Maintenance schedule - recommendations?

[JT2008]

Maintenance schedule - recommendations?

 

Hey. I have an Ibanez Prestige (2570). Wondering what recommendations from the forum re: the following:

 

1. How often I should take it in to my local guitar shop for a routine check-up/maintenance?

 

2. If I'm not noticing anything particular/the guitar is playing fine to me, is there anything I should insist they do?

 

3. Any links you can direct me to with a good checklist of maintenance stuff/how frequent to do each?

 

Thanks!

[Griffinator]

1. When I'm gigging regularly, check-ups happen on string changes (usually after every 3-4 shows), primarily because I don't like waiting until something goes wrong to fix it.

 

2. No.

 

3. There's not a heck of a lot involved in maintaining an axe other than verifying action and intonation (and making truss adjustments as necessary), dressing frets when needed, and keeping the knobs tight. Outside of that is all repair work.

 

My local shop gets me for $60 plus the strings for a set-up and maintenance. It's a worthy investment when an income source hinges on it.

[GreySeraph]

Does this guitar have a floating bridge, or did you block it? Can you restring yourself, and how confident are you in the restringing? If you changed gauge, would you know how to deal with it?

[Griffinator]

Yeah, I should have mentioned that - both my axes are floaters, so I really just hate f***ing with the setups.

 

I've become a lazy sod in my old age.

[desertbluesman]

I learned how to adjust the neck on my guitars I also learned how to file the frets if necessary. My guitars need no regular maintenance, other then string changes, and a wipe down from time to time. Sometimes the neck needs adjustment, it is a 3 minute process. Go to Stewart MacDonald's website http://www.stewmac.com/ sometimes they offer videos on how to do these things. Otherwise stay with your guitar at the luthiers shop and watch what he does. I did and I learned how to fix my guitars by watching him work, now I don't need him anymore.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I highly recommend that you get a copy of How To Make Your Electric Guitar Sound And Play Great! by Dan Erlewine; many of the other Forum Members here have that book and/or The Guitar Player Repair Guide (also by Dan Erlewine) (and also highly recommended). Both of these books are industry standards and "bibles" of solid guitar and bass info.

 

There is also a lot of good, solid free information available at the Stuart-MacDonald 'site that desertbluesman gave you a link to above; and Dan Erlewine is also involved there, as well! His (dbm's) suggestion that you try to learn as much as you can when a pro woks on your guitar is also a very good idea.

 

 

You yourself can check your neck's relief (the amount of bow in the neck caused by the tension of the strings pulling on it) once a month or every other month or so; particularly more often during those Seasons when the most climate-change takes place in your area, such as (for me, here) Spring and late Fall/early Winter.

 

With the guitar freshly tuned and worn/held in the same position in which you usually play it, place a capo at the 1st-Fret, and use a picking-hand finger to fret the 6th-String (or 7th or whatever is the lowest bass-side string) at the fret that comes closest to being directly above the precise place where the neck and body meet. Then, with your fretting-hand, use an automotive feeler-gauge to determine approximately what the distance is between the bottom of the 6th-String and he top of the 7th- or 8th-Fret; one at a time, carefully slip the tip of a gauge between the string and the fret.

 

This will likely be somewhere around, say, .010", .008", .006", on down to zero " (perfectly straight/flat); what it should be is somewhat subjective, varying with each guitar and player, and needs to be decided on first (talk with the tech that initially sets-up the guitar for you).

 

In general, with a Strat-based axe like your own, the straighter the better, with a little bit of breathing-space for the strings being good. Repeat the procedure on the treble side with the 1st-String; there may be a small difference, but anything excessive is a possible signal of a warped or twisted neck. Adjust the truss-rod as required, tightening to have less relief, and loosening for more relief; adjust by very small increments, like an eighth of a turn to a quarter of a turn at a time. If loosening, slightly go beyond your intended adjustment, and re-tighten by 1/16th or so, just a nudge back for snugness to eliminate backlash slop.

 

Usually a small adjustment to relief will have a very minimal effect on action and intonation; but a large change in relief will necessitate checking and possible re-adjustment of action and intonation. With your Floyd Rose style bridge and locking-nut, either be COMPLETELY CERTAIN that you know EXACTLY what you're doing and what you want the results to be (all of which are addressed in those books I suggested above), or leave it to an experienced, knowledgeable pro who is intimately familiar with Floyd Rose style double-locking and floating trem bridges and their set-up. Otherwise, you'll be engaged in a frustrating, repeating teeter-totter experiment that will aggravate you and take too much time!

