Luthier Dave Helmer shows you how to cure buzzy strings, bad intonation, gnarly frets, high action, and other common troubles with off-the-shelf axes.
Guitars are the best. We love them. It’s fun to fall in love with a guitar at a store, buy it, and proudly bring it home. But we’ve all been there … where after a month that new guitar is just not playing as good as it was before. As guitar players, we know what feels good and what feels bad when it comes to playability. Maybe you have setup preferences that you like on all your guitars, or maybe you want to experiment with changes to your setup?
With a few tools, you can perform a handful of tasks that will make your new axe play better and stay in tune. This article is for folks who already know how to tighten loose parts, raise and lower string saddles or bridges, and adjust their truss rods—though I’ll share a tip on how to check it with even more accuracy.
Is that big bulky stock nut uncomfortable on your hand? Let’s trim it down and reshape it. If the action feels high and the neck looks straight, I’ll show you how to lower the action. And haven’t we all swapped out pickups and wondered, “Do they really sound better, or do I think that just because they’re new?” Before you swap your pickups, I’ll share some pickup-height measurements that might make you change your mind.
But wait! There’s more. With everything feeling and playing great, does moving into the upper register start to sound out of tune? Intonation is very easy to check and adjust. When you go to vibrato or hold a note, do the frets feel “sandy”? Are the fret ends rubbing against your hand while you play? Let’s flush and polish those up.
To be clear, we’re not swapping out anything on your new guitar: We’re simply refining the setup. Be sure to go online to see eight videos I made showing various processes covered in this story.
Begin the Beguine
There is an order of operations for best results. Neck relief is the first item to dial in, followed by getting the nut slots cut to the proper depth. After that, setting your string and pickup heights is in order. The final step is setting intonation.
Fret polishing is its own event and can happen anytime between string changes. Getting the frets feeling comfortable and well-polished will take some time and attention. You’ll also need some specialized tools as well as some that can be found in most households. Check the box for my list.
Tools You’ll Need
All of the specialized tools in this list are available through online suppliers, including StewMac and Amazon.
- 6" Ruler with measures in 64ths
- String action gauge [Photo 1]
- Miscellaneous screwdrivers
- Allen wrenches
- Radius blocks
- Understring radius gauges (with the radius on the bottom and the top)
- Fret-end dressing file
- Micro-Mesh sticks [Photo 2]
- Tape (low tack)
- Cotton swabs
- Paper towels (blue shop towels preferred)
- Clean cotton rags
- Nut files [Photo 3]
- Stikit sandpaper
- Tri-Flow lubricant
- Capo
- Feeler gauges
- Simichrome polish
Polishing the Frets
Photo 4
Let’s start with the most Zen of these tasks: fret polishing.
Tape off the fretboard using low-tack tape, exposing only the frets. De-tack each piece of tape on your clothing or maybe a rag—I use my jeans or my sweatshirt. Making it less sticky helps prevent pulling finish off a maple fretboard or the neck. Taping the fretboard also prevents putting any cross-grain scratches into it while you file and polish. You can choose to tape off the entire fretboard or work your way down one fret at a time. Dealer’s choice.
One thing to note about tape, any tape: Even when you de-tack it, you do not want to leave it on overnight. If that happens, rub the tape with your finger, which will break the surface tension. Then carefully pull the tape off from a corner, making sure you’re pulling it off at an angle and not at a straight line with the fretboard edge.
Every fret end has a small burr on the corner from the initial fret job. The fret-end dressing file has a non-marring smooth side for rounding the fret end, and a safe square edge for getting into the corner of the fret end. So, take the fret-end dressing file, use the squared off-side, and file both corners of the fret end [Photo 4].
How to Polish Frets
Here’s how easy it is to polish and smooth frets.
One or two strokes is all you’ll need. Then, using the non-marring side of the file, slightly round off the fret ends.
Photo 5
With the file positioned vertically, file downward to make the fret end flush with the edge of the fretboard.
