The importance of a guitar, bass, drum set up

First of all for the purpose of this blog I am using “guitar” as an example but this will apply to any instrument such as bass, or drums as well.

I have taught 1000’s of guitar lessons and have noticed one important detail that is easy to overlook. As a beginner guitarist having a comfortable instrument is really important and just as important is having a comfortable guitar set up!

First of all what is a comfortable instrument? Size matters. This is pretty simple but one that is not obvious to many people at first. It is important to have a guitar that is comfortable for your size. If you are struggling to wrap your arm around the shoulder of the acoustic just to reach the strings then this guitar is too big. As a general rule many smaller people and children under 12 could benefit from not using a full size acoustic. Many students who have come to me with a full size dreadnought acoustic and are struggling , often times are blow away when I put an appropriately sized guitar in their hands (either a 1/2 size, 3/4 size or parlour size guitar). Suddenly they aren’t struggling as much and it appears as though a weight has lifted!

Once the student has chosen a comfortable instrument the next most important thing to consider is your set up. The common analogy I use is having a bicycle tuned up and functioning at it’s best. Have you ever ridden a nice bike that hasn’t had the gears lubed or brakes tuned up? It’s not pleasant. I’ve played many good quality instruments at guitar stores that are set up horribly! I wonder how they continue to stay in business. Anyhow a common scenario I see is guitars where the string height is too high off fretboard (called string action). This makes doing any difficult fingering, such as barring, bending, extra difficult! If this is the case I would strongly suggest you take your guitar in to a guitar tech for a set up and ask for the string action to be lowered. Most guitar stores offer a free set up within a year of purchase so I would also look into that. Alternatively, ask your guitar teacher their opinion and they should point you in the right direction. Good luck on your learning and if you have any more questions or want to come into our Vancouver studio for guitar lessons, bass lessons, or drum lessons for a lesson please don’t hesitate to contact us! info@blueguitarstudio.com