It’s here again: the Massive and Brilliant, Haze Guitars Super Setup Sale.

That means Haze-quality setups for stupid prices.

We’re talking any guitar for €25 (which includes fresh strings*) and any bass for €20 (strings extra if needed as some bassists only change strings twice in a lifetime).

This craziness applies to any instrument dropped off at my workshop between 2nd and 31st of January

Pretty great, eh?

So, I’ll be spending the month under a deluge of guitars. Every year I run this sale and spend all of January wondering if I’m a strange sort of masochist. Seriously, the effect is much like having someone spend the month beating me with a pillowcase full of stomp-boxes.

But I’m the selfless type with only your welfare in mind so I’ll make myself blind and mostly insane getting your guitars playing their best.

Guitar setup €25. Bass setup €20.

Frickin’ bargain or what?

*A Note on strings: D’addario on the electrics, Martin on the acoutics—if you need something else, I can use yours or source them and sort out any difference in cost.

I rambled on about acoustic guitar intonation a while ago and mentioned that sometimes, the proper intonation point for a particular string falls somewhere fore or aft of the actual saddle.

In some cases, all of the instrument’s other strings do likewise and this can be an indication that the saddle slot may be in the wrong place. Often, however, it’s just one outlier. One lonely string, steadfastly blazing its own out-of-tune trail. An intonation maverick, if you will.

It’s not always a big deal. Perhaps it’s just a little out or, perhaps your ear/brain isn’t particularly bothered by it. However, if you’re one of those cursed with tuning-sensitive ears or if your poor, perfectly-pitched brain screams in discordant agony when you play certain chords or intervals, you might want to consider drastic action like this.

Well, it’s not terribly drastic, really. I’ve made a new saddle for this tenor guitar from a bone blank and all strings except the third intonated quite happily. The delinquent string wanted to intonate miles away from the saddle.

So I extended the saddle.

There are a couple of options for this but the most straightforward is an additional piece of bone that’s been glued to the rest of the saddle. It’s half the height of the saddle itself—it lacks a ‘bottom’ half and it actually rests on top of the wooden bridge so it’s completely reversible (just pop a new saddle in). It gives me the additional scope needed to shift this string’s intonation point forward.

Looks odd but sounds much better.

Time to break up all this Burlesque talk with something a little different.

What’s going on here, then?

Intonation. It’s a bug-bear for some. We could talk about equal temperament concerns and mathematical subdivisions of scale-length and whatnot, but it would get dull quickly. Suffice it to say, tuning on any fretted instrument is always a little bit of a compromise.

In order to try get the damn thing to sound as closely in tune as possible, we ‘intonate’ each string to compensate its length so it sounds right when fretted. On most electric guitars, we do this by adjusting the string’s saddle—moving it backwards or forwards to slightly lengthen or shorten the string’s sounding length. Easy-peasy (unless it’s a Floyd Rose-type bridge in which case it’s more annoying than being repeatedly kicked in the shin by a crying child in a restaurant).

Acoustic guitars offer a bit more of a challenge than most electrics though.

An acoustic guitar generally has a fixed saddle (of bone or whatever). The fact that the saddle is installed at a slight angle (increasing string length from 1st to 6th) string is a nod towards some string compensation. The pre-shaped, compensated saddles that many guitars have these days is another step in the right direction.

For most people (and most guitars and strings) these get close enough that tuning issues aren’t glaringly awful.

Sometimes, and for some people (depending on playing style and the curse of having a good ear), it’s not enough.

Intonation depends on precisely seventeen million variables. Well, give or take—there are a lot of factors that all interact to determine the best setting. Tweaking setup and string choice can help if there are problems but sometimes that’s not an option or isn’t sufficient.

What’s going on in the images above is that I’ve used little chunks of rosewood to individually intonate each string on this acoustic guitar. The saddle has been removed and the rosewood is acting like an individual saddle for each string. I poke it back and forward to find where each string properly intonates.

StewMac actually offers a doohickey that does this without fiddling with bits of wood. I’ve been threatening to get one for a while but I’m forgetful and tight.

Popping a piece of cellophane over the bridge lets me mark the location of each intonation point and the actual saddle location itself. This gives me an indication of where each string should sit on the saddle to sound best. It’s easy to transfer this to a new saddle blank.

This guitar, its setup and strings, actually indicates a complication: As you can see in the image in the right, some of the optimum intonation points sit outside the actual saddle.

This happens sometimes. On an older guitar, it’s not unusual to have a saddle actually misplaced. This can necessitate filling the slot and actually re-routing it in a new position. That doesn’t tend to happen so much these days but, depending on other factors, it’s possible that one or more intonation points might be in front of, or behind, the saddle.  Of course, making a much wider saddle is an option but that adds expense and entails modifying the bridge to accommodate that wider saddle.

The other option is compromise (we’re back to that word again). In this case, carving a new saddle with intonation points as close as possible to those measured will improve things considerably. Four of six strings will be pretty much perfect and the remaining two will be a lot closer to perfect than they originally were. Overall, it sounds much more in tune than it did without the need to irreversibly modify the bridge to accommodate a wide saddle.

