MAINTENANCE AND MODIFICATIONS MADE EASY

Your guitar’s performance will make or break your sound. Keep the most important parts shipshape with our easy tweaking tips

Lesson 16 Reduce nut friction

If you’re finding that a string suffers from erratic or unstable tuning, it might well be because the string is catching in your guitar’s nut. Sometimes this can necessitate the nut being filed, or even replaced, but before you get extreme, try lubricating your nut slots. You can buy bespoke nut lubricants to do this of course, but a quicker, easier method is to use a pencil in the nut slot of the problem string – the graphite in the pencil lead should smooth up the travel of the strings on the nut. It’ll give you steadier tuning and smoother string bends.

Lesson 17 Improve tuning stability

Did you know that having too much string wrapped around your tuners can cause tuning stability issues, and so can having too little? To reduce the risk of the string slipping when brought up to pitch, aim to have between two to five turns of string on each tuner post: two or three turns for wound strings, four or five turns for the thinner strings.

Lesson 18 Intonate your guitar

Having your intonation set right is vital – playing up at the dusty end will just sound bad! Thankfully, it’s a simple enough to do yourself, provided your electric has adjustable saddles. Get your guitar and a tuner, then play a harmonic at the 12th fret. Compare the harmonic’s pitch to the note produced when you fret it normally – if it’s sharper, move the saddle backwards slightly, if it’s flatter, move it forwards (remember FFF: fret, flat, forward). Repeat for the other strings and you’ll be intonated perfectly!

Lesson 19 Make strings last longer

To a greater or lesser degree, we all sweat from our hands when we play guitar, and over time if left untouched, this will corrode your strings into a dull, lifeless mess. So, whenever you finish playing, take a dry cloth and rub down your strings to get rid of any moisture, and notice how your strings now stay bright and zingy for longer.

Lesson 20 Beat signal breakup

Cables are the main offenders here, so your first port of call is to check yours isn’t a dud. If you’re sure the problem is with your guitar start by checking that the jack socket nut is tight and holding it in place: if not, tighten it up with pliers or a spanner. Cruztools makes the brilliant Guitar Jack And Pot wrench, which will fit every fixing on your guitar. Next, you need to look at the actual jack itself. Assuming your wiring is sound, the problem most likely lies in the terminals. The sprung steel can bend out of position over time, but it needs to be in contact with the tip and barrel of your cable for your signal to flow. Plug the lead in and gently bend it back into position, so you get a tight fit when plugging in.

Lesson 21 Fix crackly pots

Your guitar’s control ‘pots’ (short for potentiometers) are mechanical, and have a limited lifespan. However, before you change them, it’s worth giving them a clean, as dust is often the crackly culprit. You’ll need to get into the control cavity and locate the dodgy control. The metal casing for your control is exactly that – the hard work goes on inside, and that’s what we need to clean. Take a look at the back of the pot, and you’ll notice a small hole. Get a can of compressed air, attach the straw to the nozzle of the spray can and squirt it into the guts of the pot. Give the pot some vigorous turns for 10

Having too much string wrapped around your tuners can cause stability issues

seconds or so, and you’ll hopefully find any dust has been dislodged. No luck with compressed air? Try the same process with a can of electrical contact cleaner.

Lesson 22 Make new strings stay in tune How often have you restrung a guitar only to find that the damn thing won’t stay in tune properly? Well, it’s because strings need to stretch and settle for a bit. Annoying, but good news – you can speed the process up yourself easily! Starting with the low E string, simply grip the string about half way along its length, and pull it up off the fretboard – not too much, it’s not a bow and arrow, just until you feel it get taught – release, and repeat! Do this a few times on all your strings, and you’ll find your tuning much more stable.

Lesson 23 Stiffen your controls’ motion There’s nothing more frustrating than accidentally knocking your control knob midsong and mucking up your tone – or worse, cutting it altogether! If your knobs are so easily turned that this is a regular problem, there’s an easy fix. Simply remove your control knob and slot a rubber washer or O-ring (available from any DIY shop) over the post. Pop your knob back on and the washer will cause the friction between your guitar’s body and the knob, making it much harder to turn. A word of caution – if your guitar has a nitrocellulose finish, the rubber washer could potentially mark or even damage the finish, so do this at your peril!

Lesson 24 Give your Strat a bridge position tone control

The Stratocaster bridge pickup is an immensely versatile beast, but one that’s caged thanks to the lack of a tone control in Leo Fender’s original configuration. Thankfully, changing this is a very simple if you’re not intimidated by a simple soldering job. First, locate the wire connecting the Strat’s second tone pot to the pickup selector switch (it’ll be connected to the middle pickup at this point). Unsolder this, and move it one tag towards the middle of the switch and solder it back up.

Done! Want to test it out? Crank up your gain and knock the tone down to about halfway, and you’ll find that polite single coil sounds suspiciously like a humbucker!

Lesson 25 Top wrap your Les Paul bridge Joe Bonamassa is the king of the modern Les Paul, but he also does something unconventional with his bridges. Jobo, like many other LP users, thinks that they sound better with the Tune-o-matic tailpiece screwed all the way down, improving the connection between wood and strings, and in theory making the guitar more resonant. However, doing this creates a steep break angle between the bridge and the tailpiece, making bending harder. The solution is to string the tailpiece ‘backwards’ as if it’s a wraparound bridge – known as ‘top wrapping’, this decreases the break angle, leading to easier bends and (allegedly) increased resonance. Simple!

Having intonation set right is vital – playing at the dusty end will just sound bad!