Photo 6
For a nice, rounded-off look, polish the frets using the same rounding motion from the previous step, working through all three grits of the Micro-Mesh stick.
Photo 7
Then, polish both the sides and the top of the frets.
Photos 8 (top) & 9 (bottom)
Using a soft cloth and Simichrome, buff every fret. This will give you a great shine and help prevent oxidation. Now it’s time to remove the tape and condition the fingerboard if it needs it.
Note: Every fret has two fret ends to clean up and polish along with the fret itself. This is a fair amount of handwork. If you’ve never done it, you will get tired and need a break. Take that break. Take multiple breaks. Let the process take however long it requires without rushing. If you’re new, do all the fret polishing over a weekend or a few days. It should be fun, not painful. If it is difficult, call your local luthier and hire them to do it for you.
Adjusting Neck Relief
Photo 10
Neck relief refers to the slight amount of concave bowing intentionally created in the neck of a guitar or bass by adjusting the truss rod. For the safety of the guitar, be sure to slack the strings before doing any adjustments to the truss rod. Neither you nor your guitar needs to be tense during this process.
Before whipping out an Allen wrench for the truss rod, start by sight-checking the neck’s straightness. You can sight the neck with the guitar on its back, but I like to put it on edge and look at it that way. It’s easier to see how much curve there is when the guitar is on its side. I feel like gravity plays tricks on my eyes when I sight the neck with the guitar on its back. When I play the guitar, it’s on its side anyway, so looking at it from this vantage point is best.
Tune the guitar to pitch, put a capo on the first fret, and press fret 15 with your left hand.
Photo 11
With your right hand, take a feeler gauge and check the gap at frets 7 through 9 (left-handed players, flip your hands around) [Photo 11].
From the top of the fret to the bottom of the string, the gap is usually anywhere from .003" to .012", depending on the feel you are going for. The feeler gauge should fit just between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string. The string shouldn’t move. This will tell you how much “relief” is in the neck. If you find this challenging, keep going—this will take some practice.
When dialing in the relief, I go back and forth between adjusting the truss rod and the string action. Getting the strings low and playing clean on a budget axe can be a challenge. Usually the fretwork isn’t that great, and in the upper register the frets can be unlevel, causing buzzes and clanks. If you need to raise the string action to get the notes to play clean, some fret leveling may be in order. (For more on fret leveling, go online to our article “About Fret Leveling,” from the December 2007 issue.) For good energy transfer, the neck should be as straight as possible. If the neck is straight and the frets are not level, the strings will buzz with low action.
In general, the flatter the radius on the fretboard, the straighter you can get the neck with the truss rod adjustment. On a fretboard with a 12" radius, you should be able to get .005" relief, and on a vintage 7.25" radius board you may need as much as .014" relief. The only way to get better at checking and setting relief is practice.
Refining the Nut
String buzzes, pinging noises when you tune, strings sticking in the slots, and too much string motion in the nut slots are all indicators of trouble. Before getting out the sandpaper and Micro-Mesh sticks, be sure you know if your guitar’s nut is TUSQ or bone. TUSQ is softer, so you should leave TUSQ nut slots a little higher. This leaves room for the TUSQ to wear without causing buzzing on the first fret. With bone, you can cut the slots lower, because it holds up to string wear.
How to Shape Your Guitar's Nut
Watch as Dave Helmer sands down the back half of a nut and creates a smooth finish.
The back side of the nut is usually very bulky and could often stand to lose some material to be more comfortable on your hand. So, let’s start there. Tape off the neck and headstock around the nut using a few layers of tape to protect the headstock face and fretboard. Then, slack the strings and pull them to either side of the nut.
Sand a bevel into the backside—the side closest to the headstock—of the nut using P320 and P400 grit Stikit sandpaper on a flat sanding stick.
Photo 12
The bevel should start at the back of the nut and come forward about one-third to one-half the thickness of the nut [Photo 12]. Use P320 for most of the sanding and switch to P400 for the last 5 to 10 strokes.
Next, take a fresh Micro-Mesh stick and work through the various grits to buff/round over the bevel you’ve sanded into back of the nut, so it looks and feels good.
