How I set up my guitars! CAUTION: long Video!

[@GtrPknMama]

It’s truly a labor of love to get it set up right.✨🎵✨ So worth it!✨🎵✨😎👍

[@j-man9457]

@@GtrPknMama yup makes all of the difference!

[@johnjolly9519]

I think you could call yourself a guitar tech for sure. Great advice and information. I gotta get some of that nut sauce, haha.

[@j-man9457]

Hahaha yup, gotta have the sauce lol! Maybe not a tech-nician but a fussy-ician for sure hahaha! I'm pretty fussy when it comes to how guitars (well mine anyway) are set up haha!

[@thestonecutter768]

Had this video on my radar for a while and finally took the time to check it out. I have to say, your videos have really become some of my favourite guitar content on KZbin, you don't pretend to be something you’re not and have an honest opinion. I myself also do all of my own work, which I personally really enjoy. Loved seeing how you go about it and seeing that we do a lot in a similar manner. I personally really benefited from getting one guitar done by a top-notch luthier in my area. I started understanding what I needed to do better and what a really good setup feels like. From that point on, my setups have been so much better and a lot of people in my entourage ask me to set up their stringed instruments now. I particularly enjoy working on budget instruments and showing people that it's mostly in the setup, not the price tag.

[@j-man9457]

@@thestonecutter768 right on man, thanks! Much appreciated! 100% agree. A good set up is key! 🙂

[@theguitarprofessionals8584]

Full watch Dude!!!!! No worries!

[@j-man9457]

Hahaha thanks! Any pointers?

[@theguitarprofessionals8584]

Naaaa you are doing good!!!! hopefully you will help a couple of folks and bann a couple of folks!!!!!

[@j-man9457]

@@theguitarprofessionals8584 hahaha!

[@olds461]

The water bottle method for truss rod adjustment and is easy to use, and remember

[@jasperbates6760]

You do exactly what I do when setting up my guitars or bass. However I did learn some new steps from you that will help me a lot further. How you set up to file for the strings at the neck at the tuning keys so you get a lower action on the first few frets. ( Important step ). How you check the neck relief locking down the first fret and fretting the last note and knowing how to adjust the truss rod. ( Was a big plus for me ). And how check for high spots I.E. buzz sounds created from lowering the action and how to resolve that issue. ( Was Killer ). And your conditioning and polishing is just outstanding. And the look & sound before and after is unbelievable. I can certainly tell the difference. Awesome videos. P.S. I really liked the look and sound of this guitar.. Makes me want one

[@j-man9457]

@@jasperbates6760 Ahhh great man! Glad this video was able to help someone! This is just what I do. People develop their own steps on what works for them. It's always fun to learn!😃 Yes these 333 guitars are really good, inexpensive, and fun to play! Cheers, and Rock on!

[@denisconor648]

Great information thanks

[@REX-ks1os]

You are a better then good guitar player, and you do a great job with set up's. Your the proof that it really is the man and his fingers that create the great sounds. you can buy a million dollar hand made guitar but if you cant rock a mid level guitar you wont be able to rock a 59 les paul or a 63 strat .. IT IS ALL ABOUT PRACTICE and the love of music.

[@j-man9457]

100% agree man! And I have a lot of practicing to do hahaha!

[@guitarzan0515]

Thx J, I be watching!!

[@j-man9457]

Hahaha thanks but you don't need to watch this one, you already do all of this stuff!😀

[@TheJohnburghardt]

Nicely done. That is a gorgeous guitar.

[@j-man9457]

Yeah they're great if you like that style! Amazing value🙂

[@andrewscottfoust]

This is awesome. I'm going to go through this on my Westcreek 333. Thanks!

[@j-man9457]

@@andrewscottfoust hey thanks buddy! Hope it helps! J

[@truemanparsons9521]

j-man thank you for this in depth setup procedure. i just received this same guitar and all appears to be good. however, my lack of luthier experience causes me, like a sponge, to absorb the instruction from an experienced and talented guitar professional, to pay attention to detail from your personal experiences. your the man J-MAN i thank you sincerely !

[@j-man9457]

Thanka man... I'm not a pro by any means... great guitar though! Enjoy!

