Dan Erlewine's Maintenance & Setup for Electric Guitars and Basses: Volume 1-2

Useful to pros repair shops as well as players. Dan demonstrates some techniques from his book "How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!" and beyond.

Maintenance & Setup for Electric Guitars and Basses Vol. 1

"Learn from real-world jobs — guitars belonging to real customers. Every time I turned around, the exact job I needed waltzed in the door! This is for players as well as repair shops, and even experienced repair techs will find some gems in this DVD." — Dan

The focus of this DVD
See how we reclaimed a 1973 Gibson Les Paul® "fretless wonder" that came into the shop playing badly.

Information covered

Evaluating the guitar before setup
Dating a guitar by potentiometer code
Getting an unworkable truss rod working perfectly
Cleaning dirty potentiometers
Straightening a collapsed Tune-O-Matic Bridge
Cleaning, and replacing corroded bridge parts
Comparing and selecting replacement hardware
Slotting saddles to match the fretboard radius
"De-luxeing" Tune-O-Matic bridge saddles
Tone-Pros locking bridge system
Refurbishing the nut for low action and clean sound
Replacing humbucker mounting rings
Low-action setup
Setting pickup pole piece height
Setting intonation

Maintenance & Setup for Electric Guitars and Basses Vol. 2

"This is not a recap of volume one - it features different guitars, basses, setups, tremolos, and neat modifications. This DVD should be important to players and experienced repair techs alike."—Dan

The focus of this DVD

Moving beyond what's covered in Volume 1, here are more maintenance and setup tips.

Information covered

Cleaning your electric guitar's finish
Correct ways to install strings
Fender "10-Step Strat®" Setup (complete vintage Strat tremolo setup and factory specs)
Cleaning, deburring, and lubricating a Strat bridge
Ibanez Jem "Steve Vai" setup (complete Floyd Rose tremolo setup and factory specs
Danelectro modifications. The new Danos are great - these mods and adjustments make them better! (Flattening a warped Dano bridge; making a "vintage" aluminum bridge with rosewood saddle from scratch; installing a center post support for the typically weak Dano bridge; replacing compressed lipstick-tube pickup supports)
G&L ASAT bass: another "hard-to-adjust" neck
Making and installing a full-sized neck pocket shim for a bolt-on neck guitar (G&L bass)
Replacing shrunken plastic tuner buttons
Fender 5-string bass setup (learn to clamp a back-bow into an up-bowed neck)

Look also:

Learn & Master Guitar Setup & Maintenance with Greg Voros

Making a Concert Classical Guitar with John S. Bogdanovich

A Master Class In Acoustic Guitar Making - Using Australian Timbers

Dan Erlewine - Making a Solid Body Electric Guitar

Dan Erlewine's Maintenance &am... Steel-string Acoustic Guitars