tuning tool diy

Does Factory Fresh Mean Ready to Play?

To avoid string breakage, savvy guitar techs know to remove sharp edges from factory-fresh hardware.

Top techs share their tips, tweaks, and onstage product development for brand-spankin’-new guitars.

Music styles have changed over the decades, and have generally intensified to a point where the rigors of performing live have become a contact sport. The hallmark of rock music has always been its over-the-top, live-presentation muscle, but as concert and club shows gained theatric power, sometimes the instruments weren’t up to the task. So, I decided to ask a couple high-profile techs about the state of the guitar on the road.

Mike Hickey is a veteran of decades of rock ’n’ roll, both as a performer and a technician. Most recently, he’s been Joe Bonamassa’s right-hand man onstage. Known for keeping Bonamassa’s arsenal of vintage guitars in shape, I asked him about his experience with newer guitars on the road. Hickey said, “I find they often need more truss-rod adjustments on a regular basis. This is most likely due to the newer wood used, which hasn’t had the last 50-plus-years to stabilize like the old-growth wood of the vintage guitars.” This is an interesting point that doesn’t get discussed much, as the emphasis on “old wood” is its supposedly superior tone qualities. When pushed about the quality of modern hardware, Hickey pointed out that vintage instruments are worn in and less likely to have problems. “Another generalized repair that comes up with new instruments is needing to file the bridge saddles to prevent string breakage,” he said.

Tuning stability is always important, both live and in the studio. In fact, it might be the tech’s most important job. So how does Hickey make certain his boss gets a guitar that’s in tune when he hands it off? “Lately, I have noticed with split-shaft posts on Fender-type instruments that I am getting some slipping on the 2nd and 1st strings,” he said. “This happens when I do the traditional loading of the strings into the center hole of the split shaft. To combat this, I thread the 2nd and 1st strings around the post as if it was a standard-style non-split shaft.” In the same way that new tuners and bridges might present problems with sharp edges, Hickey reasons that new nut slots need filing and smoothing since they’re not always fully tested at the factory. “We also lubricate the passage of the strings at that point,” he says.

When I asked if there’s a weak link on guitars in general, Hickey pointed to the break angle of strings on wraparound bridges and tailpieces. “I add an additional ball end on the strings to keep the main part of the string at the break point on the back of the tailpiece,” he revealed.

This is an interesting point that doesn’t get discussed much, as the emphasis on “old wood” is its supposedly superior tone qualities.

According to Hickey, the control pots are one place where new guitars can outshine an old one. “Sometimes we need to spray some cleaner into the potentiometers if we have a vintage guitar that has been sitting for a while. Not much can be done except to soldier on and get through the song with a bit of crackle! Sometimes you may see Joe whacking the knobs on his ES-335 while looking over to me laughing during a show!”

Drew Foppe’s resume is as varied as they come. He’s provided his services for artists as diverse as the Smashing Pumpkins, the Deftones, and Shakira. I posed the same question about new guitars to him, and he revealed similar thoughts to Hickey’s. “I usually end up improving on guitars right off the store wall or shipped out directly from a factory,” he says. “Most of the time, all that is required is a simple truss-rod and intonation adjustment.”

Although frets are one of the most important contributions to a guitar’s feel, Foppe isn’t always impressed. “I’ve been finding more and more guitars needing fretwork right out of the box.” Tuning issues are also a point of contention for Foppe. “First thing is you need a guitar that stays in tune. There are some companies that use garbage hardware that makes it hard to keep their guitars in tune, but it also helps keep their price point down. So, I get it, but some of it just isn’t made to last more than a couple shows.”

Like Hickey, Foppe isn’t a fan of factory spec nuts. “Second thing I check is the nut,” he says. “If a guitar ships with a plastic nut, I like to replace it immediately with a bone nut.” One bonus about a new factory-made guitar is that modifications aren’t going to necessarily devalue it. “Of course, you are never going to get a Les Paul to sound like a Strat, and vice-versa,” Foppe concludes, “but people still try. If you are limited to only having one or two guitars on stage, you can coil-tap humbuckers, wire pickups in series/parallel, or even create different pickup combinations.” In the end, Foppe concedes that the boss is always right. “Either way, you have to make any and all necessary adjustments to every instrument to the exact specs of what the artist wants.”