Photo 13
TUSQ nuts are often tall, and the strings sit deep in the slots.
Photos 14 (left) & 15 (right)
Wound strings require 50 percent of the diameter of the string to sit in the nut slot, with the other 50 percent above the top of the nut surface. The plain strings should be flush with the top of the nut. Take a look at the wrong appearance [Photo 14] and the correct look [Photo 15] for properly seated strings.
How to Sand Your Guitar's Nut
Our luthier shows you how to use a radius block and sand down a nut.
Use a radius block that matches the radius of your fretboard.
Photo 16
With P320 and P400 grit Stikit sandpapers, use mild pressure to sand down the top of the nut. Sand a bit and check your progress by setting the strings in the slots and putting a little tension on them. Tuning to pitch isn’t necessary. Use the P320 for most of the sanding, and switch to P400 when you are close to the 50/50 height for the wound strings. The radius block sanding will leave a flat, sharp edge on each side of the TUSQ nut [Photo 16]. To round over the sharp edge, use the sanding block and Micro-Mesh stick.
Use the coarse grit of a Micro-Mesh stick to round over and blend the bevel from the back into the top of the nut. Work through the grit gauges until it’s smooth. There is a fine balance between the bevel at the back of the nut and the top radius of the nut. Go back and forth between the two steps to get a nice, finished look and a nut that functions at optimal levels.
… And Refining the Nut Slots
Photo 17
Nut height is the distance from the top of the first fret to the bottom of the string. A good height on the wound strings is about .020", and for the plain strings about .015". Measuring this gap with a feeler gauge can be tricky because of the fretboard radius. Many repair folks do this by eye and feel, based on experience. It takes some practice. A good check: At pitch, fret the third fret and check for a small gap between the string and the top of the first fret.
How to Widen Your Guitar's Nut Slots
A diamond file can make quick work of deepening and widening nut slots.
The bottom of the string should be sitting on the bottom of the front half of the nut slot [Photo 17]. File down each nut slot to its proper depth using the corresponding nut file. There are diamond nut files on the market in multiple sizes to accommodate many string gauges. Make sure to keep your strokes straight. The standard-toothed files have less sizes and usually require rolling them from side to side to get a well-fit string.
Next, using a proper-sized file, round over the bottom back half of the nut slots down, toward the face of the headstock and away from the strings. This will allow the strings to move freely during tuning or bending, while still having support from the front half of the slot.
How to File D and G String Slots on Guitar
Photo 18
On guitars with 3x3 headstock configurations, the D and G strings need the back half of the slots feathered out away from the center, so the string has a direct path to the tuner post. Using a file that is one size bigger than the string and rolling it side to side on the back of the nut slot will give the string a straight path to the tuner post. Photo 18 is my illustration showing which slots need feathering.
Watch How to File D and G String Slots on Guitar
The D and G nut slots require special attention on 3x3-style headstock configurations.
Additionally, use pencil lead to lubricate the slots. Just get in there with the point of a pencil and mark the slot with its graphite. You might also put a drop of Tri-Flow on the front of the string tree. Tri-Flow will run down the string, so take a cotton swab or cloth to clean up any excess. Tri-Flow has Teflon in it, so you don’t need much.
Adjusting String Action
Photo 19
First, find your string height by measuring the string action at the 17th fret on a Fender-style guitar and at the 15th fret on a Gibson-style instrument.On electric guitars, action can range from 3/64" to 3/32", depending on the player’s comfort. My preferences are 1/16" on the treble side and 5/64"on the bass side on both Fender- and Gibson-style guitars measured at the appropriate fret.
How to Adjust Guitar Action
Here’s a look at how our author adjusts the action.
Always loosen the string tension before making action adjustments. This will save wear and tear on the small bridge components. Take either a 6" ruler or a string action gauge and set it on the frets. Measure from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string [Photo 19].
