olie Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Hi all; I just wanted to share the experience I had over the holidays making my DR-500MCE a better guitar.For some time I've been watching and listening to others on this forum and others discussing the various tweaks that can be done to make our instruments even more user-friendly and finally got up the courage (insanity?) to attempt what others have described as do-able by an amateur guitar tech.I've enjoyed my Masterbilt but lately it seemed that I wanted to lower the action on it to make it easier on the hands-especially higher up the neck. The strings were too high and I'd had a supposed guitar tech tweak it to make it more comfortable and better sounding but I wasn't happy. So I thought-"what the heck, maybe I could do it more the way I would prefer it to be." So, after much research on-line, I dove in. There are, I'm told ,three things to attend to-the nut,the truss rod and the bridge-saddle. The nut seemed to be in good shape so I adjusted the truss rod and it straightened the excess relief nicely. BTW-most of the instructions re. tightening or loosening say "righty-tighty and lefty-loosey" and that's fine if you know from WHERE it pertains.I used to think that it was as you looked at the guitar from a face-on position with it directly in front of you but no-one ever mentioned that you should be looking down the neck facing up.O.K. maybe I'm dyslexic or something but that's a bit of very important advice that you don't hear mentioned.It's the darned details!So anyway-that worked well so it was on to the saddle to sand it down. I loosened the strings with a capo on the first fret to hold them in place and removed the nut and started in rasping-very carefully, of course.When I'd removed a depth that wasn't too scary looking I put the saddle back in and re-tuned.It was better,but not as much as I had hoped so I repeated the process and VOILA, the guitar sounds and feels WAY better!I had gone to an auto prts shop and purchased a set of feeler gauges for less than $10 to make things more accurate and the tolerances are pretty well what the guitar manufacturers and repair people suggest. It's unreal how much we can do ourselves if we are careful and do some research and work patiently and incrementally.Sorry to take up so much space and time about a small deal but I thought that this is a good place to share an experience with fellow geeks who might appreciate what we all can do to better our appreciation of our guitars. I feel more in tune (oh boy!) with the DR500 now and feel a satisfaction in learning more about how these things are put together.I figure that if I can do this, all of us can-and we can save a bunch of cash in the process.So I feel better to have shared my experience and hope it can encourage others that we can do some of the minor things to aid in the enjoyment of guitar playing.Happy pickin' and New Year to the Epiphone gang from a gray-haired, newby guitar tech! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard McCoy Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 I can but agree, even though good luthier work is very affordable nowadays. The simpler things like adjusting the truss rod or sanding down the saddle a little one can easily do by oneself if one is so inclined. How high exactly is your action now at the 12th fret treble and bass side (top of fret to bottom of string)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olie Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 I can but agree, even though good luthier work is very affordable nowadays. The simpler things like adjusting the truss rod or sanding down the saddle a little one can easily do by oneself if one is so inclined. How high exactly is your action now at the 12th fret treble and bass side (top of fret to bottom of string)? I like low action and tend to play with a lighter touch so I took the height to 3/64ths on the low E and 2/64ths on the high.I'm not getting any fret buzz so things seem fine and there's still a bit of relief in the neck-I didn't try for totally straight. Figured that the worst thing I would be faced with is getting another saddle if I got carried away.How's that in your opinion? BTW-thanks for the feedback(not in the musical sense!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I like low action and tend to play with a lighter touch so I took the height to 3/64ths on the low E and 2/64ths on the high.I'm not getting any fret buzz so things seem fine and there's still a bit of relief in the neck-I didn't try for totally straight. Figured that the worst thing I would be faced with is getting another saddle if I got carried away.How's that in your opinion? BTW-thanks for the feedback(not in the musical sense!). I don't know what fret your action readings are referring to, but mine are at the 12th fret on electrics around 7/64" for both E1st and E6th. I'm far from being as virtuoso as Stevie Ray Vaughan has been or Joe Bonamassa is, but their tone is definitely no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickthemiller Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Well done Olie. It really is very easy to do your own setup, just takes a little nerve. While you were at it you should have given the frets a polish, duroglit does it well or some other metal polish and oil the fret board too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olie Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Well done Olie. It really is very easy to do your own setup, just takes a little nerve. While you were at it you should have given the frets a polish, duroglit does it well or some other metal polish and oil the fret board too. Yeah, you're right-it does take a certain amount of nerve when you've never gone down that road, Mick. Maybe next time I'll dress things up a bit. You know how it is at first-just want to see if the old ax survived the TLC! It's a good experience all-in-all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard McCoy Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I like low action and tend to play with a lighter touch so I took the height to 3/64ths on the low E and 2/64ths on the high.I'm not getting any fret buzz so things seem fine and there's still a bit of relief in the neck-I didn't try for totally straight. Figured that the worst thing I would be faced with is getting another saddle if I got carried away.How's that in your opinion? BTW-thanks for the feedback(not in the musical sense!). If that's really your action at the 12th fret, it's extremely on the low side, and I'm honestly surprised the guitar's not constantly buzzing for you. Nonetheless I'm glad your DIY efforts worked out as they did. Major work in terms of string action can also be achieved by replacing the nut of the guitar, but that'd require real craftsmanship or the aid of a professional hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olie Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Hey Leonard. Yeah the action IS low but it's o.k. and no buzz. I saw some guy on you-tube that was playing Masterbilts and he had the action down to the width of a nickle (2/64's) and they were playing nice so I kind of went by that. Stopped @ 3/64's 'cause it seemed good enough for me and I didn't want to tempt the fates!I get what you mean by the nut, and I would hesitate trying to swap that out but the nut on my guitar seems fine according to what I've seen on line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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