I am not stingy, just simply can not afford to pay those rates.

So my next job, going to install a pre-slotted Tusq nut in my Warmoth Strat neck.

$60-$80 per hour? 2 hour minimum? Holy crap, are they members of the Canadian Guitar Tech Union?

[TG]

Originally Posted by Stevie 202

LOL!

Around here, a better question would be "Who doesn't?"

+1

My guitars are all either partcasters or have been upgraded and messed about with in one way or another.

Just today I went in and rewired my strat. It was something to do on a rainy afternoon.

[Mike Bruce]

I do virtually all my own. I won't do a neck reset on a guitar if the luthier is still working (only happened once), and sometimes I take a pass on refrets and weird electronics, but generally I do my own.

Mike Bruce

[Papa Joe]

I got fed up with paying good money to so called experts to botch up my gear and started doing all my own work. Nobody has ever touched any of my insturments or amps but me for the past 35 years..

[boris bubbanov]

The secret is knowing when you're just not supposed to touch one.

Just don't do it - something about the day, the state you're in. Don't touch it, just play 'em. Don't even turn the amp up too much.

[Ricky D.]

Originally Posted by boris bubbanov

The secret is knowing when you're just not supposed to touch one.

Just don't do it - something about the day, the state you're in. Don't touch it, just play 'em. Don't even turn the amp up too much.

Good call, Boris. I stay away from my workbench when my hands are tired (like after a day of yard work) or my eyes are tired (like reading all day at work). I just gradually discovered that I didn't get good results at those times.

[pmcghen]

I'm learning to do a lot more. Joining the TDPRI has helped out a lot. I'm working on my first build now.

[Jakedog]

I had one of the "local hero" players in my hometown take me under his wing when I was a teenager. He showed me how to do my own setups, intonation, etc. And later, how to wire pickups, switches, pots, etc. He swore guitar repair was a huge rip-off, and that anybody who was serious about playing ought to be able to work on their own stuff. I fix everything myself, and do all of my own setup work on all of my guitars, electric and acoustic. I have installed the electronics in all but one of my acoustics (the only one that came with a nice system from the factory, the rest had none when I bought them). The only thing I don't do is fretwork, and that will be something I finally tackle this winter.

Once you figure out what little work is involved in repairing and maintenencing guitars, and how easy it really is to do it, it's really hard to stomach paying the prices people want to charge you. You could train a monkey to do this stuff. Seriously.

[68 Shovelhead]

Originally Posted by Radspin

I can do everything except fret work and finishing, and would like to learn how.

That's where I'm at too.

[magicguitar]

Solder, sand, drill, fret dressings, set-ups, finish/refinish, and most anything else. I found out a long time ago that it is easier and better to do it yourself.

[Mojohand40]

Interesting..
I do all my own stuff, pups and wiring, nuts, a little fret filing here and there, setups, neck shimming etc..basically whatever I need on all my stuff.
A few years ago I wanted to take a guitar in for a little wiring, setup etc...and you know what? I couldn't find a shop anywhere that did guitar tech work...
I was floored that a few "high end" shops I found didn't have anyone on staff that could do very basic stuff.
That's why whenever someone on the forum says they had their "Guitar Tech" do this or that I always wonder, who/where are these Guitar techs?
Anyway, the shops that I found willing to do stuff, basically don't know how to very well, and so over the years I've developed a decent guitar tool kit, etc as well as a pretty good working knowledge of what to do (thanks in part to this forum).
In the last two years I've did a few complete rebuild/partscasters as well as a kit form lap steel. Now I'm pretty confident I could do any and all of my own "Guitar tech" work.

[TJNY]

I guess I'm in the minority on this one. All my gear is stock. I changed a pick guard and do my own strings but that's pretty much it.
I do have a MIM strat that I have thought about changing out the Pups but still haven't gotten around to it!!
Oh, and I polish real well!!

[Slow Reflexes]

Mine's stock, too, but I'm fairly certain there's nothing going to happen to it that will require hired labor.

[TG]

Originally Posted by Joe-Bob

I do all my own stuff except new nuts and fretwork, although I will eventually.

With a bit of gear for it nuts and fretwork aren't at all tricky.
I use a whetstone bought from a local hardware store to level frets. Then a piece of plastic from the back of a chinese takeaway tub with a slot cut in it as a fretboard guard and I round, smooth and polish the frets with a fine file, a few grades of sandpaper and a bit of steel wool.

But I wouldn't do a refret at the moment since I'm not set up for it workshopwise. But if I needed to I'd read up on it, get organised and perhaps have a go on a cheap eBay neck or something as a practice run first.
But it's easy to get replacement telecaster necks...and I'm one of those players who doesn't wear frets much for some reason...so I doubt I'll need to do any refrets, as far as I can tell.

I bought a nut file set on eBay and that's easy too...but you MUST work slowly and constantly check your progress. 'Just a little more' without checking can bollox a nut.

Research...get organised...think about what you are doing before you do it....take your time.

[jazztele]

i've got no problems with anything wood related--drilling, routing, whatever--i do all of that myself. setups, no prob the only thing i'm really bad at is electrical stuff--i am the world's shakiest handed solderer!

i'll do it myself in a pinch, but i got a friend who can do anything electrical way better than me, so i'm glad he's around.

i've only practiced fretwork on an old junko i have laying around...i'm decent, but a big job like a refret and i'm taking it in too...

[BlueJim]

I'm fearless about simple electronics. Have replaced everything electrical. Those mods are fun.

I do my own basic setup work: truss rod, string height, intonation. That's less fun but nice to get it they way you like it.

I am very anxious about fretwork. Have never tried anything. Not even smoothing the fret ends. I'm always worried I will ruin a perfectly good neck.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by Justinvs

Just an informal poll, but how many of you work on your own guitars? Do you do your own set-ups or have it done? Have you ever switched pick-ups or other electronics? Is there anyone here who has never taken the faceplate off and pulled all the guts out?

I do my own work, although sometimes I shouldn't!

Justin

I started avoiding set necked guitars (yeah I was tired of 24.75 scale) for 2 reasons:


a) They seemed to need a lot of attention. Constant fiddling, chasing issues;

b) They were the very sorts of issues I felt uncomfortable trying to fix.


If you can find a way to concentrate on bolt neck, Fender style guitars, the issues become fewer in number and tend to interfere with the use of the guitar less. AND they are easier to understand issues. Once the neck gets too mangy, pull it off and just replace the blasted thing.

Think of how colossal a chore, keeping up with 60 mahogany set necked guitars would be, year in year out. But the converse of this is, you have that much less pulling back on the reins when your Fender style guitar collection is bloating out of control.

Now, gratuitous eye candy:





In the works, obviously.

[Justjammin]

I'm like many other, never before TDPRI, and a little leary of the frets.

I did have a guy over the other day to test an amp I had for sale. He was boasting about all his fine instruments, he picked up my tele for the test and was amazed on the setup, didn't sell him the amp, but I emtied his wallet doing setups on all his guitars.

[Deadsy]

I do all my own work, a few builds too. im about to refret a neck for the first time, when i get the supplies.