Your faithful axe. Your #1. The guitar that constantly seems to pull new music from you. We each have a favorite guitar, the instrument we have such a tight bond with that it almost feels like an extension of us. It’s the one you always reach for first, and the one that, for whatever reason, coaxes you to play and write your best. It may be because it sounds the best, but more often, it’s because it feels the best. The neck carve and body shape, the scale length, switch location, etc. are all where you want them, and you’re at home. Let’s take a look at some quick and easy ways to make your best-feeling guitar your best-sounding guitar, too.
Get It Set Up for YOU
This probably seems like a no-brainer, but far too often we take for granted that a guitar is ready to rock right out of the box if it shows up in tune and doesn’t buzz. A good setup can go a long way toward making the guitar work for you, personally. A guitar, much like a cyclist’s racing bicycle, can be “fitted” to its user for higher performance. Getting the correct string tension for your desired tuning and making the appropriate truss rod adjustments can make a huge difference in feel and tuning stability. Also, taking into account your personal picking intensity will allow you to choose the appropriate tension and neck setup. Lots of us believe that we want the action set as low as possible without buzzing. But it’s important to also set the action high enough to prevent notes from choking out, allowing them to ring freely from any spot on the fretboard. Want to go even further? At Sweetwater, we’re able to Plek your guitar, for perfectly leveled frets!
Upgrade Your Nut
While both domestic and imported guitar manufacturing quality is better than it’s ever been, you can still very often benefit by upgrading your nut. A poorly cut nut will cause pinging when your guitar is being tuned because the strings are grabbing in the slots. That same grabbing can also contribute to tuning instability. Nuts, especially plastic ones, can also wear out over time, as the slots widen from use. Graph Tech and others make replacements from composite, TUSQ, or bone materials that last an incredibly long time. Having your tech or luthier custom-cut a nut for you is a great idea, since it can be fit and filed to your preferred string gauge. Keeping the slots lubricated with a graphite lubricant such as Big Bends Nut Sauce will also keep your tuning stable through wide vibratos and big string bends.
Swap Pickups and Adjust Pickup Height
This is another one that seems fairly obvious, right? Pickups all have their own distinctive voices, based on their specific tonal characteristics and output levels. It’s important to be sure you’re using pickups that are voiced for your playing style and tonal taste. DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan are two companies that have gone to great lengths to make choosing a pickup that works for you easy, with smart descriptions and comparisons of their pickup options. However, did you know you can drastically change the response and output of a pickup by changing its height? Using the screws on either side of the pickup, you can raise and lower it, allowing the strings to interact differently with the magnetic field. Is your pickup too “hot”? Lower it a bit to open it up and hit the amp a little differently. Experiment with the height until it’s perfect for what you do!
Install Wiring Kits and Pots
Often overlooked, the wiring in a guitar can have a huge impact on its tone. There are a lot of things you can do “under the hood” here. One of our favorite modifications is to add a treble bleed capacitor inline with the volume. This prevents the tone suck that can happen when you roll your volume down, and the mod is super easy to do. Also, changing your potentiometers for ones with a different resistance can affect the output impedance that the guitar is delivering to the amp, which has a profound impact on how the pickups react. Emerson makes a variety of upgraded drop-in wiring kits made of high-conductive premium materials that can seriously open up the tone of your guitar!
Manage String Noise
For many recording guitarists, string noise is a serious nuisance. Heard as rattling, ringing, or chatter, it’s the vibration coming from the strings between the nut and the tuning machines. If you watch enough recording videos, you’ll surely see someone tracking a guitar part with a rag or one of those old scrunchies tied around the headstock. Gruv Gear makes a more elegant solution called the FretWrap, which works flawlessly. Simply wrap the cleverly designed strap around the headstock right above the nut, and say goodbye to annoying string rattle!
While there are tons of other great ideas for improving the sound of your guitar, these are some of our favorites. Have questions? Give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700.