If the action is high, you will lower that string’s saddle or that side of the bridge. If it is low, you will raise it. Make sure the individual saddles are sitting square and upright to the face of the bridge. You do not want them sitting at an angle or leaning over. This will cause buzzing.
The bottom of the strings should match the radius of the fretboard when measured with an understring radius gauge.
Photo 20
Start your adjustment with the outside strings, working toward the center. On Fender-style guitars, set the two outside strings to the height you want and have the middle four strings a bit higher than that. Bring the gauge up from underneath and just touch the two outside strings. Then, bring the strings down a little at a time until the radius matches.
On a Gibson-style Tune-o-matic, the saddles are not individually adjustable. So, if the radius doesn’t match, the saddles will need to be filed. To do this, I recommend using toothed nut files and a rolling side-to-side motion. Do a little work and check your progress. Remember to slack your strings when adjusting the saddle or bridge up or down.
Changing Pickup Height
Photo 21
Finally, let’s take a look at pickup-height adjustment. First, to check pickup height, use the two outside strings again. Press the top wound string on the last fret and measure the distance from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string [Photo 21]. This distance can range from 3/64" to 1/8". My preferences are 1/16" on the treble side and 5/64" on the bass side.
Adjusting Guitar Pickup Height
Dave Helmer walks you through the process of adjusting the height of your guitar’s pickups.
On most styles of pickups, there are height adjustment screws on either side of the pickup to raise or lower it. The closer the pickup gets to the strings, the more present string frequencies become. If you get too close, the magnetic pull can affect the string’s vibration and you may hear some strange sounds as you go into the upper register.
On Strats, the neck pickup is regularly set too close, and at the 12th fret and above, the low E and A can sound choked, honky, and not clear. Lowering the neck pickup with a screwdriver usually solves this issue.
Setting Intonation
Photo 22
If you can’t get your guitar accurately in tune, you might need to check its intonation. Adjust all saddles as far back as possible so every string will play flat at the 12th fret. You will adjust the saddles forward, gradually making the octave play sharper until it’s in tune with the open string [Photo 22].
Adjust Your Guitar's Intonation
With a tuner and a screwdriver, Dave Helmer shows you how to adjust your guitar’s intonation.
Depending on your vibrato style, experiment with intonating the plain strings slightly flat. Use your ear and do what sounds good. Sometimes, the plain strings can have perfect intonation, but playing with vibrato can make them sound sharp.
To fine-tune intonation, the individual bridge saddles must be adjustable. Once the intonation is set, recheck the string radius using the understring radius gauge and adjust as needed. The radius can change as the saddles come forward during intonation.
Tri-Flow is great for lubricating saddle parts. Put a small drop on the saddle-height adjustment screws and capillary action will suck it in. Adjust the saddle up and down a few times to coat the threads. Clean up any excess with a cotton swab or cloth. Put a drop or two onto a cotton swab and apply the Tri-Flow to the top of each saddle where the string rests. This will help strings move freely during tuning and after any bends or vibrato.
And that’s it! For a relatively small investment in tools and time, you’re now ready to supercharge your new guitar—and maybe your long-treasured axes, too.
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Another day, another pedal! Enter Stompboxtober Day 21 to win a pedal from Eventide Audio!
Riptide Eventide Pedal
Ripping Distortion and Swirling Modulation
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Riptide features not one, but two distinct voices for each effect, all delivered in glorious stereo. Plus, you can effortlessly transition from Drive into Vibe or Vibe into Drive. Let ‘er rip.
Two Colors of Drive
Riptide features a balanced distortion with superb dynamics and touch sensitivity. Green is a dynamic, mid-range crunch. Red is a smooth and boosted overdrive.
Two Colors of Vibe
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Features:
- Four Effects: 2 Overdrives, 2 Uni-Vibes
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- Dual-action Active Footswitch is latching or momentary
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- Use a single Aux switch for Tap Tempo or a triple Aux switch for easy preset changing
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- Eventide Device Manager PC or Mac application for software updates, system settings and creating/saving presets
PRS announces two new limited-edition models in the CE Family: the PRS CE 24-08 Black Limba Limited Edition and the PRS CE 24-08 Swamp Ash Limited Edition.