[@Sea_Jay]

Great tips! I ended up pausing the video a half dozen times thinking someone was talking in the next room (I'm home alone) before I figured out it was someone talking in the next room of the video. Lol!

[@j-man9457]

Hahaha no doubt! Don't know about you but my house is haunted..... with noise lol!

[@Stratisfied22]

I learned how to do everything myself years ago because of how bad the "luthiers" are in my area especially at Guitar Center, so I can easily say by watching your work that you would be considered a master luthier by every stretch in my neck of the woods. Hell I'm better than 95% of them now. Nice tools I may have to order some of the Music Nomad stuff it's looking pretty good these days.

[@j-man9457]

Thanks man! Much appreciated. The Musicnomad stuff is fantastic!

[@flppr1]

Thanks so much for this helpful, thorough, valuable video!

[@j-man9457]

Thanks. Glad it served a purpose😀

[@bluztime5271]

Watching your 333 videos I couldn’t resist giving one a try. I picked up a used one (return) off reverb for under $200. I wasn’t as fortunate as you. Mine has numerous high frets and the nut was glued in off centered. Otherwise, not bad. Pickups were acceptable, bridge much better than the neck. Fortunately, I do work on guitars and can level the frets an re-install the nut properly. I can’t complain too much as it cost less than $200 but someone without the skills to make the repairs would not be happy.

[@j-man9457]

Yup it's always hit or miss with budget guitars. Also when buying used, sometimes the original owner tries to mod or fix something and messes it up then gets rid of it...! The red one I got was a mess, but this blue one was really good. Love it!

[@bluztime5271]

@@j-man9457 I’m pretty sure the the one I got was a return because of the issues. That’s why it was sold at a discount. At any rate I’ve got it all straightened out and it’s quite nice now. I might through a bigsby on it.

[@j-man9457]

@@bluztime5271 right on man! Nice work... And a bigsby on these would be cool!

[@itsmedonp]

Great set up video! Thanks!

[@j-man9457]

Thanks bud!

[@robjones7725]

All good for me. I always go neck relief first, then string height (inc. nut depth/cut) then pickup height (personal preference varies I know) and last of all intonation. I found the guidance on the break angle from the stop-tail to the bridge useful but other advice useful too e.g. fret polishing method. Good video, good guidance and thanks very much J-MAN.

[@j-man9457]

@@robjones7725 much appreciated! Make sure guitar is tuned to pitch first before adjusting relief, otherwise you will be misled with your relief adjustment 😀 Rock on!

[@robjones7725]

@@j-man9457 I do that but slacken strings when the truss rod needs adjustment to take the tension off the neck.

[@wasteddude9387]

Thank God you’re an actual teacher. At least THAT group of students will be alright. Jesus! Times are bad. Thank you, teacher. Thanks J-MAN. And this is a GREAT video! No kidding around, man. You need to realize, dude. You don’t halfass your way through the stuff. God bless you for that.

[@j-man9457]

Thanks buddy. Much appreciated!

[@jhnfalls]

Nice video, but I think you forget to match the bridge radius to the fretboard . One low string can really mess up setting the action.

[@j-man9457]

@@jhnfalls you can't match the bridge radius to the to the fret board on a TOM bridge unless the bridge itself is already radiused and not flat across. The individual saddles cannot move up or down on these. Set your low E height and your High E Height and that's it... On these Westcreeks the bridge has a radius to it unlike some LPs I have worked on so action can be set super low on these if frets are level! 🤘

[@jhnfalls]

You file the top of each individual saddle when putting the string slots in them , and adjust them that way with a radius gauge

[@user77434]

Awesome video! Do you know if M Musi will be releasing any new guitars soon? If so, when?

[@j-man9457]

Thanks, I haven't heard of any new models, but Westcreek are apparently releasing an S-style soon. Not sure what that will be like🤔 But if by Style they mean Strat and it has 24.75 scale lenght, that would be pretty cool😁

[@TechnoRiff]

@J-MAN - Bravo! This video is gold, and needed whatever time it took to walk through the process. I see work on the nut being closely tied to fretwork, and that's where I get apprehensive - especially the nightmare scenario of chasing fret leveling up the neck as you said. What's the grit of that crowning file you used to spot level?

