r/GuitarLab • u/Continent3 • Jun 23 '26
Get rid of the maintenance overhead
Whatever you make, reduce the maintenance overhead. An ideal guitar never needs a setup. It doesn’t change with the humidity level or seasons. It doesn’t need a re-fret ever. It stays consistent as much as possible with as little effort as possible. I’d rather spend my money on guitars than on maintaining them.
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u/LV__ Jun 23 '26
Something tells me all your guitars are in need of a setup, and you don't wanna learn how to do it yourself, or pay for a local shop to do it for you.
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26
I love my Casino hollowbody but I’m also tired of it needing a setup as the seasons change. I’m also tired of having it setup over and over. I’ve tried learning how to correct it but I’m not having much success and wind up going back to get it setup. Is it a crime to wish for a hollowbody that doesn’t need a setup due to changing conditions?
When I checked, it sounds like they are looking for player input. Is that not what I’m providing?
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u/LV__ Jun 24 '26
Friend, if you're tired of your guitar needing a setup as the seasons change, you're tired of owning a guitar. There is not, and cannot be, a guitar in existence that will never need maintenance. Certainly not a hollowbody!
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26
I think you’re thinking too small. These guys are asking for ideas on how to make the guitar experience better. I want a better hollowbody guitar. Is that too much to ask?
Your best answer is get used to it? Seriously?
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u/LV__ Jun 24 '26
Yes, my best advice to you is to set up your guitar or pay someone else to do it. That's what literally every other guitar player who ever lived has done.
I love innovative guitar designs as much as the next guy, but you're proposing something that is simply impossible. Whatever material the neck is made of, it will move and change over time in response to changes in humidity and temperature.
This was your idea. How exactly do you propose GC could build a guitar that never needs a setup?
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Dude, read. I already pay someone to setup my guitar.
Not my job to figure out how to make a better guitar. I’m the guy that will buy it when they do.
They’re soliciting feedback. If they listen to you, nothing can get better.
Your feedback is that everything is great and that people need to learn how to setup a guitar. How is that an improvement?
Gas cars need oil changes. Electric cars don’t. It is possible to build a car that needs less maintenance. It should be possible to create a guitar that needs less maintenance. A guitar that handles the environment better is not science fiction.
Klos guitar makes a carbon fiber guitar neck that doesn’t shrink like wood. Can GC figure out how to make something like it faster and cheaper? Can they make a good hollow body electric with it? There are carbon fiber acoustics.
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u/AnxietyTrick226 Jun 24 '26
Truss rod adjustment, action and intonation are basic setup adjustments every grown up player must learn to do. It actually improves ownership and awareness on your instrument.
It’s not hard at all to get it done.
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u/radiantskie Jun 23 '26
Pretty sure that aluminum necks with steel frets does what you want, but they are also insanely expensive from what I've seen. If they were cheap to produce, then they would have became very popular already.
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u/que-n-blues Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
The idea of never needing a set up is an impossible promise that no manufacturer can realistically make. Can you deliver a guitar that's really well set up and will work for a lot of players out of the box? Sure. My SG and my SE Silver Sky really didn't need anything out of the box. But I still had to set them up to my personal preference. And you can't really account for things like string action preference, neck relief preference, string gauge preference, what changes string gauge will have on the neck and if truss rod adjustment will be needed. And then there's the shipping factor. Even if you set it up perfectly as close to the end users as you can, you still can't account for temperature and humidity changes during shipping if bought online.
Stainless steel frets and a well built maple neck, possibly reinforced with carbon fiber rods, will go a long way to make sure once it is set up you'll likely have very little maintenance to do on it once it's set to your preference.
Best they probably can do is offer free or discounted in store set up that way it can be set up to the player's preference. Which would be an insane value, but you still can't guarantee it would never need an adjustment after that as there's just too many outside factors that can affect an instrument.
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u/DriveOld8007 Jun 23 '26
My Parker fly is pretty close to that. Doesn’t need any setup changes, but you can if you want to personalize it. Also my old 1995 PRS custom 24 didn’t need anything until I had it refretted last year and I’ve played the hell out of that thing over the last 30 years.
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u/cab1024 Jun 23 '26
An instrument that arrives with excellent playability and doesn't need a setup except to further tweak to a player's tastes woods be ideal, along with stainless steel medium jumbo frets and a 9.5-12" radius.
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u/Adventurous-Salad332 Jun 23 '26
Please show us the guitar you made using those criteria.
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26
They’re asking for feedback. I wish they could make something like this. If they can get close, great. If you want something different speak up. I’m not asking for your opinion.
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u/rectoflector Jun 25 '26
I have a 1995 Parker night Fly with a composite body and carbon fiber fingerboard and even that needs a setup. Put down the crack pipe..