An eye-catching feature of these limited-edition guitars is their body wood. The black limba body offers rich, natural color and powerful but warm voice, while the swamp ash model has more pronounced grain and is known for its balanced tonal spectrum, with bright, articulate highs and a warm, defined low end.
“Every once in a while, we choose woods from our stock to create special instruments, and these guitars are great examples of just that,” said Paul Reed Smith, Founder and Managing General Partner, PRS Guitars. “The CE has been with us since the very early days of PRS. I love celebrating this model with new woods and by adding the ‘08’ switching system to it for the first time. These are real players’ guitars.”
Both the PRS CE 24-08 Black Limba and Swamp Ash Limited Edition guitars come with a 24 fret, 25” scale length maple neck and rosewood fretboard. Both models also feature PRS 85/15 pickups – made by PRS in Stevensville, Maryland. These pickups deliver exceptional clarity with extended high and low end.
Paired with PRS's intuitive 24-08 switching system, these CE 24-08 models offer a wide array of tonal possibilities with eight different pickup configurations that effortlessly transition between humbucking tones to crisp single-coil sounds. This is the first instance of this switching system on PRS’s CE model platform. The PRS patented tremolo bridge adds even more versatility to the sound.
These PRS CE 24-08 Limited Edition instruments were designed with players in mind. For complete specifications, video, and more, please visit https://prsguitars.com/ and follow PRS Guitars @prsguitars on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok to stay in the conversation.
Joe Satriani’s G3 returns with Reunion Live, an album that sets out to capture the energy and essence of their sold-out 2024 US tour.
This reunion features guitar icons Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai—who first joined forces in 1996. The live album showcases the boundary-pushing performances that define G3. Fans will enjoy full sets from each guitarist, including hits like Satriani’s “Sahara,” Johnson’s “Cliffs of Dover,” and Vai’s “For the Love of God,” along with a thrilling encore jam of Hendrix and Clapton covers.
In addition to the live experience, Reunion Live offers new live albums from each artist, plus a collaborative supergroup LP. Available in multiple formats, the deluxe edition features a different colored vinyl for each artist, a special splatter LP for the jam sessions, and a 64-page photo book, divided into separate artists and jam chapters, documenting this monumental event. It is also available in a 2CD set with a 16-page photo booklet. The album perfectly mirrors the live tour format, with individual sets followed by an epic jam session featuring all three guitarists.
Pre-order here.
Satriani says, “This live album recorded at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles captures all the energy of the live performances while shining a spotlight on the ever-evolving art of playing the electric guitar.”
Tracklisting (all formats):
- Gravitas (Vai)
- Avalancha (Vai)
- Little Pretty Intro (Vai)
- Little Pretty (Vai)
- Tender Surrender (Vai)
- Zeus in Chains (Vai)
- Teeth of the Hydra (Vai)
- For the Love of God (Vai)
- Land of 1000 Dances (Johnson)
- Righteous (Johnson)
- Trail of Tears (Johnson)
- On-Ramp Improv (Johnson)
- Freeway Jam (Johnson)
- Desert Rose (Johnson)
- Venus Reprise (Johnson)
- Raspberry Jam Delta-V (Satriani)
- Surfing with the Alien (Satriani)
- Satch Boogie (Satriani)
- Sahara (Satriani)
- Nineteen Eighty (Satriani)
- Big Bad Moon (Satriani)
- Always with Me, Always with You (Satriani)
- Sumer Song (Satriani)
- Introductions
- Crossroads (Encore Jam)
- Spanish Castle Magic (Encore Jam)
- Born to Be Wild (Encore Jam)
Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, and Emmett Kelly formed a casual supergroup around their shared love of beat-up, lo-fi guitar sounds. They tell us how the band and their debut self-titled record came together in a dying Brooklyn studio.
Stephen Malkmus and Matt Sweeney go way back.
