I've been guiltily following this thread and now feel the impulse to weigh in with my own meager measure of advice.
Responding to some great advice Curtis gave me last year, as well as frustration with my longstanding inability to make music, I went to one of the local music stores and had the 40-something guitar freak working there to take me through the paces of the guitars he had. It was a delightful 40-45 minutes as he took down each guitar that was more-or-less within my price range, explained what he liked about it and how it compared to others in his estimation, and then played the same piece that he'd played on each one earlier so I could judge and evaluate how each one sounded to me. I ended up buying a Seagull solid-cedar top guitar with wild cherry back and sides, handmade in Canada by Godin. http://www.seagullguitars.com/productentouragerusticmj.htm It was reasonablely priced, has great reviews, and sounds fantastic. I loved it but was entirely intimidated by it at and didn't practice very much. My daughter and her boyfriend came to visit one weekend and he picked it up and played something wonderful and well and I gave it to him on the spot because he didn't have a guitar anymore and I wanted the thing to be played. Now I have a Kala spruce-top ukulele, which only intimidates me a little bit and I fool around with it almost every day. My fingers still don't do the impossible things that even the simplest chords require them to do, but if I've learned anything over the years, it's that if you put the time in, then sooner or later things magically sort themselves out. Marek ** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltabl...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <rick@> wrote: > > > > you may want to post this too. the basic set up i do > > This is good advise for someone who wants to do their own guitar work. > I have done some of this myself. In the end taking your guitar to a > guy who does this all day every day is a better choice for beginning > players. A new player doesn't understand the variables in fret buzz, > to be able to adjust this properly. For example I am a barbarian on > guitar playing with heavy finger picks and snapping the strings Delta > style. I have to have a higher action to accommodate this style. > Most new players are too tentative with their guitar at first and wont > discover the fret buzz till they are half way through a bottle of > bourbon and have played the chords to "Wild Thing" for the hundredth > time when they finally let loose. But a good set up guy knows where > you are going to end up once you start really wailing on the thing! > > The guy at my guitar center is big on the Breedlove brand. They have > a lower end (about $300) guitar with a solid spruce top that sounds > great. If you can afford it the solid top makes a big difference > because it will sound better over time. The composite layered woods > used in cheaper guitars are held together with glue which degrades > over time so the guitar sounds deader and deader the more you play it. > It doesn't matter as much if the sides and back are a composite which > makes the guitar cheaper. > > But some players do fine starting with a cheaper guitar to test their > interest and if they get into it they can graduate into a higher > quality. Maybe by then they are ready to jump to a solid wood American > made classic like a Taylor or Martin. When you finally do get a > quality guitar in your hands there is a magic to it. It takes your > performance to a new level. But I am not a guitar fetishist. I have > high quality guitars and beat the shit out of them. I don't keep > looking for the next guitar for a special new sound. I concentrate on > my side of the equation! > > > > is to tighten the truss > > rod fully by turning the screw in the sound hole counter clockwise > all the > > way. don't over tighten or you'll strip the threads. you can then > check the > > arc of the neck by pressing the strings at the first fret and last > fret for > > clearance. then i remove and shave or sand the bottom of the bridge > saddle > > until the strings are low enough for easy play without fret buzz. (a > good > > luthier will measure the string heights during each step of the > process, but > > i never measure. he'll also put a straight edge on the frets and tap the > > high ones to the right height, but i'm not that picky.) over sand > the saddle > > and you can shim it back up, or buy a new saddle and start again. that's > > usually all you need to do. i leave the truss rod fully tightened > and lower > > the saddle more to compensate, but that's just my preferrence. i > seem to get > > less fret buzz and lower clearance that way. if you do a search, i'm > sure > > the proper measurements and procedures are available all over the > internet. > > this is a cheap guitar. if i had an expensive guitar, i'd let a pro > do the > > set up for me. > > >
