Guitar 'set up' · Omni Guitars

Guitar 'set up'

Ok,I am usually the guy who rolls his eyes when guitar setup is mentioned, and I usually mention how old my guitars are, and that they have never been set up as far as I know.

I finally got curious enough to put a metal a straight edge on the frets (I have an 18" metal ruler that is perfect), my 43 year old Peavey Patriot showed maybe a mm or more of space between the edge and the 9th fret. I adjusted the truss rod and after a bit of tightening, when I spanned the frets, the straight edge was right at the point where the straight edge was just starting to touch the center frets, I checked it out, and the action was kind of like look at the guitar and say A, and it plays A. I decided while I was at it, I would adjust the pickups a little, and now, it's just a rock and roll machine!

I played it a couple of days until I couldn't stand the itch any longer, and swapped the Peavey out for my 06 Strat, and ran the same deal on it. I first found that it FELT like the truss rod was getting looser as I turned the Allen nut clockwise, and my measurement seemed to bear that out, so I went with what was working, it seemed like a lot of turning, but eventually I got to the point where it was a fair fit getting an omni guitars business card between the center frets and the straight edge.

I tuned it up, and adjusted the pickups a bit, and it is just a delight to play now.

There may be room for improvement, but I am in no hurry to play with my bridges or my nuts... no pun intended.

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Guitar 'set up'