Today was a very interesting day – I went on an amp servicing course which was thoroughly revelatory! I highly recommend it to all guitarists and bass players as it can really help you appreciate how to maintain and sustain your kit.
The only slight downside is that an amp I took which I thought was fine and dandy turned out to have a fairly critical problem… It seems a trip to the music shop is in order…!
So yesterday a lovely chap dropped over his Yamaha Pacifica 112 guitar which was in need of a setup. In its lifetime it had been strong with 9’s, 8’s, and mostly recently 10’s, leading to a raised tremolo bridge and high action. The bridge saddles were set flat, so they needed attention too.
The client simply wanted the guitar set for the 10’s, with minimal buzz – at a height whereby his fingers didn’t rise on top of his fingers.
In order to achieve this, I fitted an extra spring to the tremolo, which brought the bridge flat to the body (another request of the client), and then set about getting the action just so.
I set it to factory settings (1.9mm and 2.4mm at the top fret respectively for each E string), and this was to the customer’s liking.
After intonating the guitar and a quick polish, this guitar spent a little over 36hrs in my possession all told, and it was great to be able to get it back into the customer’s hands before Christmas!