The two musicians and songwriters have been part of the same cohort since Malkmus’ band Pavement took off in the early 1990s. Pavement went the way of indie-rock royalty, defining an entire new generation of slightly left-of-center guitar music. Sweeney slugged it out for years inbands like Chavez and Zwan, that never reached those levels of influence. Still, he was an indispensable sideman and in-demand collaborator. But it wasn’t until just before the pandemic that the two friends recorded together, on Malkmus’ solo acoustic record, Traditional Techniques. It went well—really well.
So when Sweeney suggested they get together again, Malkmus was game. But this time, Sweeney invited some friends. He knew the guitarist Emmett Kelly from their time playing with Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and the two developed a bond over a mutual aesthetic sensibility on the guitar. And Kelly played in a duo called the Double with drummer Jim White, another serial collaborator best known for his instrumental Australian group Dirty Three. So, White and Kelly got invites. (It turned out that Malkmus was a fan of Kelly’s lo-fi weirdo-folk project Cairo Gang.)
The Hard Quartet - "Earth Hater" Official Music Video
They all met up at Strange Weather, a Brooklyn studio where Sweeney was working. The studio was on its deathbed: The buildings on either side of it had been demolished, and it was slated for the same fate to prep the way for a new condo build. The owner and house engineer, Daniel Schlett, was depressed. Sweeney figured some fun, no-stakes sessions—committed to the studio’s original vision of total artistic freakness—were called for. “The idea was like, ‘Let’s go and try recording, everybody bring songs and we’ll see what happens, and if it sucks, we don’t care because it’ll just be a nice thing to do in this beautiful studio that’s going away,’” he explains.
When the foursome initially met at Strange Weather in early summer 2023, there were no plans and no expectations. Over a year later, we have the Hard Quartet and their self-titled debut record, an epic, 15-song double LP that captures the spirit of adventure, imagination, and unedited, base instinct that unites the four musicians. When time came to pick a name for the project, Malkmus suggested they use the word “band” or “quartet.” “Matt was just immediately like, ‘Hard Quartet, because we’re hard as fuck,’” laughs Kelly.
“Finding phrases that make it sound not boring is the basic idea: simple things with twists.” —Stephen Malkmus
Sweeney’s boldness, in both the band name and in pulling all the players together, is perhaps the key to all of this. “Matt’s always confident, or at least he likes to pretend he is, in a good way,” says Malkmus. “He knows that’s how music should be sometimes. Most people that make music actually are confident or they wouldn’t do it. They like their own music and they’re confident it’s good, and then they have to kind of act. They’re also needful and worried that people won’t like it, and want people to like it but also think that it’s good.”
The Hard Quartet is heavily indebted to ’90s indie and alternative rock, but the 15-track double LP dips into Americana, country, and weirder territories, too.
Maybe Sweeney was being tongue-in-cheek, but more likely, it’s just the honesty of a group of musicians who can’t be bothered to affect an air of deep reasoning or artsy symbolism. Though, Hard Quartet isn’t terribly hard music. It moseys through different guitar-based genres, most of it fairly lo-fi and garage-ish. There’s plenty of Pavement-leaning indie-rock, charged with clever wordplay, edge-of-breakup chording, and general slacker charisma. There’s a certain Guided by Voices sensibility to it all, too; the feeling that guitar rock doesn’t need to be perfect or cohesive or together to be good.
Songs on Hard Quartet shamble along loosely between movements and moods, and often, they sort of dogleg and fall apart after wanky outros, just like the end of an in-person jam. Opener “Chrome Mess” is a thrashing, dark, noisy piece of indie-grunge, followed by the quirky, fuzzy alternative of lead single “Earth Hater” and its nursery-rhyme chorus. “Rio’s Song” is like a gentler, college-rock rendition of T. Rex, featuring Sweeney pulling off a Marc Bolan vocal character. Another Sweeney-led joint, “Killed by Death,” is driven by White’s snare-roll shuffle and plucky Americana guitars. The back-to-back of “Six Deaf Rats” into “Action for Military Boys,” both with Malkmus on lead vocals, pull the record into more borderless, atypical grounds. Hard Quartet feels deeply, profoundly artistic not in production or complexity, but via a feeling of total artistic freedom and intuition.