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A DIY Tool for Tuning in Loud Environments

Stress no more about tuning acoustic guitars in loud venues. You can make this tool with extra parts you have lying around.

So you're trying to tune an acoustic guitar while the band is playing full throttle, huh? The roar of a PA shakes the body of an acoustic to a point where it's really hard to get a true reading on a tuner.

Undersaddle pickups are the most commonly used, including some with microphone blending capabilities. If you are using the blending models, the volume you're trying to achieve determines whether or not you can use the microphone that's attached to the soundboard. The larger the venue, the more you'll dial the microphone to a bare minimum and use a soundhole cover. This will help with tuning in loud rooms, but it can still be tricky.

I can remember some of my earliest gigs where I would be scrambling down to the last second before having to run a guitar out onstage because the needle of my tuner would be jumping all over the place. The guitar's pickup would hear the body vibrating from the volume level of the PA as opposed to the string I was plucking. This, of course, confused the tuner. At one point I had a small, rack-mounted mixer that helped boost the signal and also allowed me to use the headphone output to hear the guitar before passing it on to my artist. It worked, but it definitely needed lots of improvement.

Aside from mixers, I've seen both techs and players use things like compressors or even an overdrive pedal to help boost the signal to their tuners by turning the gain down and the output wide open. These options work fairly well, but about eight years ago I stumbled onto something that would forever change the way I tuned during a live show.

I was at a gig in Maryland and got into an exchange of tips and how-tos with the headliner's tech. He offered to let me use this little gadget he had rigged up to see if it would help me as much as it had helped him. The idea was simple: solder the leads of a humbucker to a short guitar cable with a 1/4" male end on the opposite end. Plug the 1/4" into your tuner and hold the humbucker over the soundhole. The idea? A humbucker hears no ambient noise. It only hears a plucked string and does not care anything about what the body of an acoustic guitar is doing. The biggest difficulty I had that night was learning to hold it while having a finger free to pluck a string.


This simple idea made tuning in high volumes so easy, I actually stood in front of the PA and tuned, just to see if I could do it. It worked beautifully with no problems whatsoever. The needle held true to the pitch of the string and never once did it jump around violently like it would have if the guitar had been plugged directly in.

I'm sure most of you have a drawer or bag full of pieces and parts that you've long forgotten about. Try looking there first, but if you can't find an old humbucker try your local music store. The repair guy there will more than likely have something laying around on his bench that he'll sell you at a good price. The best thing to get is a bridge pickup, and the hotter the better. The cable length is up to you. All of mine have been about 2 feet long, which proved to be plenty. After you solder the cable, zip tie the cable to the mounting screw lugs of the pickup for a strain relief. I always wrap a single layer of tape around the coils, but this isn't neccessary, I just do it to protect the wiring and cover any sharp edges on the base of the pickup. That's all there is to it. Plug the 1/4" end into the tuner and hold it over the strings. I promise you will get a truer signal than plugging in and tuning will be faster and more accurate.

Now for the warnings. First, if you find a very high output humbucker you'll need to be careful as to how close you hold it to the strings. A strong magnetic pull can affect the way the string oscillates and cause the string to go sharp. Try to hold the humbucker at least an inch above the string to avoid this. Second, if you decide to use this with electric guitars, try not to hold it directly above the guitar's pickups for the same reasons described above.

If you're a player and you tune your own instruments you can use this device as well. Mount the humbucker to something that will hold it at the same height of the soundhole of your guitar while you have it strapped on. This is especially easy if your acoustic has a volume control. Simply turn the volume down, walk up to the humbucker, tune, and you're right back into the next song.
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