Five Easy Fixes That Every Guitarist Can Do
Patrick Benson
I may be shooting myself in the foot here by giving away these secrets to fixing your guitar, but I do believe that good information should be shared with those who are willing to learn. If I can save you a stressful last minute trip to your tech for something that you can potentially do yourself, I will. Fixing broken guitars can be daunting, but you may surprise yourself with what you are capable of doing when you to have to fix something on the fly. Are you ready? Let’s get into it.
WEAK SOUND - ADJUSTING PICKUP HEIGHT BEFORE GETTING RID OF THEM!
Changing pickups on your guitar is one of the most common mods. Oftentimes it's not always necessary, especially if you liked the sound of your guitar before things started to go wrong.
There are many factors that can contribute to why a guitar sounds bad, but a very common issue is due to the right pickup height. Luckily, all you really need is a screwdriver, ruler or your finger, and a good set of ears to get them singing properly. After all, they are microphones, and much like singers you need to adjust them accordingly to get the desired sound you’re going for. The further the pickups are away from the strings, the quieter they will sound, and the closer they are the louder they are. If you get too close you may start hearing some buzzing and nobody wants that.
To do this task simply fret down all of the strings towards the end of the fretboard (where the neck meets the body) and use an index finger to reference where the pickups are in connection to the strings. If you tend to like more bass, lower the treble side of the pickups and/or raise the bass side to where it sounds good to you. If you’re going for the opposite sound and want to brighten up your tone then raise the treble side of the pickup and/or lower the bass side some. You don’t want one pickup to be significantly louder than the others when switching between them individually.
If you want to be more precise, use a ruler to measure the height of your pickups so you know where you like them to be. I would also encourage trying different measurements with each pickup; you never know what sound you may stumble across. The good thing about this is that nothing is permanent. If you recorded the measurements from where you started then you can always revert back to the way things were. If you still can’t land on a good sound, then maybe it is time for some new pickups or a wiring harness.
A LOOSE OUTPUT MAKES JACK A DULL BOY
Your output jack is the heart of your signal. Without one there is no sound, and that’s not what you want moments before your improv set down at the clam shack with the Early Bedtime Boys. No need to fret; if you still have the nut and washer it’s an easy fix. All you need is some strong fingers or pliers if you have them handy. If the jack is completely inside of your guitar, it’s best to fish it out by either taking off the pickguard or jack plate depending on your instrument. If you can’t do that, needle nose pliers will come in handy. Simply grab the output jack, but be careful not to ruin the threads with your pliers. Once the jack is where it needs to be, thread on your nut and washer until it’s snug. Then plug in an instrument cable to give you something to hold onto while you tighten it down. Keep the cable steady so that the jack does not move around inside of the guitar cavity as you tighten everything down. This will prevent the jack and wires from twisting and potentially breaking your connection. If that happens you’ll need to learn some soldering skills fast!
(A great and cheap tool that I’d recommend is the ESP spanner as it won’t scratch up your guitar's finish, and it can tighten down almost anything on your guitar that isn’t a screw.)
STRAP YOURSELF IN
Nobody wants to experience their guitar falling off them as they perform one of those fancy spin moves down at the VFW hall gymnasium. As tragic as having a strap button fall out of your guitar can be, the remedy to get you strapped in before showtime is fairly simple. All you need for this job are some toothpicks, a small amount of wood-glue, a hammer, and a chisel or a sharp knife. What you will want to do is clean out the hole of any debris with a spray air can or a toothpick. If you have some spare painters tape around I’d recommend covering the areas of the finish around the hole and then set aside a spare piece on your work surface for the surgery.
Pour a small amount of wood glue onto your work surface tape and then take a toothpick to gather together a small amount of wood glue. Then take the toothpick and start filling the hole with glue. You don’t need a lot but a little won’t do either so use your judgment. When you think you have enough, leave the toothpick inside of the hole and start adding more around it. You basically want to fill the hole with as many toothpicks as possible. Sometimes, to get more to fit, I will flip them around so the sharp side is going in first. You should be able to fit about 3-5 depending on the size of the hole. Then take your hammer and lightly tap them into the hole so they’re snug. Wipe off any excess glue with a wet paper towel so none of it gets stuck to your guitar.
