Is my guitar setup properly?


dostal.it
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Joined: 08/03/20
Posts: 4
dostal.it
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Joined: 08/03/20
Posts: 4
09/14/2020 11:15 am

Hi, I am very much a newbie, especially in guitar setup, and would like to check if my guitar is setup properly or not.

On pictures you can see that the spacing between strings is different in many places and it does bother me (OCD rather than actual play). It is very visible at the saddle and all the way up to 12th fret, after that it sorts of disappears and they seem to be evenly spaced at the nut.

I am thinking about re-stringing guitar as I have had it for over a month and it has been played almost non-stop, but I am wondering if I should take it to the shop and have a proper setup done on it. [br][br]This is Fender CC-60SCE bought online (gear4music) and just used out-of-the box.[br][br]I should also mention that when it arrived, some of the pins were half-way out of bridge so I pushed them back in..

Thank you!


# 1
William MG
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William MG
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09/14/2020 1:33 pm

Hi and welcome,

that bridge does look odd, but I am no expert. Stephen White is the resident guitar tech and very helpful. You may want to repost in his section so he sees it.

Good luck with your studies.


This year the diet is definitely gonna stick!

# 2
Carl King
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Joined: 10/08/07
Posts: 466
Carl King
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Posts: 466
09/14/2020 4:14 pm

Hey dostal.it,

That would drive me crazy too, and it's not OCD. It's hard to tell exactly from the photos because there is some camera lens warping happening but there is clearly something going wrong with the spacing of your G and B strings.

It looks to me like the hole for the B string pin in the bridge might have been drilled wrong.

You might want to re-string that guitar and see if you can get the strings at a more straight angle, going directly at the nut. I can't tell because of that camera lens warping, but it seems like they're all kinda wacky. That might improve things.

But still, it does appear the B string pin hole is wrong / not evenly spaced.

-Carl.


Carl King[br]GuitarTricks Video Director / Producer

# 3
Tinpan
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Tinpan
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09/14/2020 8:09 pm

Looks like the high e is stuck in the pin at a bit of an angle?


# 4
manXcat
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manXcat
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09/14/2020 9:27 pm

Camera lens distortion makes it difficult to evaluate pin holes in the bridge although they would have been done by vertical drill in a jig, so chances of error are minimal. That said, everything is fallible.

What I can see is that the exit angles of the strings from their pin holes are universially skewiff intercepting the saddle at irregularly spaced intervals and held there by friction once string tension is applied.

Try this.

Loosen off the string tension with the tuners until the strings have next to no tension in them. Remove and reseat the pins & strings ensuring the strings all exit perpendicular to the bridge (note: bridge not saddle). Retension the strings to a light tension. Take the strings as you would after initially installing new strings and stretch them by hand to check integrity of pin seating and straighten string routing to the saddle. Check and adjust any string routing not straight. This should correct any string which isn't in a straight line (perpendicular to the bridge) between where it exits the pin to the saddle, through to the and nut. Now retension all the strings to tune.

Check if the strings now still exit their retaining pin holes perpendicular to the bridge so they all run parallel to where they intersect with and cross over the saddle.

If & assuming they do, the string spacing should now be consistent. I think that is the problem from what I can see.

If it isn't, remove the pins and measure the pin hole spacing centre to centre across the bridge. It should be consistent. If it isn't, back to the shop. It's a dud. GL.


# 5
Tinpan
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Tinpan
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09/14/2020 11:54 pm

Yeah...what he said. :-)


# 6
Herman10
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Herman10
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09/15/2020 1:11 am

Just a quick observation here, first off all the pins are perfect spot on but the strings lead at an angle towards the comb.

Maybe the neck has been placed a little of angle towards the body to, it is a Chinees made guitar and they don't work with the precision of the original plants in the US

Also if you played it for over a month then it is like they say played in and a good set up by a professional is normally done, most shops offer this first set up for free if you purchased the instrument there.

Herman


# 7
dostal.it
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dostal.it
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09/15/2020 3:55 pm

Thank you for advice everyone. I have tried to straightened the strings which was successful to a degree.

Unfortunately it seems there are bigger issues with the bridge, it seems like the strings are cutting into it (maybe should be like that? but I doubt it) which makes it very difficult to move them by couple of mm because they tend to fall back into the established grooves.

I wont be sending it back as I dont think it is worth it for this guitar. My goal is to learn to play to some degree and then I already have my eyes on couple of "dream" guitars and when I select one I will be buying it from proper shop with professional setup. This will do for now though.

All done. They still not all evenly spaced, but IMHO much better than before. I tried to move the lower/thicker strings a little but they would always fall back into the grooves.


# 8
Herman10
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Herman10
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09/16/2020 1:21 pm

Way better but if the strings are not symmetric with the neck then it might be wat I said, the neck not 100 percent straight on the body and there is not much you can do about it


# 9

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