So, we end up with a slightly odd looking saddle that sounds a lot better and the original is safe in the case in case it’s ever needed. Not too shabby.

It’s worth remembering that this is probably overkill for the majority of people. Most guitars and guitarists are generally ok with the regular or pre-compensated saddle. Failing that, a good setup or a change of string-gauge will probably get you close enough that you’ll be happy. If you’re still hearing problems though, a custom-compensated saddle might be an option.

I’m really pleased that Haze Guitars can now offer the Buzz Feiten Tuning System.

Odds are, unless you’ve been living in a small cave in the mountains, you’ll have heard about the Buzz Feiten system and you’ll probably know something of what it can do.

Even a guitarist with the tinnest of tin-ears will know that his or her perfectly tuned guitar won’t sound completely in-tune all over the fretboard. Different positions and different chord shapes can give that unpleasant out-of-tune wobble that’s really irritating. And, if you’re heading to the studio with this going on, it can get well beyond irritating.

Intonation is the means by which we tweak the sounding length of each string to improve these tuning issues but, for some people, it doesn’t get close enough.

It wasn’t close enough for Buzz Feiten. So he did something about it. Now you can too.

Fitting the Buzz Feiten Tuning System on your guitar

The Buzz Feiten Tuning System can be retrofitted onto pretty much any electric guitar or bass. Most installations do not need to make any permanent modifications to the instrument. The existing nut is replaced with a BFTS ‘shelf’ nut which is custom cut to each particular guitar during installation and the intonation is modified based on the system’s sweetened tunings.

The result is an instrument that sounds much more in tune all over the neck and across all chord shapes. It’ll work with capos, and altered tunings too.

The only visual indication that your guitar has been modified is that the nut appears very slightly wider than normal (about 1mm or even less). That, and a tiny, serial-numbered, sticker indicating that the BFTS has been properly installed by an authorised fitter Note: you don’t have to stick this to your guitar if you don’t want but keep it in the case as confirmation in case you ever sell on the instrument. The BFTS system is tightly controlled and the sticker is sort of like your ‘certificate of authentication’.

As far as I know, Haze Guitars is the only place in Ireland that you can have the Buzz Feiten system retrofitted to your electric guitar or bass. If you’ve struggled to get your guitar sounding properly in tune, the BFTS might be just what the doctor ordered.

The BFTS is something that—I think—many people know about without completely understanding so feel free to shout out in the comments if you’ve questions about the system. Of course, you can also drop me a line if you’d like to arrange an appointment to discuss.

Gibson does things Gibson’s way.

Whether it makes sense or not.

Anybody who works with guitars could, most likely, give you a list of ‘quirks’ that help keep Gibson’s guitars traditional. For ‘traditional’, you can sometimes read, “stuff that doesn’t make sense but it’s the way we’ve done it for decades so we’d be mental to change”.

The saddles on the usual Les Paul bridge—the Gibson Tun-O-Matic—are individually adjustable so that each string can be tweaked to help intonate the guitar (to allow it play mostly in tune over the length of the neck). The bridge is installed at an angle to provide some extra backwards travel to get things where they need to be.

All seemingly reasonable.

There are two type of bridge generally fitted to Les Pauls (and most Gibson electrics): The ABR-1 and the Nashville. The ABR is the original and, if you’ve ever paid it any attention, you’ll probably have seen that it has the three bass-side saddles installed backwards (that is, with the sloped/angled side towards the pickups)*. If you think about it, this isn’t the best way to have a string contact a bridge—ideally, you want a clean, definite take-off point like you’d get with a straight edge, as on the treble strings.

So, why this craziness?

Basically, it’s to make up for the fact that there is insufficient travel on the ABR bridge to properly add the compensation the wound strings need. Flipping the saddles allows a little bit more compensation before the saddle can’t go any farther.

Now, to be fair, Gibson tried to address this issue (and others) with the ABR when they developed the Nashville Tune-O-Matic. And, just like when Gibson change anything, many people think that the original was best. Of course, I have an opinion on this but it’s not really the point here, so I won’t go into it. Suffice it to say, the Nashville bridge has a bit more travel for its saddles and so, it usually intonates reasonably well.

Sometimes though, it doesn’t.

Sometimes, you need to do the ABR trick and flip a saddle. Good intonation takes precedent over any drawbacks associated with the backward saddles.

Not all Nashvilles are created equal when it comes to doing this. It tends to be easy on a Gibson bridge (just back the screw out until it disengages) but some aftermarket bridges are a bit more hassle.

Incidentally, the ABR-style bridge (with the already-reversed saddles) sometimes requires one or more saddle-flips too. A lot depends on factors like string-gauge and even whether the bridge has been installed slightly out of place (it happens). Saddle-flipping on an ABR-1 is really simple—pop out the retainer wire and lift out the saddle. Easy-peasy.

Perhaps I can make this the first in a series of Things That Are A Bit Mental About Gibson Guitars.

