I have played electric guitar since the late 1960s when, one Christmas, my parents bought me a “Royal Artist” hollow body, red burst, rosewood fretboard, double single coils and a “Bigsby” type vibrato system. I had so much fun with this guitar.
Now, it’s the 1960’s, for you youngsters out there, that was before Youtube, or TikTok or anything like that. Because it was really before the internet itself. So, who had resources to learn how to setup a guitar? I was 12 and the whole guitar seemed like a mystery to me. The last thing I wanted was mess with truss rods, nuts and saddle adjustments. What if I broke the guitar?
After a while, though, as I played more I discovered some of the short coming of the guitar; like intonation, action height, fret buzzing, that lousy vibrato system. Looking back I’m sure it would have benefited greatly from a setup. I can bet dollars to donuts when they purchased the guitar my parents had no idea to request a setup. I wouldn’t have known to ask either (setup? what’s a setup?). I’m equally sure the place they bought it didn’t do a setup either. They were primarily a piano and band instrument company. They had afew guitars here and there, but it was not their focus. It was probably using the factory setup. Ah, well..
A several years later I bought my first Fender. A hardtail (no springs or spring cavity) Strat. And, before anyone says “What? Is that the CBS era?” Yes, yes it was. But, you know what? That guitar was a JOY to play then. It still is now. I can remember what it felt like to play that smooth maple neck and fretboard for the first time. Pure Heaven. I’m also sure the place I bought it from did do a setup if just a rudimentary one.
But, once again, I had no idea how to do it or to even ask for it or that such a thing even existed. To be young and carefree again, lol.
At some point in the early 80’s I broke the nut on the Strat. Probably pulling string and strumming too aggressively. I went to the guitar store and inquired about replacing the nut. They sold me a new Tusq graphite nut. I removed the old one and put in the new one. The Strat never played as well after that, at least the open and first fretted chords. But it was still light years beyond the old Royal Artist.
By the end of the 80’s I was married, had kids and a 9-5 job. It didn’t leave much time for guitaring. The Strat went into the case and rarely came out.
Flash forward to 2025.
I brought the guitar out of the case and just held it. It felt so good in my hands. I flashed back to the 70’s when I played it for the first time and wanted that feeling again. I needed to fix that damn nut. I went on Sweetwater and searched for Stratocaster nuts.. I had no idea it was not a standard size ot anything. So I bought the once called for the Vintage Stratocaster. Now, let me say, that Fender calls a lot of their guitar “Vintage” even though they were built last week. They are built from vintage specs. Ok, fine, but the “Vintage” nut was way long for the width of my neck and so the E strings were VERY close to the edge of the fretboard. Not a good playing experience. I got out my caliper and measured width of the neck on the Strat. 40mm or about 1.57″. Not the 1.65″ that seems to be the standard on every other Fender (Squier) I own. Searching for a 40mm Tusq I found that an Ibanez Strat uses a 40mm nut. So I got that and tried it. I also got a set of nut files for my string size (10s) and NOW I can access some help in the form of Youtube, and there are a lot of information out there. With just a little work I was able to get the nut installed and filed down the nut. It worked very well. I bought 4 more of those nuts in case I need them in the future.
I watched a ton of videos on Youtube on setup from various individuals, to StewMac, to MusicNomad.
What really hit me was the basics looked very easy and systematic. And they are. Now, to really dial in that setup is more difficult. But for the basic 6-point setup (relief, bridge, nut, intonation, pickup height and floating the tremelo (if so equipped, as I have said, mine is not). But I watched the videos anyway. Maybe someday I have one to play with.
I started acquiring some of the tools like guages and fret files from MusicNomad and StewMac. Excited at something new to learn, I picked up my 50+ year old Strat and stopped. What if I screw up this guitar? I know it’s the least desirable of the old electric guitars (You know, CBS era) but I don’t still don’t want to ruin it. I mean, I really like playing this guitar.
