Learn How to Set 'Em Up Or Pay a Good Techie

The best guitar in the world will sound like drek if it is not properly setup.

Setup refers to:

Action - Height of the strings above the fretboard

Relief - The bow in the neck

Intonation - the open string and the twelfth fret notes match, an octave apart

Pickup Height - This is crucial...and how you arrive at it can vary wildly


I was playing with my PRS and I rotated the pickup selector switch as it had been at an "angle" to my mind. I always expected it one place and found it somewhere else.

Later while talking about this with a friend who had asked, "Which guitar?" I realized I fall into ruts and become a one trick pony. Each guitar has a unique voice.

I have the PRS for humbucker sound  , the Tele for single coil and the Vox for P-90s/humbuckers.
But I seem to prefer the PRS or the Tele...so what's wrong with the Vox?

Unlike more modern incarnations (which use a screw and a spring) the Vox uses rubber tubing to provide the spring force to push and maintain the pickup height.
So when you back the height screws out and would like to see the pickup rise...it just sits there with the screw backing out, aimlessly.
So Gracie sat for a week or three with the screw head looming large but the pickups just as flat as ever.
And because of that, I could not get much more than muddy sound from her.
She sat.

Grrrrrr...

After futzing with a thin icing spatula and getting nowhere I decided to just pull the outer pickup rings themselves.
Voila...They may appear to be separate rings, but infact it is a one piece assembly much like a real P-90.

That is a Gibson P-90

And for comparison, the Vox version

You can see what appears to be a separate ring surrounding the pickup when, it is all one piece. It is more like a top cover affixed to it than a surrounding ring.I went through the rest of the setup procedure and all of a sudden I have the guitar I was looking for.

If you don't know how to do a setup, there are many books on the subject, Dan Erlewine's comes quickly to mind.

Dan's Page

If you'd rather not apply a hex wrench or screwdriver to your guitar, by all means go out and find a reputable technician and pay to have it done. (Reputable does not include any chain operation)

Her knobs are now black aluminum with purple abalone and her fretboard is ebony; she is my Gracie and sounds like a dream.