 

 

When you change strings with that Floyd Rose style bridge, before you change them tune the guitar, and then I recommend that you change strings one string at a time, and do NOT touch the tuners (neither those on the headstock, nor the fine-tuners at the bridge) for the other strings, ONLY tune the new string that you've just put on, gently tug/stretch it, retune, etc. until it stays in tune, and then move to the next string and repeat the procedure. Aim to have the guitar tuned by the tuners at the headstock, with the fine-tuners each at their half-way point, before you lock the nut again. If properly set-up, there should be virtually no difference in tuning between having the locking-nut open or locked-down, locking it should not cause the strings to go out of tune. Then with the fine-tuners set half-way in their travel, you have room to fine-tune up OR down as temperature-changes and the like occasionally cause the strings to go slightly out-of-tune.

[pinkjimiphoton]

I highly recommend that you get a copy of How To Make Your Electric Guitar Sound And Play Great! by Dan Erlewine; many of the other Forum Members here have that book and/or The Guitar Player Repair Guide (also by Dan Erlewine) (and also highly recommended). Both of these books are industry standards and "bibles" of solid guitar and bass info.

 

There is also a lot of good, solid free information available at the Start-MacDonald 'site that desertbluesman gave you a link to above; and Dan Erlewine is also involved there, as well! His (dbm's) suggestion that you try to learn as much as you can when a pro woks on your guitar is also a very good idea.

 

 

You yourself can check your neck's relief (the amount of bow in the neck caused by the tension of the strings pulling on it) once a month or every other month or so; particularly more often during those Seasons when the most climate-change takes place in your area, such as (for me, here) Spring and late Fall/early Winter.

 

With the guitar freshly tuned and worn/held in the same position in which you usually play it, place a capo at the 1st-Fret, and use a picking-hand finger to fret the 6th-String (or 7th or whatever is the lowest bass-side string) at the fret that comes closest to being directly above the precise place where the neck and body meet. Then, with your fretting-hand, use an automotive feeler-gauge to determine approximately what the distance is between the bottom of the 6th-String and he top of the 7th- or 8th-Fret; one at a time, carefully slip the tip of a gauge between the string and the fret.

 

This will likely be somewhere around, say, .010", .008", .006", on down to zero " (perfectly straight/flat); what it should be is somewhat subjective, varying with each guitar and player, and needs to be decided on first (talk with the tech that initially sets-up the guitar for you).

 

In general, with a Strat-based axe like your own, the straighter the better, with a little bit of breathing-space for the strings being good. Repeat the procedure on the treble side with the 1st-String; there may be a small difference, but anything excessive is a possible signal of a warped or twisted neck. Adjust the truss-rod as required, tightening to have less relief, and loosening for more relief; adjust by very small increments, like an eighth of a turn to a quarter of a turn at a time. If loosening, slightly go beyond your intended adjustment, and re-tighten by 1/16th or so, just a nudge back for snugness to eliminate backlash slop.

 

Usually a small adjustment to relief will have a very minimal effect on action and intonation; but a large change in relief will necessitate checking and possible re-adjustment of action and intonation. With your Floyd Rose style bridge and locking-nut, either be COMPLETELY CERTAIN that you know EXACTLY what you're doing and what you want the results to be (all of which are addressed in those books I suggested above), or leave it to an experienced, knowledgeable pro who is intimately familiar with Floyd Rose style double-locking and floating trem bridges and their set-up. Otherwise, you'll be engaged in a frustrating, repeating teeter-totter experiment that will aggravate you and take too much time!

 

 

When you change strings with that Floyd Rose style bridge, before you change them tune the guitar, and then I recommend that you change strings one string at a time, and do NOT touch the tuners (neither those on the headstock, nor the fine-tuners at the bridge) for the other strings, ONLY tune the new string that you've just put on, gently tug/stretch it, retune, etc. until it stays in tune, and then move to the next string and repeat the procedure. Aim to have the guitar tuned by the tuners at the headstock, with the fine-tuners each at their half-way point, before you lock he nut again. If properly set-up, there should be virtually no difference in tuning between having the locking-nut open or locked-down, locking it should not cause the strings to go out of tune. Then with the fine-tuners set half-way in their travel, you have room to fine-tune up OR down as temperature-changes and the like occasionally cause the strings to go slightly out-of-tune.

 

+1 kev!!

[Larryz]

Take it in at least once and have an initial set up done (runs about $50 bucks and it is well worth it)...plus once you have a connection with a good luthier you'll know who to take it to if you have any questions or if any problems should come up in the future...they will usually eye ball it for you at no charge...