Squier Standard Series Telecaster set up & Q&A
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- What do you get when you cross a guitar set up with a 'Q&A' session? A very long set up and a very long 'Q&A' video! In this video I'm setting up Ralph's Squier Standard Series Tele that I've already re-finished the fingerboard on (he wanted gloss instead of the almost bare, matt finish). I was surprised to find these guitars are 12" radius... I'd basically forgotten since the last time I saw one. The video is set up and 'Q&A' mixed in together which ends up making it longer than usual. It's an experiment; for me it was nice having something specific to talk about while working on a guitar :-)
Whoever said that you shouldn't adjust your truss rod let me do it *wink wink* is the same logic as a mechanic saying "oh don't put air in the tires on your car yourself, you could damage the suspension". Ultimately we all know that in the guitar world luthiers like you Sam will always be needed for more specialised work, even if all living guitar players knew and could do general maintaince and simple setups themselves. Especially if its something such as a lifting bridge on an acoustic guitar, or a guitar neck needs to be reset, the pickup wiring has come loose or there is a bow or twist in the neck that the truss rod can't get right for example. It's the same logic why we have car mechanics, some things as an owner you can do yourself with general maintaince but if the gearbox stops working or if your suspension collapses then vast majority of people will need a professional to fix the problem. Also im enjoying this new Q and A format, i learn something new almost everytime you go down the rabbit hole of the guitar making process and how they are sold.
39:35 When I started playing guitar in the late ‘70s, the guitar magazines also said “Don’t touch your truss rod - take it to an expert”. I duly took my second-hand Japanese Les Paul copy to a music shop and £30 and two weeks later, retrieved it. I don’t think it had been touched. Lesson learned … It was a while later that I learned to make small adjustments - if the truss rod works, all will be well.
Absolutely right about setting up, Sam. I taught myself how to do it long before You Tube, because the people I’d paid good money to either didn’t know what they were doing, or were happy to rip me off. The final straw was someone charging me £50 for a string change and wipe with lemon oil and raising of the action to ‘improve’ the playing feel.
Brilliant video Sam ....love the question and answer format. Lots to hear about and learn.
Hi Sam
I noticed on this video that you set the desired neck relief, and set the banana to suit the e/b track based on that.
When moving across the neck to the g/d track you adjusted the banana to the neck relief at that area, as opposed to maintaining the banana profile and imposing that consistently across the neck. It’s the first time I have seen you do that(?)
Another great vid, thanks
Hi Iain... I typically set the 1st calibration between the high E and the B and use that both for the high E and the B track. Then I recalibrate for each track after that (calibrating 'north' of the track as I call it). Occasionally when I notice that the calibration doesn't change at all in the first 3 tracks I might leave it that way on the last two... but most videos will show me doing it across 5 tracks. It might just be that you've not noticed me recalibrating? The point you raise is a good one because it's true that you could calibrate, say, in the G track and use that across all the tracks - imposing an average across all the tracks. That might - for all I can get my head round it - be an even better solution :-) Probably worth experimenting with although difficult to make direct comparisons - but theoretically it might make good sense.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars Thanks Sam. Your views and information are always informative and highly respected. IAIN
I like your phone holder is it homemade? I love the big base you got on it
Hi - it’s just an old table-top mic stand with some various phone holder bits and pieces lashed onto it. There’s Velcro on the pole to hold the head-mounted mic receiver unit close enough to the iPhone to plug into it :)
Some years ago I was looking around for a Gibson, one local shop had a couple in, one was straight from the factory, it was OK, but you could drive a bus under the strings. The other had been totally rebuilt following a rather nasty accident, insurance had paid out for it to be replaced, so the shop's tame luthier decided to "have a play" - refinished in a rich cream, new neck with the blackest rosewood I've ever seen, olden coloured frets etc., it looked 11/10 and played as well as it looked, price? "You could buy two of those for the time I've put into this one". Sadly the price of either was out of my league 😞
The best sounding Westfield I have heard is a ply bodied Strat, which plays like a dream. It’s an absolute dream and looks great, too, as a dark sunburst with black plastics.
How is that Taylor and PSR are able to turn out superbly playable guitars again and again and again?
Relative to Fender & Gibson - low volume and higher price.
One thing Sam didn't mention is that the likes of Fender & Gibson are producing a lot of guitars every day, thus don't have the line time available (or probably the skilled staff) to do a manual setup on every guitar.
Sadly even Taylor do produce the odd one that doesn't make the grade - a friend had one such, a real beauty to look at, but it just didn't play well even after the dealer had it back a couple of times so they swapped it for another instrument (Taylor, same model) which not only looks right but plays well.
