Category: Tech Tips

Check out this article from Taylor about the proper humidification of your acoustic guitar.

10_SymptomsofaDryGuitar

 

Do you experience when your guitar is plugged directly into your amp that the tone sounds great, only to find when you put your pedals and effects in line that it sounds dull and looses its brilliance?  You may be experiencing dirty jack syndrome, its a condition that I see regularly in guitar rigs and pedalboards.
There are 2 types of cleaner that you want to use on a regular basis.
-Contact cleaner, one that leaves no residue and is safe on plastic.  This is for use on switches and jacks.
-DeoxIT cleaner, cleans and lubricates.  Use this on potentiometers.
First clean your pedalboard.  (I find it handy to keep a small paintbrush in my tool kit to regularly brush the dust off of the pedals.)  Remove each pedal and clean all the bar sludge off of them.  Check and make sure the input and output jacks are tight, as well as the pots.  Spray the non-residue contact cleaner on a 1/4” plug and insert and remove it from each jack 5 or 6 times to clean the contacts.  Repeat this on each pedal.  Clean all of the 1/4” plugs with this same contact cleaner.  You may also want to do this on the DC power cables and jacks.
Use a cable tester and test each cable.  I use the Behringer CT100, you can get these for around $30 from Sweetwater.  Replace or repair any questionable cables.
Re-assemble the pedalboard and test.  While playing, wiggle each plug and pedal and listen for any crackle or pop.  If everything sounds clean then you are good to go.  You should hear an audible difference in your overall tone.
Next lets look at your guitar.  Do you have scratchy volume and tone pots?  This is what the Deoxit is for.  If you are comfortable opening the electronics cavity, get in there and spray some Deoxit into each pot.  Work the pot back and forth a number of times and this will dissolve any corrosion in the pot.  If it doesn’t clean up, then the pot may need to be replaced.  Check to make sure the pots and jack are tight on the guitar.  Use the non-residue contact cleaner to clean the switch and guitar jack in the same way you cleaned the pedals.
The next culprit in tone sucking is bypass switching.  If you are using a stock wah pedal, I recommend having a True Bypass switch installed.  Even when the pedal is “off” it is still sucking some tone and replacing that switch makes a big difference.  This goes for all of your pedals, tuner pedals included.  Many of the higher quality boutique pedals come with true bypass switching.  For the ones that don’t you can either have the switch replaced, or get an external “loop pedal” to switch the effect in and out of line.
Following these maintenance tips will combat many of the tone sucking issues that I commonly see in guitar rigs.
Happy Giggings!

Keeping your guitar in tune
I have a routine of things that I do when I replace strings, to ensure that the guitar is going to stay in tune for at least the next three or four songs. Regardless of how much bending and whammy bombs my client is going to require of the axe.

The Wrap
When wrapping the strings around the tuning peg, make sure to have a good 3-4 windings and each wind should wrap neatly under the previous. No sloppy strings crossing over each other.

Stretch the crap out of them
After the the string is tuned to pitch, pull the string away from the body at the bridge and at the nut. Then retune and repeat three times. This action really sets the ball ends and the peg winds. Then grab the string with both hands, between fingers and thumbs pushing against each other, and run up and down the neck stretching along the entire length of the string. Then retune and repeat until the string stays in tune, usually three times. Careful, don’t stretch too far and break them. Let the guitar sit for a couple minutes and you will notice that the strings are going to recoil a bit and go sharp. This is normal. Tune it back down to pitch and be confident you got all the stretch out of them.

I have heard some say not to over-stretch the strings because it causes them to go dead quicker due to breaking open the space between the winds. I suppose there is probably some truth to this, however I am usually in a situation where I am changing strings before each show, and I will gladly exchange a touch of “brightness” for an embarrassingly out of tune guitar.

Mind the nut
Make sure none of the strings are binding and can move freely back and forth thru the nut slot. If you use heavy gauge strings this can become an issue with a stock guitar. If you think this may be a problem, take the guitar to your favorite technician and have him re-file the nut slots to accommodate your preferred gauge of string.

Lube
Nut lube is a wonderful thing. There are a few different brands out there. I prefer Rene Martinez’s Graphit ALL lube. After the string is all stretched, lift it and use a toothpick to apply the lube in each nut slot. You can also use the lube under string trees on the headstock, and on bridge saddles to reduce string breakage.

Intonation
Make sure the intonation is set correctly. You can do this yourself with an accurate strobe tuner or take it to a technician and have him set this for you. Remember that intonation changes anytime you do any sort of adjustment, string gauge change or tuning change. Intonation is always set last after everything else.

Those dang Floyds
Floyd Rose floating bridges do require a couple more steps. As the guitar is used and ages the knife edges and the posts tend to become worn over time. This causes the bridge to stick and not always settle back to its “zero” position. Once all the previous steps have been completed, the nut pads have been locked down, with the exception of the nut lube. Push down slightly on the whammy bar and release. Then set the tuning for all strings with the fine tuners at the bridge. Repeat this two step process until the guitar stays in tune. You are basically creating the zero point where you slightly tap the bar down. Don’t do a full on dive, this over-stretches the springs. They will recoil a minute after the guitar is tuned and cause it to go sharp.

So there you go, I hope you enjoyed this months tech tip!