*Incidentally, occasionally, more or less than three saddles is reversed. It depends on how the particular guitar intonates.

I joked over on Google that the Fantastic Super Haze Setup Sale was speeding my inevitable nervous breakdown and descent into madness. It’s true. It can only be a matter of time until I climb a tall building with an air-rifle and begin to seriously smart the skin of innocent passers-by.

If you’re the sort who’s been desensitised to this kind of awful violence by TV and the internet and would like to speed my crazed, pellet-shooting, lunacy, then you should remember there’s still two weeks of January left.

That’s two weeks to pile guitar and bass setups on my sagging, tired shoulders.

And, as if ringside seats at my psychotic incident aren’t enough, remember that you can get these setups done for equally crazy prices. Seriously: €25 for any guitar setup (even those pointy ones with fiddly Floyds) and €35 for a bass including strings*.

It’s like I’m encouraging you to push me over the edge. It’s like I want to shoot plastic pellets at random people. “All the clues were there. He was a quiet type—kept to his workshop mostly.” That’s what they’ll say.

Those things can really sting, you know?

*See here for more

It’s that time again.

All through January, Haze Guitars will be running our Super Setup Sale. Hurrah!

Seriously, hurrah!

For the month of January, you can get a guitar or bass setup done for half-price or even less.

Good, eh?

Why not take advantage of a slow-gig month, or maybe get the best from that new guitar that Santa stuffed into your stocking? Drop me a line and we’ll get your guitars or basses playing their best.

If you’ve a guitar, a setup will cost €25 and will include a fresh set of strings*. This will apply to acoustics, electrics, trem-equipped and even pointy, Floyd-equpped axes for the duration of the sale.

If you’ve a bass, a setup will cost €35. As this one also includes fresh strings, I reckon this is a mega-bargain*.

These crazy-person, sale prices will apply to any instrument booked-in and dropped off at my workshop in the period from the 3rd to the 31st of January.

There’s no upper or lower limit on the number of instruments you can bring. One or forty, whatever works for you.

Surely that deserves a ‘hurrah!’

*A little necessary small print about strings. The strings I’ll be fitting as standard are D’Addario and Martin for the guitars and Rotosounds (four-string) for the bass. If you prefer/need something else, I’ll be happy to use yours or supply some and sort out any difference in costs.

This is the heel of an Ovation.

Well, it was anyway. A bit of a tumble had left the neck dangling from the strings while the heel portion remained solidly bolted into the neck-block.

Strong bolts, at least.

This is a pretty straightforward repair. Plenty of glueing surface should make for a strong joint and the break along the grain is extremely clean and easy to reassemble.

That said, I’m playing it carefully on this one. I’ve seen a number of Ovations break in this location so I’ve decided to strengthen this joint when it’s glued up.

First, though, it’s necessary to glue it. The only difficult part of this repair is ensuring a good clamping pressure while the glue cures. The ovation heel is angled which makes it a little more challenging to clamp it down.  As luck would have it, my previous experience with Ovation neck-heel breaks has left me with a custom-made clamping caul for just such an occasion.

Pop a fingerboard caul underneath, glue it up and I’m ready to clamp away. The clean break nicely aligns itself and doesn’t require any lateral clamping to stop it slipping about.

After the glue dries properly, I’ll reinforce this break a little by drilling a narrow hole—from the inside of the heel either side of the tenon—deep enough to go through the repair into ‘good’ wood. I’ll epoxy a couple of thin steel shafts into the holes to provide extra strength to the repair. The shafts are pretty small and thin but they’re strong. They should help make sure this neck never breaks in this spot again.

A bit of a finish touch up and this Ovation lives to fight again.

January is over and the Ridiculously Mental January Setup Sale is at an end.

And it was fairly mental.  January passed in a whirring blur of setups. It was a bit like one of the training montages from Rocky IV, just with guitars instead of logs. Oh, and less cheesey music. My setup muscles are looking pretty good though.

I still have a bit of a backlog of January instruments to get through but the next week should see the last of the half-pricers back with their owners. Thanks to everybody that’s allowed me to work on their instruments this month – I hope you’re happy with how your babies are playing.

Of course, the sale may be over but I think even the non-crazy setup cost is pretty reasonable. If I can help you out with your guitar woes, feel free to drop me a line.

So, hopefully you’ll have heard about my Insane, Clearly-Mental January Setup Sale.  I’ve done a lot of setups in the last couple of weeks.  This has meant some long hours, fitting them in with the usual repair work and nail-hammering but I’m certainly not complaining.  Many guitars were setup and much tea was consumed (Lyons Tea are going to put a plaque on my wall).

We’re a little over halfway through January now and as I appear to be some sort of setup masochist, I’m just reminding you that there’s still time to contribute to my breakdown.  If half-price guitar and bass setups sound like your thing, or if you simply want to see a grown man weep, drop me a line and we’ll see what we can arrange on both counts.

Remember though, the offer is only until the end of January or whenever I collapse in a gibbering heap muttering the word ‘intonation’ over and over. This could be any day now so get your skates on.