Did you know that guitars typically have a metal rod that runs through the length of the neck? Because I didn’t and I’ve been playing guitar for over fifteen years. This was just one of a few things that I picked up while observing Grace Da Maren’s workshop on guitar setup.
Who’s Grace?
Why should you care what she has to say about guitar setup?
What’s guitar setup?
We’ll answer that last question first. Most guitar players, at the very least, know how to tune and replace their strings. This is how you keep your guitar sounding consistent, in terms of pitch, with itself and other musicians. Guitar “setup” is the next level of basic guitar maintenance. Over time, the voice of your guitar can start to shift a little.
It can tend to be out of tune more often, or feel a little different to play. Guitar setup is about very subtle adjustments to maintain a guitar’s voice and feel. These include adjusting the guitar’s relief (the slight bow in the guitar’s neck), the action (height of the strings above the fretboard), and the intonation (corrected string length).
According to Grace, you should probably make these adjustments on your guitar twice a year. She also made a point to emphasize that there isn’t necessarily a “right” set up. Maybe you like the subtle buzz you’re getting out of your strings. Different styles may want different levels of action. And every instrument is different. During the workshop there were actually a couple surprises at different steps in the process. The adjustments you make on one instrument may not be exactly what you need on another.
So who’s this Grace we keep talking about, and why do we trust her to know so much about guitars? At the time of writing, she’s got 12 years of experience repairing and working on guitars. At her shop, Guelph Guitar Repair, she and her husband Jay will fix up 4 to 5 guitars a week. When I asked them how they got started in guitars, I was told Grace had the training and access to a machine shop, and Jay had a bunch of guitars in need of repair. A simple enough origin story, but Grace also told me she’d always wanted to get into repair. She’s always had a passion for fixing a thing that has a real impact on people’s everyday lives. And that passion shows.
While she may not have a formal background in public speaking, she had a comfortable confidence and subtle humor while giving the workshop. She emphasized wanting the attendees to walk away feeling confident that they could work on their instruments on their own. Based on a conversation I had with one of those attendees after the workshop, I’d say she succeeded.
If you’ve got a guitar that you’d like to setup, Grace and Jay will be back again in May to give another workshop. Even as only an observer, I can say I recommend attending.
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