So you’ve got a Les Paul and you want to make sure it’s in tune. Well, you’ve come to the right place! In this guide, we’re going to show you how to set up your Les Paul guitar. We’ll cover everything from changing the strings, adjusting the neck, and intonating the bridge.
Set up your Les Paul
The first thing you need to do is decide whether you want to lower the action or not. The action is the distance between the strings and the fretboard. If you lower the action, you can play faster and more accurately, but you also run the risk of getting fret buzz. If you decide to lower the action, here’s how to do it: -Remove the outermost strings from the tuners. -Tighten the truss rod nut (located at the headstock) with a 5/16″ wrench. Do this a quarter turn at a time, and make sure to keep the neck straight. -Re-tune the guitar and check the gap between the strings and the 12th fret. You want the gap to be around 1/16″-3/32″ for most styles of play. -If the gap is larger than you’d like, repeat the process. If the gap is smaller than you’d like, loosen the truss rod nut and re-check the gap. -Once you’ve got the action where you want it, you can move on to the next step. If you decide not to lower the action, or if you’ve finished lowering the action, the next step is to check the neck relief. Neck relief is the slight curvature of the neck from the nut to the bridge. To check the neck relief, you can either use a straightedge (a ruler will do) or your eye. You want the gap between the top of the 6th fret and the bottom of the string to be somewhere between .010″ and .030″. If the neck relief is greater than .030″, you need to tighten the truss rod. If there is too much neck relief, the guitar will play hard and you may get fret buzz. If the neck relief is less than .010″, you need to loosen the truss rod. If there isn’t enough neck relief, the strings may rattle against the frets. To tighten the truss rod, insert a 5/16″ wrench into the truss rod nut and turn it clockwise. To loosen the truss rod, turn the wrench counterclockwise. You may need to experiment a bit to find the right amount of neck relief. Every guitar is a little different, so there are no hard and fast rules. Once you’ve got the right amount of neck relief, you can move on to the next step. The next thing to do is to check the string height at the bridge. The string height is the distance between the top of the frets and the bottom of the strings. You want the string height to be as low as possible without any of the strings buzzing against the frets. To adjust the string height, use the two small screws at either end of each string on the bridge. If you have a tune-o-matic bridge, you can raise or lower each string individually. If you have a stopbar tailpiece, you can only raise or lower the E strings. If you have a harmonica bridge, you can raise or lower the E and A strings together, and the D and G strings together. If you decide to lower the action, it’s a good idea to raise the bridge before you re-string the guitar. This will help compensate for the extra tension on the neck. To raise the bridge, use the two large screws at the back of the bridge. You may also need to re-tune the guitar after raising the bridge. -Once you’ve got the string height where you want it, you can move on to the next step. The final step is to intonate the bridge. Intonation is the guitar’s ability to stay in tune with itself up and down the neck. If the intonation is off, a perfectly tuned open string will be out of tune by the time you get to the 12th fret. To check the intonation, play a harmonic at the 12th fret and compare it to the fretted note at the 12th fret. If the harmonic is sharper than the fretted note, you need to move the bridge saddle back. If the harmonic is flatter than the fretted note, you need to move the bridge saddle forward. To move the bridge saddle, use the small screw at the back of each saddle. Make sure to re-tune the string after each adjustment. -Once you’ve got the intonation where you want it, you can play your guitar! We hope this guide has been helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.