Guitars, being made of wood, shift and change over time. If your favorite axe just isn't playing like it should, it probably just needs a setup!

Even brand new guitars need setups. They are generally made in a climate differing from where the buyer lives and as such, guitars can do all kinds of whacky things by the time they reach their final destination in your living room. Furthermore, factories in general do pretty generic setups on their instruments because they know not the playing preferences of the future buyer.

Now when you buy a guitar from Haggerty's we take care of the setup work free of charge, but we realize that you may have purchased your guitar somewhere else and we're happy to setup your instrument for $40.00 plus strings.

So what goes into a great setup?

New Strings - These are a must in order to setup the neck with the proper tension and ensure accurate tuning across the fingerboard.

Fingerboard Treatment - Fingerboards can collect dirt and grime over time so we carefully clean them and fingerboards made out of rosewood or ebony are often raw and unfinished so they need to be oiled from time to time.

Fret End Dressing - Sometimes a guitars fingerboard can shrink ever so slightly and this leaves the sharp metal fret ends sticking over the edge of the board. Ouch! These are filed down, re-beveled and polished to restore the smooth feel of your neck.

Truss Rod Adjustment - On average a set of strings tuned to pitch will place close to 100lbs of tension on the neck, pulling it upwards. A metal truss rod runs through the neck to provide counter-tension thereby straightening the neck. An out of adjustment truss rod can wreak some serious havock, causing all kinds of nasty buzzing or really high and difficult to play string height.

Nut Adjustment - The nut plays a critical role in achieving a low and easy to play string height. Each nut slot is filed down to the optimal depth, sanded and lubricated, and any excess nut material is removed so that your open strings will ring clearly.

String Height - The string height or action has a direct bearing on how easy or hard your guitar is to play. Different players have different preferences here and we set your action to match your personal playing preferences.

Pickup Height - After adjusting the truss rod and string height on an electric guitar, the pickup height is probably off. We'll reset that to your preference or factory specs.

Intonation - The final step is to ensure your guitar plays in tune all the way up the fingerboard. No guitar will play 100% in tune across the entire neck, but we want to get it as close as possible. This is adjusted by moving the bridge saddle which changes the overall string length.

Polish - Now that your guitar is one mean playing machine we can put the final polish and shine on it and hand it back to you looking like new.