Free Guitar Setup – Classical Guitars

Free Guitar Setup – Classical Guitars

Cálido Guitars offers a Free Setup on all guitars before shipping. Even the most expensive guitars require these adjustments for increased playability. The procedure we use is as follows:

1. Check the neck relief and adjust to a negative relief target of -0.07mm.
   1. The primary reason for adjusting the neck relief is for the proper intonation of the guitar.
   2. If it is too low or too high, then the intonation of the strings is affected.
   3. This relief has a huge impact on action height of the strings and may vary depending on the height of the nut and saddle in relation to the string action height.
   4. If the relief is not low enough, then the strings will buzz.
2. Check action of the guitar.
   1. The action is the height of the strings above the 12th fret on the 6th string and the 1st
   2. For Classical Guitars, the range for this setting is 3.2-3.8mm for the 6th string with a target of 3.6mm.
   3. The higher the action, the more difficult the guitar is to play, but the more volume is generated.
   4. The lower the action, the easier the guitar is to play, but the more likely string buzz will occur.
3. Saddle and nut are adjusted if needed for proper action with the proper neck relief for proper intonation.
4. Level the frets on the guitar if needed.
   1. With the strings loosened and pulled back, the frets are checked for level.
   2. All frets are carefully filed down until level – don’t worry! The amount of filing is usually small fractions of a millimeter.
   3. Level frets prevent string buzz – particularly on the 5th> and 6th
5. Fretboard is cleaned and oiled.
   1. A dry fretboard has a rough feel under the fingers.
   2. The very light coating of oil on the fretboard brings out the beauty of the wood.
   3. The oil also stabilizes the frets so there is less movement with changes in temperature and humidity.
6. The guitar is tuned to concert pitch and each fret is checked on all 6 strings for clarity
   1. The guitar is then detuned prior to shipping for safety of the guitar during shipping.