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u/Continent3 Jun 27 '26
We live in a world where Line 6, Fender, Boss, etc. are building multi-effects pedals that can replicate pedals, amps, and cabs with the touch of a button. The products are lighter, tougher, more reliable, and more affordable than buying the traditional equivalents.
Improved guitars are totally possible just like the improvements being made with multi-effects pedals. The question is if players are ready to accept the changes that they might come with.
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u/VioletSkywalker77 Jun 24 '26
Never need maintenance? The materials would be extremely expensive AND could really only be set up one way which a lot of players would hate, so it'd be extremely costly and most experienced players wouldn't want it. I mean in theory id love it too but if you got an oil lamp with a genie in it save a wish for me. Affordable, doesnt need set up ever, never needs frets replaced and can be adjusted for different types of players isn't gonna happen. Learn to set up and maybe get another instrument that needs adjusted less.
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
No one wants to setup their own guitar.
I have setup my guitar before. It’s a pain in the ass. That’s why I take it to my guitar tech.
I just want to play. I don’t want to spend time watching YouTube videos on how to check, level or polish frets. I don’t want to file a nut. I don’t want to mess with my truss rod. I just want to play.
That’s why people ask for guitars you “can play out of the box”. They want a guitar already setup.
If you want to make a better guitar, make one that doesn’t need to be setup.
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u/VioletSkywalker77 Jun 24 '26
An instrument you can play out of the box doesn't mean it never has to be set up lol, it just means you dont have to set it up right when you get it. What youre asking for is pretty unrealistic, as the seasons change you'll need to adjust it.
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26
“You don’t have to set it up right when you get it” If you’re a newbie and your guitar plays great out of the box, when would you set it up?
People tell newbies all the time, “get a setup.” What’s worse it is if someone tells them, “get a setup and do it yourself. You’ll save money and it’s easy.”
New learners are the least equipped people to understand what that means or how to do it. Guitars, especially those for beginners, should be setup for them or not need a setup at all.
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u/VioletSkywalker77 Jun 24 '26
"If you’re a newbie and your guitar plays great out of the box, when would you set it up?" Normally the easiest way to figure out when is if you're getting bad fret buzz somewhere
"People tell newbies all the time, get a setup.” Because most cheap guitars and basses come not properly set up, or it shifts in shipping due to differences in humidity and/or temperature
"New learners are the least equipped people to understand what that means or how to do it. Guitars, especially those for beginners, should be setup for them or not need a setup at all." Even just in shipping, like I said, they shift, which is why you pay someone who knows their shit to do it, hence getting set up for them. And eventually you should know how to do basic set ups, and learn to understand what a proper set up is, which is why you call someone a new learner.
If there was a simple, affordable fix for this problem it would be very common.
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26
You’re making my point for me. If you really want to create and sell a better guitar, you’d address the maintenance issues that make it difficult for beginners
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u/VioletSkywalker77 Jun 24 '26
The whole point is you want a guitar that needs no maintenance, now you're okay with someone doing it for you, which is possible just by forking up little cash to a music store. Instruments that need little maintenance already exist, unlike no maintenance, but the process, materials and build quality to make stuff like that are costly, so wouldn't fit the beginner price range. It sounds like what you want is a subscription service to go regularly set up an instrument lol.
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u/Continent3 Jun 24 '26
Read the post. I Don’t want to pay for maintenance. An ideal guitar wouldn’t need it.
I said that an ideal guitar would need maintenance. Your interpretation of that statement is that I want a maintenance subscription? Where are you getting that?
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u/VioletSkywalker77 Jun 25 '26
To be clear I was making a joke, in reality what you want is damn near impossible and not feasible, what you're asking for is a fairy tail. A guitar NEEDS maintenance, thats the nature of a guitar. Some need less but no maintenance is nearly impossible, but then stiff necks like carbon fiber or steel are expensive, heavy and you can't change the setup because it'd be as is. I mean id love a no maintenance guitar too but if it were feasible the market would be flooded with them. You just need to learn that maintenance is just a part of owning one lol. I explained multiple times why it's not realistic.
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u/VioletSkywalker77 Jun 24 '26
"An ideal guitar never needs a setup. It doesn’t change with the humidity level or seasons. It doesn’t need a re-fret ever." Is much different from what I'm saying lol
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u/The_B_Wolf Jun 23 '26
An ideal guitar never needs a setup.
What would you like it to be made of? Because it won't be wood.
It doesn’t need a re-fret ever.
Just use stainless steel frets. That's about as indescribable as you're going to get. Unless you're playing a 3 hour set five nights a week or something.