Quite a common question I receive (twice in the past week) is something along the lines of “I have a new guitar and people say I should get it set up, is it necessary?”

The short answer is yes, probably. You might be wondering why a brand new instrument would need immediate attention. Surely they should be doing this in the factory, right?

Actually, they do! Every reputable brand has some sort of setup QC going on at the end of their production lines. They will NOT try to get your guitar to play as nicely as possible though. Why? The problem ultimately lies in what comes next – shipping.

Shipping a guitar across the world in a matter of a few days or weeks is quite a feat but it doesn’t come without it’s pitfalls. Namely the vast shifts in temperature and humidity that your brand new wooden string-trumpet endures during the journey. Wood moves. Quite a lot given the right circumstances. A few of thousands of an inch worth of movement in the wrong direction is enough to introduce fret buzz on a well set up guitar. These swells and contractions will also knock the intonation out and can even cause fret height irregularities in more extreme cases.

Manufacturers really want to avoid having potential customers receive or test one of their guitars with buzz. Buzz is the enemy and they’re willing to compromise on the action in order to ensure that there’s none. This is why they will generally deliberately set up your guitar with a slightly high action and generally only rough-in the basics of a proper setup. It allows a margin of safety in case the guitar shifts towards a lower action.

There are other things that are overlooked which are covered in a proper luthier’s setup – things like lubrication of the nut and saddles make a big difference to tuning stability and string breakage. Rough fret edges are a common issue reported on new guitars, which is also partially caused by fretboard contraction during these swings. I also find that on all but the highest end guitars, the frets themselves usually benefit from a finer grade polish, this is really noticeable if you play a lot of bends.

Hopefully this has helped you to feel a little less scalped by the manufacturer of your brand new guitar that already needs attention – don’t blame them, blame the trees, the wind and the waves! 

3 things all with strong musical connotations – coincidence??