How Much Of Your Own Work Do You Do?

[Stan Malinowski]

What types of setup, repair, etc do you folks feel comfortable doing on your own? What would you NOT EVER attempt on your own?

Just Curious!

[pluto]

None! I would experiment on a cheap guitar but I currently don't have a beat up guitar to experiment with. I change strings and clean my guitar, and that's about it. Anyway, my local Anderson dealer does set-ups for free and his repair work is reasonably priced (he often doesn't even charge me), so I guess my Andersons are well taken care of.

[JGraham]

I do just about everything myself. I probably wouldn't take on a project (Lester refin) like Shovelhead is doing over at the gearpage, though. I'm a tinkerer, and I have a serious problem with my Cobra - its perfect the way it is.

I've changed pickups, done setups, refinished two guitars, reshaped a headstock, routed, rewired, modified and so on. I even built a cabinet for my Tremoverb. I'm still looking forward to doing a Warmoth project, though. Basically, the luthiers and Shovelhead are my guitar heros!

[Stan Malinowski]

I probably wouldn't take on a project (Lester refin) like Shovelhead is doing over at the gearpage

I almost passed out when I saw what Shovelhead was doing! I have to admire him for attempting that!

For the people who don't now the story, Shovelead took a Gold-Top Gibson Custom Shop Historic LP (in new conditon) and decided to strip it down to see how much flame was in the maple top! Turns out there was quite a bit. He plans to re-do it in a sunburst when he completes the sripping process.

[JoeB63]

Everything that doesn't involve fretwork.

[John Price]

I like to do some minor things such as setups, pickup changes, intonation, neck adjustments...
I would love to learn how to refret a neck or maybe build a guitar from scratch!!

[Stan Malinowski]

I agree with those who will attempt virtually everything but attempting fretwork and refinishing myself.

As Clint would say "A Man's Got to Know His Limiations.

I'll gladly let jack do my fretwork & finish work!

[gregc]

I do complete setups and all electrical/electronic work on my guitars.
gregc

[SteveK]

Yeah, another one that does everything except fretwork and finishing...but I've been getting the bug.....:eek:

[tom]

this is very encouraging to me, and i want to encourage you all to give it a try. being able to do setups yourself can keep your guitar in top shape all the time. i still remember going into my local music store and having the guy behind the counter, neil citron, now steve vai's engineer, tell me that i needed to know how to adjust my own neck. that was enough for me. i started tearing stuff apart and never stopped. fretwork was the scariest, but dave schecter got me started on that. knowing when you are in over your head is good but it is fun to have a beater to try stuff on.

[nickdahl]

It depends and varies. I intonated and changed the pickup in an old Charvel/Jackson guitar I owned (I put a HN3+ into it). I've tried to reduce ground hum on Wolfgangs I own (one of 'em still needs to go to the tech for help). But for guitars I really care about, I leave the work to the pros.

Nick