But, I don’t want to spend the $$$ for a Fender, what about Squiers? I’ve never played one. They looks like their more expensive cousins, but cost much less. I’ll get one and see if it’s worthwhile. I bought a nice Squier Sonic series Telecaster from Sweetwater in California Blue (by the way, this is NOT an ad for Sweetwater, lol. But, those people are really good. They are my goto for almost anythiing music related).
I do buy from other places. I get plenty of tools and supplies on Amazon (yuck), Guitar Center, Musicians Friend, Zzoom, wherever the price is the best, but I will always try anywhere before Amazon (yuck, as I write this I am watching the news about how Jeff Bezos has rented out Venice.. you know Italy, for his wedding) Amazon is my last choice for stuff these days.
I bought a Gretch G5420TG from Sweetwater a few years ago, so I knew they had good packing skills for these guitars. Now, a Squier Sonic is much less expensive than the Gretch, but they still treated it very well. Double boxed, well padded. And TWO bags of their candy, lol
I hooked up the guitar tuned it up and wanted to play it to get a baseline of the instrument. Look, I know the difference between a Fender and a Squier; wood type, weight, finish, components.. but when I played this guitar I was immediately brought back to that day in the 70’s when I had that Fender in my hands for the first time. It felt really nice. I may do a review (there are ton on Youtube) but bottom line, the Squier Telecaster is fun to play and sounds really nice. The point is, somebody did a minimal setup, so the guitar was playable.
So, I replaced the string with some Regular Slinkys (10s) and followed a few of the setup tutorials and I got the guitar playing and sounding even better. The Squier is fun to play and it sounds like what I expect a Telecaster to sound like: twangy, lol.
Next, I want to practice doing things like replacing the stock tuners for Grover tuners, or swap the pickups for Seymore-Duncans, the saddles are zinc (I think) I want to replace them with brass or steel. So many things to do!
As I’m doing all this I start wondering, if I replace everything, couldn’t I just build a guitar from the ground up? The answer is YES, yes you can. If you think about it electric guitars are really very simple. My original idea was to buy Sonics and upgrade them, then I found Harley Benton (again, no commercial here for Harley Benton) and decided that would be better as I can also practice painting the guitars as well as maintaining them (we’ll discuss Oxford Supply later. Oh, and no commercial for them either, but they are awesome lacquers in Fender and Gibson colors, like California Blue!.)
I have both the Fender Tweed Case and the Poodle Case for the Telecaster (If you don’t know, the Poodle case was what your Telecaster came in when you bought the original back in 1951. I bought it on a whim because while it is Fender, it isn’t just another rectangular box.)
I like my California Blue Tele, but a faded butterscotch tele would look better in the Poodle case. So I’ve decided to buy a Harley Benton Tele and paint it transparent butterscotch.
At some point later I’ll get the Harley Benton “Les Paul”. I’ve always wanted a Les Paul, but could never afford one, even Epiphones can be expensive.
I expect the Tele to get here at some point. It does have to come from Germany. They do also mention the Tariffs and I guess I need to be ready to pay that tariff when the time comes (I thought tariffs were a punishment on the exporting country, not the poor schlub just trying to start a new hobby in his later years!)
Besides Harley Benton, There are also Leo Jamez DIY guitars, I’ve only seen them on Amazon. Actually, there are several choices for DIY guitars on Amazon. After I build the HB-TE, I’ll look at some of those other kits. For example, the Les Paul type on HB has a bolt on neck, the Les Paul from Leo Jamez is attached/glued. Maybe, I’ll build both and compare them.
Of course they are, I mean, I’m going build and paint them, they gotta be a little raw. It’s a whole process: sanding, grain filling, more sanding, painting, more sanding, polishing. The painting process is very well demonstrated by the folks at Oxford Guitar Supply. They use old and/or reversed engineered recipes for their lacquers and they carry many of the vintage colors for both Fender and Gibson, like California Blue, Surf Green and Daphne Blue!