“It’s not magic, it’s actually just work and saying, ‘Do it again.’” —Stephen Malkmus
“When you’re doing a first thing, it’s not so bad to go simple,” says Malkmus. “Like, you know, to have these adherents of the Velvet Underground and the Stones. These songs are like, I wouldn’t say simple, they’re complexly simple to give us some credit.”
Malkmus has been watching a YouTuber who switches between two chords on piano while playing nearly limitless inversions of each chord. “He takes the mystery away from things that I do that I think are really clever or something,” he continues. “At any rate, that’s what we’re doing too. But pianos somehow have less magic because you can’t bend the notes too much. It’s all math, almost. Of course there’s feel and there’s going off the grid, but with the guitar sometimes it feels more magical. Those real simple little moves you make with the bending of the strings. It’s chops and it’s also ideas, creativity. Finding phrases that make it sound not boring is the basic idea: Simple things with twists.”
Stephen Malkmus's Gear
Stephen Malkmus, performing here with his band the Jicks in 2018, has known Matt Sweeney since the beginning of Pavement. After he invited Sweeney to play on his 2020 acoustic record, Sweeney had the idea to take things a step further.
Photo by Mike White
Guitars
- 1959 Fender Jazzmaster
- 1965 Höfner Verithin
- 1958 Martin 000-18 strung with flatwounds
- Vintage Gibson Firebird
- Vintage Guild S-100
Effects
- Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz
- Love Pedal High Power Tweed Twin
- Strymon Flint
- Strymon El Capistan
- Foxx Tone Machine
Malkmus likes to dig around for different voicings, but he prefers to do his digging by feel. “What you don’t know is a good thing,” he says. “Too much knowledge, I think it can hurt you at that early time instead of just being sort of primitive.”
The four members of Hard Quartet share a “musical language,” according to Malkmus, which made it easy to create without much structure to their initial sessions at Strange Weather. “I don’t think any of us wanted to spend the whole time saying, ‘It goes like this,’” says Malkmus. “We just kind of wanted to start messing around, having fun.”
“There’s a throughline in everything I like, that is this aspect of harshness, or bloodiness. Things need to be bloody for me to like them.” —Emmett Kelly
Part of the three guitarists’ shared language on the instrument is a passion for wonky sounds. Kelly explains the aesthetic in-depth: “We really connect on things sounding like shit, kind of. I love the sound of the guitar when it sounds like it’s about to die or it’s broken. We love this music that’s like fucked up and damaged, like the rawest, most screwed-up thing. There’s a throughline in everything I like, that is this aspect of harshness, or bloodiness. Things need to be bloody for me to like them. We just want to sound fucked up and terrible, but it’s gotta sound really good, you know what I mean? You pass through this pain threshold, and that’s when you start to hear all these beautiful, weird harmonic things, especially with a damaged amp or a really insane overdrive or fuzz. You just start to hear aspects of harmonic series come shooting out in really interesting ways. Sometimes you’ll hear phantom notes, things that ring-modulate the sound a little bit.” One time in a studio, Kelly’s friend pointed out a pedal that he said was the least useful pedal of all time. “I immediately went home and bought one,” says Kelly. “I mean, none of this shit’s useful. Should we be plumbers?”
Matt Sweeney's Gear
Matt Sweeney and Emmett Kelly became close friends while on tour with Will Oldham. Here, they flank Oldham on a tour supporting 2022’s Superwolves.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/tinnitus photography
Guitars
- 1958 Martin 000-18, strung with flatwounds
- Vintage Fender Esquire
- Vintage Gibson ES-335TD
- 1970 Martin dreadnought acoustic
Amps
- Austen Hooks Bell and Howell Filmosound amp
Effects
- Blackstrap Electrik Co. fuzz pedal
Hard Quartet’s debut record is also shaped by the fact that none of the players brought their own gear to the studio; Malkmus, Kelly, and Sweeney all opted to use whatever guitars, amps, and pedals were kicking around at Strange Weather, and later at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu, where Sweeney secured the group a few days of extra sessions. A late-’50s Fender Jazzmaster, ’60s Gibson Explorer, vintage Höfner Verithin, 1958 Martin 000-18, Squier Bass VI, and purple Guild S-100 were among the tools used to create Hard Quartet. Malkmus says he didn’t even want to bring his own guitars. “I like to use new shit all the time,” he says. “It’s just fun to hear the little tonal differences. I don’t really have a sound. I just want to try new things and I’m not afraid to do that. And we all know it’s in your hands.”
