Free Trial

Safari Books Online is a digital library providing on-demand subscription access to thousands of learning resources.

Overview

Join veteran musician, luthier and guitar repairman extraordinaire Steve Soest as he walks you through proper techniques of the basic set-up and maintenance of the four primary guitar types: solid body fixed bridge guitars, solid body floating tremolo bridge guitars, acoustic guitars and bass guitars. Steve demonstrates the proper way to change strings, adjust the neck, assess the nut, adjust the pick-up height, and set the intonation and action so that your instrument is ready for optimum playability.

Subscriber Reviews

Average Rating: 2.25 out of 5 rating Based on 4 Ratings

"Not Professional Quality" - by Guitar Player on 29-APR-2011
Reviewer Rating: 1 star rating2 star rating3 star rating4 star rating5 star rating
After watching how this guy restrung a Strat I was very dissapointed. I've been repairing guitars for over 15 years and highly discourage the method that was shown in this video.

When restringing a floating bridge guitar - it is practical to block the tremelo so that when the strings are loosened the bridge doesn't slip. The guy in this video didn't do that. Also - when re-stringing a guitar - unless you are also doing fretwork or fretboard work, you should avoid removing all of the strings at once. By removing them all at once, you can cause the neck to warp out of place because of the sudden lack of tension. The demonstrations in this video did not even address the issue that it is possible to harm the neck of a guitar by removing all of the strings in such a quick fashion.

I would definately recommend that if you are looking seriously at the guitar setup and repair business to not use the methods in this video. While they do work - there are steps that are rushed through and this lack of detail may cause someone without much experience to do more damage than good when working on the instrument.

Report as Inappropriate

"Review" - by Shawn Giese on 15-NOV-2010
Reviewer Rating: 1 star rating2 star rating3 star rating4 star rating5 star rating
Interesting, especially the stringing part.  I liked seeing how it was done though it did not correspond to the way my acoustic guitar is stringed at all.  Maybe more useful for an electronic guitar.  I would have liked to see a discussion of the different guitar types (acoustic :)  The video segments are very short and some seem like they were cut a little bit early.
Report as Inappropriate

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Digital Media

Sub-Categories:
Digital Media > Audio

Table of Contents

Chapter/Selection

Time

Chapter 1: Introduction

Guitar Set-Up and Maintenance Introduction

Play Video

00:00:41

Chapter 2: Guitar String Changing

Guitar String Changing Introduction

Play Video

00:00:22

Guitar String Changing-Solid Body Floating Tremolo Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:08:09

Guitar String Changing-Solid Body Fixed Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:08:52

Guitar String Changing-Acoustic Guitar

Preview

00:09:22

Guitar String Changing-Bass Guitar

Preview

00:07:31

Chapter 3: Guitar Neck Adjustment

Guitar Neck Adjustment-Introduction

Preview

00:00:20

Guitar Neck Adjustment-Solid Body Floating Tremolo Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:04:11

Guitar Neck Adjustment-Solid Body Fixed Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:04:03

Guitar Neck Adjustment-Acoustic Guitar

Preview

00:03:26

Guitar Neck Adjustment-Bass Guitar

Preview

00:02:09

Chapter 4: Guitar Bridge Adjustment

Guitar Bridge Adjustment Introduction

Preview

00:00:19

Guitar Bridge Adjustment-Solid Body Floating Tremolo Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:04:20

Guitar Bridge Adjustment-Solid Body Fixed Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:03:08

Guitar Bridge Adjustment-Acoustic Guitar

Preview

00:01:05

Guitar Bridge Adjustment-Bass Guitar

Preview

00:04:12

Chapter 5: Guitar Nut Adjustment

Guitar Nut Adjustment-Introduction

Preview

00:00:22

Guitar Nut Adjustment-Solid Body Floating Tremolo Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:01:46

Guitar Nut Adjustment-Solid Body Fixed Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:01:22

Guitar Nut Adjustment-Acoustic Guitar

Preview

00:00:38

Guitar Nut Adjustment-Bass Guitar

Preview

00:01:01

Chapter 6: Guitar Pick-Up Adjustment

Guitar Pick-Up Adjustment-Introduction

Preview

00:00:14

Guitar Pick-Up Adjustment-Solid Body Floating Tremolo Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:03:14

Guitar Pick-Up Adjustment-Solid Body Fixed Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:02:34

Guitar Pick-Up Adjustment-Bass Guitar

Preview

00:02:02

Chapter 7: Guitar Intonation

Guitar Intonation-Introduction

Preview

00:00:14

Guitar Intonation-Solid Body Floating Tremolo Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:04:43

Guitar Intonation-Solid Body Fixed Bridge Guitar

Preview

00:03:50

Guitar Intonation-Acoustic Guitar

Preview

00:00:36

Guitar Intonation-Bass Guitar

Preview

00:05:03

Chapter 8: Conclusion

Guitar Set-Up and Maintenance Conclusion

Preview

00:00:33