Guitar Care and Gear Essentials

Contents:

About the Authors
Introduction

Part 1: Guitar Care

• General Setup
• Changing the Strings
• Removing Old Strings
• Installing New Strings
• Locking Tuners
• Stretching the Strings
• Stringing Fender Slotted Machine Heads
• Truss Rod Adjustment
• Direction of Adjustment
• Testing for the Proper Amount of Bow
• Measuring the Amount of Bow
• Adjusting the Action at the Bridge
• Necessary Tools
• Measuring Action Height at the Upper End of the Fingerboard
• Setup Specifications
• Making the Adjustments
• Adjusting the Action at the Nut
• Bone, Plastic, or Graphite Nuts
• Measuring Action at the 1st Fret
• Re-Slotting to Specifications
• Important Rules
• If the Slot Is Too Deep-Shimming the Nut
• Mechanical Nuts
• Making the Adjustments
• Intonation
• Basic Principles of String Length
• Electronic Tuners
• Reasons to Use an Electronic Tuner
• Finger Pressure and Intonation
• Testing and Adjusting Intonation
• Acoustic Guitars
• Cleaning and Polishing Your Guitar
• Types of Finishes
• Choosing the Correct Cleaning Solvent and Polish
• Polishing Cloths
• Preliminary Cleaning with Damp and Dry Cloths
• Cleaning Lacquer and Synthetic Finishes with Chemical Solvents
• Removing Oxides and Abrasions from Lacquered and Synthetic Finishes
• Waxing and Polishing
• Cleaning and Polishing the Unfinished Fingerboard
• Routine Cleaning
• Electronic Maintenance
• Soldering
• Cleaning and Lubricating Components
• Your Setup
• Setting Up and Adjusting Your Floyd Rose System
• Introduction
• History of the Modern Tremolo
• Beginnings of the Floyd Rose Tremolo
• Features
• Understanding the Basic Principles of Operation
• Floyd Rose System Parts
• Stringing Your Floyd Rose Tremolo
• Adjusting Your Truss Rod
• Angle of the Base Plate
• Setting the Base Plate Angle
• Setting Action at the Bridge
• About the Floyd Rose Nut
• Setting Nut Height
• Setting the String Retainer
• Setting Intonation (String Length)
• Tremolo Arm Assembly
• Tools Required for Adjusting Your Floyd Rose Tremolo
• Troubleshooting the Floyd Rose Tremolo
• Problem: String buzzing
• Problem: Excessive string breakage
• Problem: Tremolo can't be adjusted to sit parallel to the face of the guitar with claw adjustment all the way in
• Problem: The guitar won't stay in tune
• Problem: Fine tuners won't adjust
• Problem: Height adjustment screws are bottomed out, but the action is still too high
• Problem: When I use my tremolo, the springs make noise

Part 2: Gear Essentials

• Strings
• Gauge
• Types of String Windings
• Roundwound
• Flatwound
• Half Roundwound and Quarter Roundwound
• Materials
• Ball End
• Coated Strings
• Pickups
• Single-Coil Pickups
• Humbucking Pickups
• Active Pickups
• Handwound Pickups
• Electronics
• Fender Stratocaster Setup
• Gibson Les Paul Setup
• Series and Parallel Pickup Wiring
• Coil Tapping and Splitting
• In and Out of Phase
• Kill Switches
• Tone Woods
• Plywood in Electric Guitars
• Wood Setup for Gibson SG Standard
• Wood Setup for Paul Reed Smith Custom 24
• Wood Setup for Fender Stratocaster
• Wood Setup for Carvin Custom 7-String
• More About Guitar-Building Materials
• Fingerboard Radius
• How Radius Affects Playability and Performance
• Compound or Conical Fingerboard Radius
• Scale Length
• Conventional Scale Lengths
• Frets
• Fret Maintenance
• Fret Type and Size
• Number of Frets
• Neck Profile
• Tuning Pegs (Machine Heads)
• The Nut
• The Locking Nut
• The Compensated Nut
• The Bridge
• The Whammy Bar
• Locking Down a Trem (Blocking)
• Understanding Guitar Amps
• Tube Amps
• Solid-State Amps
• The Combo Amp
• Amp Heads and Stacks
• Basic Amp Features
• Boutique Amps
• Point-to-Point Wiring
• How to Chain Amps Together
• Understanding Speaker Cabinets
• Cabinets
• Speaker Cones
• Open Back or Closed Back?
• Ohmage and Impedance
• Tubes
• Inside a Vacuum Tube
• Preamp Tubes
• Power Amp Tubes
• Biasing
• Rectifiers and Rectifier Tubes
• Signal Flow and Level
• Flow
• Guitar Gear Levels
• More About Effects Loops
• Noise
• Noise Reduction
• Noise Is Everywhere
• Scrubbing the Noise
• Other Ways to Reduce Noise in Your Rig
• Physical and Virtual Effects
• Cabling