You can save a ton of money—
and derive beaucoup pleasure
—by learning how to do your own basic guitar setup and amp maintenance.
Adjusting an electric’s action, working a truss-rod to control
neck relief, tweaking intonation, fine-tuning pickup and pole-piece
height, cleaning the fretboard and pots, and keeping the tuners and
hardware tight and secure are all activities many guitarists can handle
on their own. John LeVan’s excellent book Guitar Setup, Maintenance
& Repair (above right) has detailed photos and explanations. Dan Erlewine
also has many books and DVDs available at stewmac.com, and
Richie Fliegler’s The Complete Guide to Guitar and Amp Maintenance
(above left) belongs on every serious picker’s shelf. |
Happy New Year, pedal stompers!
Welcome back to a
new season of Stomp School. This
month’s column will probably raise
more questions than it answers,
but that can sometimes be a good
thing—especially when they’re questions
we can only answer ourselves.
The start of every New Year
tends to fill some of us with a
certain measure of self-reflection
and introspection. We may look
back and assess the events of the
previous year while considering
our aspirations and ambitions for
the year ahead. Whether that’s
due to human nature or cultural
conditioning is a topic for another
column in a different magazine.
For the time being, we can
probably all acknowledge that it’s
a well-known recurring phenomenon,
one that often results in
the pledging of lofty, idealistic,
well-intentioned resolutions—such as losing weight, quitting
smoking, or something similarly
dramatic and life-altering. Since
we’re in this mindset of contemplating
major changes anyway,
why not apply it to something
that will give us instant gratification
and guaranteed success—I’m
talking about gear!
This is perhaps as good a time
as any for us gearheads to evaluate
our current setup, see what
works and what doesn’t, and
decide what we want to do about
it. Let’s start by considering what
goals we may have with regard to
tone, and what we would need to
pursue those goals in the upcoming
year. I’ve found that having
a specific goal in mind helps
keep me in check when it comes
to impulse buying and lusting
after every new piece of gear that
catches my eye.
If you’re anything like me,
you may already have a pile of
unfinished projects, along with a
list of things you’ve been meaning
to do and other things you
mean to do someday. Just like
the person who vows to quit
smoking and lose 50 pounds all
at once come January, we may
be tempted to make new gear
resolutions that are so ambitious
that they set us up for failure.
That’s not to say our resolutions
are unrealistic or impractical.
We just need to approach them
in a way that will yield tangible
results.
It might help to begin with
the thing that interests you the
most. Or conversely, you could
pick the thing that you’re most
dissatisfied with. Either choice
will help you determine your
number-one priority. The main
point is to pick one item, address
it fully, and see it through to
completion, rather than taking
a band-aid-and-duct-tape
approach. I’ve worked with many
gigging musicians who routinely
ignore minor issues with their
rig until something breaks down
in the middle of a show (which
is when I usually get the frantic
phone calls). Having a bulletproof,
gig-ready rig is certainly
a worthy new gear resolution.
Or maybe you have an entirely
different new gear resolution in
mind. Maybe you have only a
few vague notions.
Or maybe it’s the reverse. It
occurs to me that more than a
few of you whose resolutions are
more along the lines of spending
less time and attention on
gear and gear-related activities.
That’s okay. You may still find it
helpful to develop a specific goal
for your ideal situation—even
if it simply means reducing and
streamlining your current setup.
The bottom line is that setting a
deliberate intention and having
a specific goal in mind is much
more likely to get you exactly
what you want, which is the reason
we make resolutions in the
first place.
That’s all for now. Next time,
we’ll take a look at the word
“boutique” as it applies to musical
instruments and equipment, try to
determine a standard definition (if
there is such a thing), and consider
how the criteria may have changed
over the past few years. Until then,
keep on stompin’.
Tom Hughes (aka
Analog Tom) is owner
and proprietor of For
Musicians Only (
formusiciansonly.com) and
author of Analog Man’s
Guide to Vintage Effects.
If you have questions or comments for
Tom, email him at
stompschool@formusiciansonly.com.