Musician Inc. do pro guitar set-ups?

Hendrix89

I badly need my guitar (62' RI Strat) checked over and set-up by a pro. However I am having a hell of a time finding a place in Dublin that has guitar tech's qualified to do the job.

I have heard that the lads down at Musician Inc. work on guitars. Is this true? If so then could someone fill me in on some details. If any of you have had experience with them (had your guitar set up) then I would be grateful to hear from you. Also I need to know the cost.

Basically what I need most is just a look over by a pro, who can confirm if the problems my guitar has need tending to. From what I know so far (from research) is I could do with a good bit of fret levelling (which hopefully will solve my fret outs and severe low E string buzz) and most likely a truss rod adjustment. I also need this strange squeaking noise I keep getting when bending the B string looked into. I have been told it's likely due to a badly made nut.... Not happy about having it replaced...

I really really need to know my guitar will be in good hands cause this one was bloody expensive and is very important to me as most of you know.

I appreciate it.

Killaqueen!!!

Prepare yourself for being told that you will be able to do it yourself...!

Voodu Child

Yeah, they'll do setups and (probably) a fret-level if you need it.

They'd be one of the few places in town i'd trust one of my guitars with...most of the shops are staffed by spotty metal-heads, but there's a few oul fellas in Musician inc who'll treat your guitar carefully.

Hendrix89

Sounds good. I'll go to them then.

Haven't had this done before. Any idea on the average cost for a basic set-up? And also do you think I will have to leave my guitar with them, or would it be quick? I don't want to be without it too long.

Voodu Child

Hendrix89 wrote:

Haven't had this done before. Any idea on the average cost for a basic set-up? And also do you think I will have to leave my guitar with them, or would it be quick? I don't want to be without it too long.

Depends whether it actually needs fretwork, but either way, count on leaving it with them. A decent set-up takes time, and a fret level takes longer still.

vengeance52

last time my mate left guitar into muscian inc for a setup it was 75quid i think.

Hendrix89

Right well I guess it would have to take some time to be done right. Not too happy about that price though. Of course it depends how well my guitar turns out... Was that 75e for a complete set-up, or just a tweak here and there?

My main concern is if my guitar is actually fixable without having to have something replaced. It's only a year old ffs! Shouldnt have this degree of faults in the first place:mad: I just know i'm gonna hear bad news when it comes to the squeaking noise problem...

feylya

It wouldn't cost €75 if you thought yourself how to do it...

Hendrix89

Yeah it would be great to do it myself, but I have absolutely no experience in doing this kind of thing and I can't afford to mess up.

feylya

It's very hard to mess up if you're careful!

bombidol

haha Killaqueen was right. But yeah, drop it into Musician Inc.

Zapp Brannigan

Musician (as voodoo_child said) would be pretty much the only guys I'd trust with my guitar/bass. Really sound bunch of guys who know what they're doing.
Good luck with it.

bombidol

Ask for Rodge and tell him Gar sent you he will look after you.

Creamy Goodness

yeh Rodge and Nigel are the two coolest guys, they are the only place (bar Derek Nelson) i would let touch my guitars too.

Voodu Child

bombidol wrote:

Ask for Rodge and tell him Gar sent you he will look after you.

If you don't tell him Gar sent you, will he do a crappy setup job?:p

Zapp Brannigan

bombidol wrote:

Ask for Rodge and tell him Gar sent you he will look after you.

Is Rodge the bassist? He was cool when I was in trying out the G&L, really cool guy with a great taste in music!

bombidol

Rodge is indeed the bassist. And yeah he will do a CRAP! job if you dont tell him I sent you*



*Not the truth

fourmations

howdy

i would agree on doing a self-setup

i sent guitar into mus inc and didnt like the results
there was nothing wrong with it it just didnt float my boat
I sent it to a luthier friend then who did a little bit more
and i was still not that happy, proving mus. incs work to be sound

this stems from me cutting my teeth on an insanely
low-actioned metaller, so when i got different style guitars
I blamed the setup whereas they were not built for mega low actions
and i just had to get used to the big difference in the guitars,

anyway, when i got my jazzmaster, which is a guitar that has to be tinkered with and has well known bridge problems amongst others, i did my homework
and adressed all the issues myself, including going from 9's to 11's
replacing and modifying a mustang bridge,

what are your issues with the strat?

rgds

4

Hendrix89

fourmations,

I am having quite annoying issues with my strat which I have gone into minor detail on my first and previous posts. It's mainly the unforgiving low E buzzing and the high string fret outs that bother me the most. The E string just buzzes anywhere and everywhere. Even on open. Doesnt make much sense how it buzzes open... And then there's the horrible fret-outs on the high E string. Past the 12th fret I can just barely reach the correct note when bending before it just cuts out... I usually like to do very high bends (Hendrix high) and at the moment the guitar just won't allow me to.

And the mysterious squeaking sound. Very concerned about that so I hope that will be identified as a minor problem

feylya

The high e is a simple case of raising the high e saddle. The low e sounds like a nut problem though, which is rarely a simple fix.

Voodu Child

Id sort the action & truss rod before worrying if the nut is cut too low.

