Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,
I have just completed my first acoustic. There were many mistakes, including the bridge slipping in the clamps, resulting in not so great, but passable intonation. I will not be able to correct that until Spring. I have too many projects here at home to finish before winter, and won't have time to apply finish to the instrument's top before it gets too cold.
But I had to string it up and see what it sounded like. I think it sounds pretty good for my first. And I'll be playing it until Spring arrives and I can get the bridge work done.
But I have a question?
I know that the guitar will move a bit/settle after strings are on it, and was wondering how long you fellas (and ladies) generally wait until you do final setup.
I am fine tuning the nut at the moment, but action is around 4/32 at the 12th, which is medium high for me(I like 3/32 to 7/64, which I know is high for some of ya'll).
What do you do?

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Minimum 24 hours at tension.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Usually at least a day or two


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Several days but I think it’s actually more important to alert an owner that it should be checked 6-8 months after birth or if it is hanging in a store keep an eye on it.

Higher action from initial settling in the first 6-8 months of life often goes unnoticed by an owner but they may find themselves not playing it as much and not realizing why.

When you optimize the setup they are often amazed and play it a lot more.

If it creeps up in a store it’s probably not going to sell as easily as playability seems to often trump tone as far as making a guitar appealing to a buyer

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I usually can't wait and do it as soon as the bridge has dried for 24 hrs.

Is there any danger in setting it to your preferred action initially? IOW, you usually expect action to rise, not fall, correct?

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Once the bridge has had its 24hrs, I set it up. I do follow-up measurements after throwing it on a Tonerite for a few days. It almost never moves, and I like to think I brace on the lighter side. My standard action, low to high is 5/64-3/64 for finger-style and 6/64-4/64 for flat-pickers (a tad higher for enthusiastic bluegrassers). Nut action is .018”-.015”. This with maybe .015” neck relief?

Best, M

Nobody said the only setup is one-and-done. Nice to see trend lines, too. Nut's not moving, frets aren't wandering (or better not). Relief and saddle are what's left.

How is finish anticipated? It's common custom to finish neck and body before joining the two, and finish the soundboard before attaching the bridge. I think it will be rewarding to remove the bridge and reattach it in the right place, and although a lot of effort, it sounds like it's a known problem and it can be attended to before finish is applied. A few hours of work now, many years of play to come.

_________________
Peter Havriluk

Hi Peter,
I finished the guitar, scraped under the bridge footprint and glued. I will have to remove the bride, sand and refinish top, then reglue bridge. No time left this year for that maneuver. Too much going on.
I've been three years on this. Time to move on for a bit. Will revisit the bridge situation in the Spring.
Finish is wipe on poly.

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Mike, don't want to twist your arm, but removing a recently glued bridge can be easier than letting it sit for months. I once removed a HHG glued bridge that had been glued the day before, and it came off very easily.

For wipe on poly I would first try taping off the bridge and finishing around it. You will want a fairly thin coat of finish on the soundboard anyway.

There are a lot of variables here such as the RH of the shop now and when the instrument was built, etc. But there are also a plethora of things that need to be done in the final setup that can be done without much concern for how the dome of the top will stabilize.

For example it can be fretted if the neck is on and the fret board can be leveled. Now some here fret off the guitar which is not what we do at our commercial shop (or recommend...) or how I learned to build after the first ten or so either. But it can be fretted.

Nut making is an art and if you are new to it could take you some hours to do well. That can be done now and the final nut slot depth left for final set-up whenever that is.

Saddles can be made and compensated per what we know to be the intonation case from experience B farther back than the E and G further forward from the B, etc. Leave a set-up saddle high in that the action adjustment should be your final adjustment and done at the saddle AFTER truss rod, relief, nut slots, etc. Now I just gave a big clue there too let's see who picks up on the idea and set-ups are sequential in nature.

The bridge can be glued on if it isn't and 24 hours with Titebond original or HHG is fine if your shop is temp and humidity controlled, the bridge was well fitted and the glue regime was sound and appropriate.

All these things, make a nut, fretting, making a saddle could take a novice a couple of days and would take me about an 8 hour day. It can all be done during our time-out period.

As for how long to wait before string tension. I and going to be the odd man out here and suggest that if your shop is RF controlled, temp too and you followed best practiced for wood seasoning and the RH to brace with I see no reason why once the bridge has 24 hours time on it you can't set-up now.

Final set-up is also an opportunity to correct stuff that you spot as a result.

Expect things to move and expect things to move more in the first five years than they will after that. Mario would ship with a summer and winter saddle with the winter one being a tad higher. Like most things Mario this is brilliant and spot-on. I later did this too when I got over 40 guitars.