@@18robsmith Hmmm yes. I've had plenty of Taylors pass this way with pretty much unplayable 'out of the box' actions. In the case of the Taylor you're supposed to buy it, discover it's unplayable, contact Taylor to get some shims (for which Taylor will ask you - average Joe - to make careful measurements of your action, then remove your neck and make note of the shims. When done, they'll send you shims to change the action. I've just had a Taylor GS Mini through recently that was literally unplayable from new. I first lowered the action via saddle so my customer could take it on his camping trip that he'd planned. After that, I took it back in and ordered shims. Now it's set up beautifully - but somehow the customer is supposed to do all of that? Or know that they have to take it to a tech who can do that for them... from new? Taylor's bolt-on necks are great and it allows shims which mean you never have to face that expensive nightmare of the traditional 'neck reset' again. But despite THAT achievement, they STILL send out guitars that are so unplayable they require shimming straight away which is such a shame.
Hi Sam, like the new Q&A format, do you have an opinion on Sire guitars?
Hi Richard - I've not had one through the workshop. In reality there are more decent budget guitars these days than there are truly lousy ones. I tend to nowadays only call guitars lousy if they're so bad that they can't be vastly improved with a set up. But even when the basic quality is good - think Harley Benton - they still benefit massively from being set up right.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars I have an ST style Sire in Sherwood Green, its a stunning looking guitar, however I'm sure there are one or two raised frets causing some buzzing/choking. If I get the cash I may have to send it down to yourself for a good fettling! I have the tools to have a go myself but tbh I don't trust myself as it was a gift from a late relative.
@@Down_Time_Dad Happy to, Richard. Email me at samdeeks@gmail.com when you're thinking of doing it.
Sam, what grit paper are you using on the fret level truss rod ? Just curious how aggressively you sand them.
Hi Brian, I use 400 grit. You could use 200 or 600 depending on how slow or fast you want to go (ie maybe based on experience / confidence))
Thanks Sam. I’ve been watching you use that truss rod and acorn nuts for a long time and always wondered how aggressively you are sanding. Thanks for all the great education Sam.
@@brianJes You're welcome! My eBook '5 steps to guitar set up heaven' shows in detail how to make & use the 'Banana' truss rod levelling tool - and it's definitely a technique that gets better with additional years of using it.
eBook is here if you're interested:
facebook.com/relovedguitars/photos/a.1434485003475282/2887544238169344/
A local charity shop is flogging off a Strat SSS clone with the makers name 'Cougar' for £50. I was thinking of buying it and pimping it out with seymour duncans for fun. The neck and body seem to be OK. Am I crazy? Answers on a postcard please... (note: i'm a qualified electrician)
I'd say yes only if the neck feels good. Otherwise throw some £19.99 bids for unloved Encores on eBay auctions - at least then you're getting a decent neck that ought to set up nicely.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars - Bless you, Mr Deeks. I might just do that for the fun of it. Love your vids btw. Quite relaxing hearing you witter on for hours on end. ...and inspiring too!
Good stuff, ha ha love the worst brand story
Agree Sam they all seem to have the same facial expression while staring in to the camera
It's the brain-fade that gets me - their eyes are always drawn towards the latest comment on their live-stream chat which seems to kill half-expressed thoughts dead. It's very disjointed.
Those guitars in Sue Ryder were shocking. Whoever bought those for the charity should be ashamed. The ones in my local shop were less like a guitar and more like a harp, so great was the divergence of strings from fingerboard.
Weren’t most of the East German Marlins the Slammer model with some Sidewinders before they shifted factories? The later Sidewinders looked quite good, because they were, compared to what was available at that price. Until Squier came along and queered their pitch.
You're right about the Slammer Padraig. That was the East German thing... don't know where the Sidewinder was made exactly but it wasn't as interesting as the Iron Curtain Slammer. Almost as bad a guitar though...
Tone wood is a real thing but should remain in the acustic guitar world where it matters what the front and back are made from. When Leo Fender made the first tele it was called The Broad Caster and made from cheap pine if you find one sell it back to Fender and retire on the proceeds.
What's the meaning of life
The ego seeks for meaning
Have a good time , all the time 😊 Work , rest and play 👍 We are merely the upshot of the existence of the Hydrogen atom !
Albert Camus
Prices are made by the "you get what you pay for" suckers. Gibson and Fender are sold to fools who think they pay for a guitar and not a big brand with publicity and side expenses.
Mumble...mumble,.... a few audible words,.... then finally.... How about you get your audio together mate? I like the set up.... love to see the set up.... even though I have seen this type of thing before,... always interesting....
Mumble mumble is my speciality. You know when I export the videos using Final Cut Pro, the audio level is very high. I don't have the kind of voice that cuts through background noise; that's just how I am. Maybe I could run a high pass filter to remove the bass from the signal and boost the mids in Final Cut Pro....
Wow !! 😳 had a bad day David Sparks ? . Necessary? if you don’t like the videos you can always move along ? 😊