The Guitar Repair Guide
If you’re guitars not playing the way it’s supposed to you’ve got two options, either get it repaired or buy a new one. Buying a new guitar can be very costly and may be a little premature if the source of all your trouble is caused by something which can be easily fixed. This guitar repair guide is going to walk you through some of the most common problems guitars have and advise you on what can be done about it.
In order for any instrument to function properly and produce an adequate tone it needs to have the right shape. Unfortunately many players’ guitar necks become damaged or twisted; this has a devastating effect on the quality of the sound it produces (let alone the action) and must be dealt with immediately. If you’re experiencing a concave or convex curvature in your guitar neck this may be easily resolved by adjusting the truss rod, however, if the neck is genuinely twisted you’re going to have some trouble.
Getting a guitar repair done on a twisted neck can be hugely expensive and in many cases it is worth simply buying a neck for your instrument. If you’re guitars still in warranty you should be able to take it back to the store you bought it from and exchange it for a new one. If you really are dead set on having the neck repaired it is hugely important that you take it to a professional who knows what he’s doing. A guitar neck repair is extremely difficult to get right and aren’t always possible so you need to make a qualified technician is working on it.
One of the most common reasons musicians take their instrument in for a guitar repair is because the action is quite up to standard. Many beginners don’t quite grasp the term ‘action’, so I want to try and explain it simply. The action is the distance between the guitar strings and the frets, if you’re guitar suffers from fret buzz or you sprain your wrist every time you try to perform a power chord, chances are your action needs adjusting.
The first thing you have to do is figure out whether you’re action is too high or too low. Fret buzz is a tell tale sign of a low action, the easiest way to test for it is to play an open low E string on your guitar and listen out for any unwanted buzzing caused by the string making contact with the frets. If you find that there is an unusual amount of fret buzz your best off getting your guitar repair kit out. Equally, if you believe that your instrument requires too much effort to push a string down adequately, you may want to adjust your action.
Although players can adjust their guitar’s action themselves using a set of screwdrivers, I really would recommend leaving any guitar repair job to the professionals at your local music store. In order to repair the action the technician will adjust the nut, truss rod and saddle of your guitar, if you’re confident in your own ability or are unwilling to spend money on repairing your instrument I would at least advise you to check out some of the video tutorials on YouTube which show you how to do it.
I hope this guide to guitar repairs has been helpful, I have not included any ‘do-it yourself’ step by step repair guides for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t want to encourage any players to try and repair guitars themselves, and second, I feel video tutorials are far easier to follow than written instructions.
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Tagged With buying a guitar neck, Guitar neck repair, Guitar Repair, Guitar repair guide, most common problems guitars have, Repair Guitars, twisted guitar neck
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