Bear in mind you're playing an old style Strat with a small radius to the board. The small radius won't allow big bends without a highish action - guys like Hendrix used light guage strings and crazy-high action, and had tonnes of fuzz most of the time so a bit of buzz wasnt a problem.

Most of my guitars have a bit of fret buzz somewhere. It disappears when i crank my amp

fourmations

voodoo_child wrote:

Id sort the action & truss rod before worrying if the nut is cut too low.

Bear in mind you're playing an old style Strat with a small radius to the board. The small radius won't allow big bends without a highish action -

bingo for me, i learned on 16" rad guitar and played it for 10yrs
then I got a 12" which threw me big-time, need higher action,
the the jazzmaster with the 7.5" rad, even higher action needed!

i just got used to them,

rgds

4

Johnny Storm

voodoo_child wrote:

...The small radius won't allow big bends without a highish action - ...;)

Don't make me go over there!

Hendrix89

Well guys I left my strat with the lads at Musician Inc. I went over some of the problems the guitar was having with Rodge. He said it definately was in need of a set-up but everything is fixable, which is great news. He said I don't need any fret levelling which I was very surprised about. My frets are clearly not very even but he knows best I suppose. The full set up is costing me 40e. Not bad. Only real bad news is it is gonna be around a week before it's ready. I don't know if I can last! Just driving myself insane wondering if my beloved strat will come back perfect or not!!

Anyway thanks for the advice. I think I picked the right place. At least I hope so! I'll report back with the results next week.

Hendrix89

Got the guitar back. One problem still remains though...string buzz. I have a feeling it's my fault though. They had my guitar tuned to E, with 10 gauge strings when I got it off them. I always tune to D (or less often E flat). When I got back I played it a bit and noticed there was no buzzing at all. Well I can't play in E so I tuned down to D. Now i'm getting string buzzing as before... And the action is higher now...

I wish I told them I play in D so they might of adjusted it to that tuning. So do you think the string buzz is just cause of my ridiculously low tuning? Im so confused...

vox

Hendrix89 wrote:

Got the guitar back. One problem still remains though...string buzz. I have a feeling it's my fault though. They had my guitar tuned to E, with 10 gauge strings when I got it off them. I always tune to D (or less often E flat). When I got back I played it a bit and noticed there was no buzzing at all. Well I can't play in E so I tuned down to D. Now i'm getting string buzzing as before... And the action is higher now...

I wish I told them I play in D so they might of adjusted it to that tuning. So do you think the string buzz is just cause of my ridiculously low tuning? Im so confused...

Yeah it would have been set up differently to account for the lower string tension if you told them.

feylya

What size strings do you use? 10's in D would be a bit too floppy for me. Try 11's and see if it's any better.

Hendrix89

I always use 10 gauge strings. I like the feel of 10's in D. I couldnt use 11's, they would be to tight for me. I like to get really beefy vibrato on my bends.

So what should I do? And do I have to worry about the neck warping again?

Voodu Child

You just need to raise your action, or switch to higher guage strings.

Fret-buzz is a subjective thing. Whether you think your guitar is buzzing can depend on how clean your tone is, how hard/soft you pick (and the angle you pick at), how much you bend, how often you play in certain parts of the neck, yadda yadda. Two guys might pick up the same guitar and one could think it played lovely, and the other could think it was buzzing on every fret.

The point im trying to make, is that the best person to setup your guitar is you. That's why i've never really understood the point of going to a shop for a basic setup.

But anyway, yeah, raise your action or go to a higher guage. As usual, you might need to make other adjustments when you do this (intonation, truss rod) so you owe it to yourself to learn the basics at some stage.

Hendrix89

Yeah but I just went all out and paid 50e to get it set-up so I didnt have to risk doing it myself and it's all been pretty much a waste of time. Tbh you'd think they would have copped on after noticing my guitar was in D when they started the set-up...

I have just tuned up to Eb... I absolutely hate playing in this tuning and I can't get good vibrato but it's all I can do to play it safe cause I don't want to feck up the neck so soon after I had it straightened...

Voodu Child

Hendrix89 wrote:

Tbh you'd think they would have copped on after noticing my guitar was in D when they started the set-up...

Unless the guy doing the setup had perfect pitch, there'd be no reason why he'd notice the guitar was in D. He'd have strummed it for a few minutes to get and idea of how it was playing, and then he'd have snipped the strings straight off.

Unless you specified you wanted it in D, i'd probably have done no differently myself. A tuner wouldn't have gone near the guitar until the new set of strings was slapped on.

yank_in_eire

The 62 reissue has a 7.25" neck radius. That could be why your bends cut out. A flatter neck radius would help your bends.
A word of advice: DO NOT under any circumstances take your axe to Goodwin's on Capel St. unless you don't like it and want it trashed. They did a terrible nut job on my Strat, and if that wasn't enough, whoever filed the nut also filed several grooves into my fretboard. Total cowboys.:mad: :mad:

Nozebleed

Bring it in to Soungear on portobello bridge..The guys name is Jim and he's set up a couple of gigh end guitars for me..Top job and good price.
the guys in musician are too young in my opinion..and everytime i go in they have guitars lying on counter tops,no protection at all..Soundgear has a basement room for reapirs and will do a sound job.