by Ryan Jerzak

kazrej@hotmail.com

Sharpen up that axe Eugene!

Fighting to keep your guitar in tune is a pain in the . . . About 10 years ago I had a guitar that had to be tuned every 5 minutes. I finally had enough, and ended its life in .5 seconds with a swift kick to the . . . neck. That was unnecessary, and if I knew then what I know now, I just might have me another guitar.

Here are a few things you can do to keep your guitar in check:

First off, get yourself a good tuner like the Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner. This is a pedal-style tuner that features a mute mode, allowing you to tune in total silence. The audience will love you for it! If you constantly check your tuning during practice, eventually your ears will become accustomed to what it sounds like to be “in tune,” and you can tell in a heartbeat if one of your strings falls even the slightest bit out.

While tuning, gently pull each of your strings (outward, not side to side). This helps the string to settle in. Also wipe off any gunk, sweat, beer, etc. from your entire guitar after jamming. Doing this will increase the lifespan and tone of your strings.

Probably the most important thing you can do to keep your guitar to play and sound smooth is to get your neck and intonation properly set up.

Proper adjustment of the truss rod inside the neck helps to control neck forward or back bow, but you can snap your neck if you overdo it! Unless you know what you’re doing, neck adjustments are best left to pro guitar techs. A properly set neck can help keep you in tune, eliminate fret buzz, and provide for good action (the distance between the strings and frets), making it easier to play. Because necks, playing styles, pick attack, action, truss rods and string gauges vary, these things factor into the “ideal” neck setting which differs from one instrument to another.

Once your neck and action are set, you can adjust your intonation.

In our next “guitarticle” we’ll find out how to save some cash by learning how to set your guitar’s intonation.