If you have time I’d recommend letting the toothpick dry for an hour or two so the glue cures. But if you are in a pinch you can skip to the next step, though it may not be as strong of a bond.
I then use a sharp chisel to remove the excess toothpicks. If you don’t have one then a really sharp knife will work or even string cutters. Just be careful not to mar up the finish, hence the painters tape. Then simply make a little pilot hole by using the screw that was already in there and slowly start screwing the strap button back into the guitar. You now have wood for your screw to grab onto, allowing for a nice snug fit. Once it's in there all the way and tight you are ready to gig, but go easy on the spin moves; nobody does that anymore, and for good reason.
IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT INTONATION THEN WHY IS SOMEONE ELSE DOING IT FOR YOU?
Intonation is a serious word around guitar culture. I get it; it's really easy for players to have strong concerns about it. I think that players often forget that the sound of their instrument is controlled by their hands more so than the components of the instrument. So when you are stressed out that your guitar may not be in tune you may also be bending the string out of tune even more than it already was, causing you to panic and shut down. Luckily, it's a pretty easy task that I think everyone can do if they just practice doing it a few times. Strobe tuners can be confusing to a lot of people but they have evolved a lot in recent years and are easier to use than ever before. The new Peterson pedal and clip on tuners are a great example, as they read similarly to a regular guitar tuner. I’d recommend getting one and forcing yourself to use it everyday. Before you know it you will never want to use a Snark ever again. If it still doesn’t work for you then that’s okay, as you can still get fairly close nowadays using something like the Korg Pitchblack (which has a strobe feature) or TU-3 from Boss. I explained how to intonate your guitar in an article about guitar setups, so if you haven't read that, I highly recommend doing so.
Keeping your guitar in tune is another story. You will want to make sure the tuning machines are snug, and also make sure that the machine nuts on the peghead are tightened down all the way (but not too tight). When they are loose they can actually move around, even under tension, and you don’t want that. If your tuning knobs are loose then it’s really hard to get your string to sit in tune.
Lubrication is very important, and to do this all you will need is some graphite led from a sharp fine tip pencil. You can be fancy and buy some special sauces but everyone has a pencil lying around and it does just as good of a job as anything else. You want the string to be passing the saddle and nut as smoothly as possible without any loose burrs. Lubricating helps ensure the string can vibrate evenly across your fretboard without any disturbances, allowing for better tuning stability, especially on guitars with vibratos.
FIGHT OF THE BUZZARDS
Unless you are an experimental noise-maker, you probably despise fret buzz on your instrument. It’s practically unavoidable, so you have to just deal with the fact that your guitar misbehaves from time to time. The good news is that you can fix it if you know what to look for.
If an open string is buzzing right off the bat then it is most likely a problem at the nut. This is typically caused by a nut slot that is too deep, making the string vibrate off of a fret. A good way to check is to take your right hand pointer finger and press down on the third fret of the culprit string. Then take your index finger on your left hand and tap on the first fret of the same string, keeping a close eye for any movement of the string. If the string does not press down then the nut slot is too low and that's the source of the annoying buzzard.
An easy fix is to take a piece of scrap paper (preferably blank but anything works) and tear off a small piece. Detune the string and place the scrap paper under the string in the nut slot and tune it back up. If there is still a buzz after you tune back to pitch then repeat these steps, but fold the piece of paper over again to allow for more height in the slot. Repeat this until you eliminate the problem. Keep in mind though that you don’t want the string to be so high that it’s hard to press down, either.
You are creating what’s referred to as a shim in the nut slot (there are other types of shims as well) that is raising the string out of the buzz zone and into playing position. This is not a permanent solution but it will get you through a gig or studio session until you can take your guitar in for a proper setup with your local tech. There is another trick you can do with baking soda but you will have to get in touch with me if you want the secret recipe.
If you have some buzzing going up the fretboard on a particular fret or closer toward the bridge you will want to take your guitar into the shop as it will need the proper inspection and servicing done to eliminate the problem.
Patrick Benson is a musician, and guitar repair tech based in Los Angeles, California. He works at a repair shop as well as out on the road for Nine Inch Nails and Beck. He plays guitar in the band Charade, has a solo instrumental project and hosts a monthly podcast. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