[@j-man9457]

Thanks bro! Doesn't really take that long for a set up but when trying to explain everything and trying to be transparent without too much editing, it's hard to shorten up hahaha😆

[@TechnoRiff]

@@j-man9457 I think a setup might take that whole time at a leisurely yet focused pace. Too fast, we would become those production guys churning out these flaws to be fixed!

[@j-man9457]

@@TechnoRiff haha yup good point!

[@TechnoRiff]

@@j-man9457 Hey man! I think I'm going to spring for a Fret Kisser for spot leveling as I would feel more confident limiting the amount of fret material removed during spot leveling. Thought I'd pass onto you that Stewmac confirmed that the 300 diamond grit on the FK is the same as on their crowning file, so I think I should be good going directly afterwards to the steel wool polishing step, is that right?

[@j-man9457]

@@TechnoRiff looks like nice tool... but you would still have to recrown the fret before polishing otherwise the spot you leveled would be flat. If the top of the fret is flat, too much of the string makes contact with the fret as opposed to just sitting on the very top of the crown. So you could spot level with the fret kisser, but you'd also need to recrown that area before polishing the fret... That's why I used an actual crowning file to level that 1 fret in my video... it's a crappy file as it's too shallow and will take meat off of the top of the fret but it leaves the crown shape. I never use that file to do a full crowning job, only to remove some meat of slightly high frets... Stewmac sells the fret kisser and an understring crowning file as a package... probably for that exact reason😀

[@andrewscottfoust]

Do you know if these pickups can do split coil? If so I would LOVE to see an in-depth video like this one on that process! I think the 333 would improve so much with that mod. Thanks for the awesome videos!

[@j-man9457]

@@andrewscottfoust thanks man! And I'm pretty sure these pickups can split as they are 4 wire pickups. You'd just need to replace 2 pots with push pull pots. However, me personally, I don't like the sound of a split Humbuckers. You lose half the output and therefore fullness. I like single coils at 7.5 to 9 K output. Humbuckers I like 8.5 to 10K. Once you split those you're down to 4 to 5 K which is lower output than even a vintage single coil. In a 333 style guitar, I'm not sure that would sound good 🤔...

[@andrewscottfoust]

@@j-man9457 Hmmmm. I really love the split humbucker on the JX-20. My main problem is I can't stand a humbucker in the neck position. It's good to know the pickups can do it though. Perhaps if I decide to try it and the output isn't cutting it I can just not use the split right? Thanks for the info!

[@j-man9457]

@@andrewscottfoust yeah absolutely. We all like different tones... Now I do not like the split sound on my JX-20 haha, but that humbucker with a Vox type amp is killer!

[@andrewscottfoust]

@@j-man9457 Ha, now that is the truth. I just like how bright it gets and I suppose that depends heavily on the amp tone you are using anyway. In an ideal world being able to truly switch between single and humbucker in all positions would be amazing.

[@j-man9457]

@@andrewscottfoust hey Make it happen! That would be cool!

[@zuperdee]

Looks pretty solid to me! Is this guitar off to a new home, or is this a new swan among all those ducks have have, known as Telecasters? 😁

[@j-man9457]

Haha my good friend wants this one! So off to a new home!😀

[@calbrockocat8728]

Troll, troll, troll. There. All done! Lots of great info, J!

[@j-man9457]

Hahaha!

[@finemeat]

Wow J-Man! Home run on this one and you answered questions I didn’t know I had. Loved hearing “Jonny B Good “ and have to watch Back to the Future now😂

[@j-man9457]

Hahahaha yup the old chuck berry riff! Great guitar for that! Thanks bud!

[@2bikemikesguitartopics145]

I see you bought a few expensive tools to work around the nut with. I use a much cheaper Automotive gauge and set the height of the nut slots to be .016 of an inch over the first fret for the trouble strings and .018 over the first fret on the bass strings. This also works every time and it only cost me 12 bucks at Canadian Tire . Nice work overall and a very nice guitar in the end. Oh yeah and I have posted videos😂😂😂😂

[@j-man9457]

Awesome! Should of gone that route too hahaha! The stewmac stuff is crazy $$$$

[@kfm908]

these guitars are a bargain.Workmanship is great for the price

[@j-man9457]

Yup they sure are Kevin!