Just note; we started here-
Use the right tool for the job, all the time. There’s some great setup kits out there now that have everything you need to learn with and I strongly advise the Buy Once, Cry Once approach to getting the tools-
Don’t be tempted by the junk kits on Amazon. You’ll hate setting up your guitar if you use junky, ineffective shit to do it with. Save every little screwdriver you come across for the rest of your life.
Nope, couldn't just let that one be, we gotta change what I said to get a point across-
You don’t actually need special tools to do a set up. Wherever possible I use high quality engineering tools. Tho only thing that makes life easier is a quality action gauge but an engineer rule works. You may need a particular truss rod key as well. The main thing is the process itself.
Now let's break that point down a little-
You need to feel the torque on small screws so one big handle is not the way. Radius gauges don’t help setting the action because you measure it at a fixed point on a particular fret.
Gee, almost like I said "
Use the right tool for the job, all the time", let me check my quote, good thing I put it at the top of this post. Done. Yup, that's what I said.
Again, this is a beginner learning how to setup a guitar. Any help will guide them. I set my action by fretting/bending feel, I don't measure anything. I used the radius gauge once when I setup my Strat because the saddles were laying flat on the trem plate when it showed up. I wouldn't even bother on a guitar with a flatter radius than 12", but I'm also not a beginner, who is who we're suggesting tools for learning how to setup a guitar with. The majority wouldn't even think about the radius, the radius gauges will at least get them thinking "Wait, that matters?"
And to learn you need to get the appropriate size handle and lean the feel under supervision.
The things I listed most guitar players will already have . It’s why I don’t use anything but regular hex keys on a Floyd. Get a bit T wrench and you lose all sense of leverage unless that was the tool you always used.
So we're still on "the right tool for the job". I wish I just would have said that at the start and avoided all this.
You heavily overestimate what people have for tools. I'm in a big city where we pay for maintenance in our apartments and can't work on our vehicles in apartment parking lots, on average if people have some basic Craftsman toolkit they got when they moved in their apartment to hang pictures or a parent got it for them 'just in case', that's going to be it. I have like 3 guitar buddies who actually have specific guitar tools, usually because I send them links of what to buy when they ask. The only allen wrenches people have around here are becuase they have IKEA furniture.
I mean, sure, it makes perfect sense for someone who has never set up a guitar before to just go buy a fuckton of tools, like
all the tools, to ensure they have every approriately sized screwdriver handle and tip they'll ever come across, that'll absolutely ensure they never overtighten anything once they test them all out and figure out which one provides the perfect amount of torque.
Or they can just spend $150 on a kit made by a company that's been known as the top of the heap of guitar repair by everyone BUT Eagle for decades and have everything they need the first time they sit down to setup a guitar without the guesswork. If StewMac shit is good enough for Joe Glaser, who just makes his own tools when someone else doesn't make it or make a quality version and countless touring guitar techs who have that same screwdriver kit on their bench in dozens of Rig Rundowns, I'm going to assume it'll work just fine for the average guitarist learning how to set up a guitar.
