The Worst

Truss Rod Adjustment

If there is one thing vital to a guitar, that thing would be the truss rod. The truss rod is a metal rod within the guitar neck that makes the guitar neck bend slightly to prevent fret buzz and other problems. Weather and temperature changes can cause the rod to move by itself over time. The truss rod can be adjusted using an allen wrench, although some guitars require special tools to adjust the rod. The truss rod must be turned a quarter of a circle at a time to have the wood from the neck ease and bend toward the direction you wish. These are some signs of a needed truss rod adjustment: if the neck bows outward between the seventh and twelfth fret, which are the spaces where you press your fingers on to make chords or play a specific note, and it is difficult for you to press on with your finger, the truss rod needs to be tightened clock wise until the desired “feel” is met.  If the neck bows inward between the same frets and cause a buzz, which can ultimately affect your playing, you need to loosen the rod by turning it counter-clockwise. This procedure can be tedious because it can be difficult to get the neck to bend the way you want, but it is a lot more efficient because getting It fixed at a guitar shop can range from 60-100 dollars. Learning yourself can make you a more experienced guitar maintainer.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/

Ideal Bridge

There are many forums discussing the different types of guitar bridges, which are the metal, or wooden for acoustic guitars, mounts where a string is put in through to create tension on the bottom of the guitar. Some guitars have fixed bridges, which are actually bolted onto the guitar to maintain stability. These are by far the easiest to have because you just put a the guitar string through  and the tension is equally distributed automatically whereas on a Floyd Rose (floating tremolo) you need to clamp the strings to the top and balance the tension with the bridge and the head-stock to use it to its full potential. I myself two guitars with these types of bridges and the Floyd Rose is by far the most complicated. I encourage a beginner guitarist to buy a guitar with a fixed bridge because it is easier to handle. The price for a fixed bridge is a lot less than that of a Floyd Rose due to the Floyd Roses’ intricate design. Another piece of advice is if you really want to use a Floyd Rose make sure you get a “Original Floyd Rose” because the “Licensed Floyd Rose” is even harder to handle because they are cheaply made and they are mass produced more than the “Original” but expect to pay over four-hundred dollars for the “Original.”  A Floyd Rose is so difficult to work with that many guitarists pay a specialized guitar tech to set it up for them. 

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Hypothesis

What I aim to do is to inform potential guitarists on how to maintain their guitars as the procedures can make a difference on the appearance as well as the sound of a guitar. Although there are hundreds of videos showing different techniques, I hope to give you my feedback from my experiences when doing these repairs on my own guitars.  I have seen several horrible videos that I just ended up breaking my new set of strings in the past. I have pricked my finger, I have been slapped in the face by broken strings, and I have chipped one of my most favorite guitars, but it’s all in the past and in my blog I hope to teach you how to avoid this painful path. Now over the years I have developed some of my own techniques and have grown wiser with the decisions I make when I do these repairs because if done wrong you risk damaging your guitar. I have had about two guitars which have some obvious damage to them because I used to follow amateur advice from some videos I have seen and I hope to guide you away from those and lead you to a better, easier, and safer way of repairing a guitar. I will demonstrate my own procedure of how I myself repair my own guitar, while considering the information I give you, with a video of my own. I hope you enjoy my opinions and feedback in my future posts.

Basic String Change

This video is just a demonstration of a simple string change which is needed every so often. The man in this video has an excellent work station because he’s a professional guitar expert. At home you most likely don’t have a station like this so a table with a towel over it should be good enough. He uses a couple tools such as a pair of wire cutters, a string winder, and a stand to keep the guitar slightly elevated from the top. He also has a specific technique on how to lock the strings into the tuning peg (where the string is put through so the guitar can create tension from both sides), there are many ways to do this with variations of string slack (the amount of excess string you need) and it differs with what type of tuning pegs you have and what gauge (size) of strings you have. This video is very informative for a beginner guitarist who chooses to make this an ongoing practice. Again this is a common procedure that most guitarist do to maintain a beautiful sounding guitar and all these things vary with the type of music you play as different music uses different sized strings for the sound the musician desires. A fresh set of strings can give a guitar a better sound because you get rid of a lot of the “gunk” that interferes with the sound of the strings and you will be surprised of how different it sounds.

Cleaning Your Guitar

If you plan on keeping your guitar and plan on being a decent guitar player it is very important to maintain your guitar in tip top shape. There are several accessories that are essential in the process of taking care of your guitar. Some of these accessories are hard-shell cases (exterior protection), electronic tuners (to maintain a more accurate sound), a guitar stand (to prevent a guitar from falling over and damaging it), etc. A guitar also needs to be clean. Dust is your worst enemy, because it gets in between small crevices and can be a pain to clean. Dust can affect your guitar’s sound and performance so it is encouraged that you wipe it down every so often with a soft cloth to prevent scratches.  Polishing the guitar body, as well as the fingerboard, is also essential because it makes your guitar look good and makes playing a lot easier, when you polish the fret board. Using a good brand of guitar polish such as “Gibson” or “Ernie Ball” can really make your guitar shine.  Also when you need to remove stubborn stains off a guitar don’t scrub it down and risk damaging the finish, a better solution is to use mineral spirits or other lighter fluids because they can take off stains without the harmful scrubbing. All of these items can be found at your local guitar shop so stop by your local guitar shop if you feel your guitar is lacking in any of these aspects.

http://www.repairmyguitar.com/