“I don’t even feel like it’s a guitar record, but obviously that’s all we fucking know how to play.” —Matt Sweeney
“I’ve gone through the whole gamut of identity crises with guitar and I’ve gotten to a point where I really just want something that won’t break if I check it on an airplane,” Kelly says. His main guitar is a 1988 Japan-made Fender Stratocaster, with the middle pickup removed and a TBX circuit instead of the traditional tone control. Kelly is skeptical of too much attention put on gear. “There’s a lot of artifice in music and gear and it all seems to be related to this whole kind of like, rehashing, redoing; sort of like the AI conversation,” he says. “It’s like, just play fucking music. It doesn’t matter.”
The three guitarists often played through one of Sweeney’s amps, built by amp tech Austen Hooks and housed inside an old Bell and Howell Filmosound projector. But it was mostly a matter of convenience—the amp was simply ready at hand. “I think me and Steve are similar in that when you’re making the thing, you’re not thinking about the gear,” says Sweeney. “You’re grateful that there’s stuff there that you can pick up and play.”
Emmett Kelly's Gear
Hard Quartet (from left: Kelly, Sweeney, Malkmus, and White) bonded over an affinity for deliciously crappy guitar tones. Their debut record is a treasure trove of lo-fi 6-string sounds.
Photo by Atiba Jefferson
Guitars and Basses
- 1988 Japan-made Fender Stratocaster with middle pickup removed and TBX tone circuit
- 1994 Fender Jerry Donahue Signature Telecaster
- 2005 Martin 00-28
- 1959 Les Paul Jr. Double Cut
- 1957 Fender Esquire
- Squire Bass VI with Lollar overwound pickups
Amps
- Fender ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb with added master volume
- Peavey Roadmaster with 2x12 cabinet
- 1950s Supro
- Ampeg B12XT
Effects
- Crowther Double Hotcake
- Crowther Prunes & Custard
- Death By Audio Octave Clang
- Fredric Effects Verzerrer
Strings & Picks
- La Bella Pure Vintage (.011–0.50)
- La Bella Silk & Steel
- La Bella Bass VI Stainless Flats
Given the players’ combined ethos, it’s not really a surprise to learn that they rarely, if ever, discussed who would play what instrument on any given song. Leads were improvised and swapped at random, and the bass guitar was passed around from song to song. Some songs and parts would come together quickly; others required massaging. Having to plug away at something doesn’t make it any less valuable than an instant hit, says Malkmus. “It’s not magic,” he says. “It’s actually just work and saying, ‘Do it again.’”
The equal-footing, collaborative nature of the Hard Quartet has been a bright spot for Kelly, who was getting burnt out on the emotional anxiety and tension of being a bandleader. With Malkmus, Sweeney, and White, there are combined decades of camaraderie that equate to an open, trusting ease. “It’s probably safe to say that the Hard Quartet is about the continual relationship between each two people,” says Kelly. “Everyone had a strong connection with each other in some way so that new relationships could then develop.”
In the end, Sweeney’s little jam experiment has paid off. “I’m happy with what we did on it guitar-wise, and that’s because we played together,” says Sweeney. “I don’t even feel like it’s a guitar record, but obviously that’s all we fucking know how to play.”
YouTube It
The Hard Quartet have a ’90s-style, apartment-stoop jam in this video for the Sweeney-fronted, alt-rock-meets-alt-country tune, “Rio’s Song.”