Setups
Setups are our main source of enquiry here at Wintaura Guitar Works. Having your instrument setup to best match your personal playing requirements can help in numerous ways - as a beginner it can make your instrument much easier to play and learn on and as a seasoned player it can make sure you're getting the accuracy and reliability you need when performing or recording.
We offer setups on electrics, acoustics, basses, banjos, mandolins, bouzoukis, ukuleles and everything else in between!
For a more indepth explanation of setups and fret dresses, please see our Videos page
Basic Set Up - £40 + strings
Our Basic Setup service is a five point plan to cover the most essential elements in getting your guitar's playability improved. Designed as a cost effective alternative for beginner instruments or for brand new instruments that don't necessarily need all the elements included in a Pro Setup.
This includes:
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Adjusting the action to meet your playing requirements
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Dialing in the intonation with a digital strobe tuner
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Adjusting the neck relief via the truss rod
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Restringing with your choice of string gauge
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Check and tighten all nuts and screws
Please note that the Basic Setup option does not cover Floyd Rose equipped guitars. Pro Setups apply.
Pro Set Up - £60 + strings
Our Pro Setup service is a ten point plan to get your instrument playing it's absolute best. Designed to take care of all your instruments playability needs, the Pro Setup offers the peace of mind that every element of your instruments performance has been checked and adjusted to suit your requirements. After the initial consultation and assessment, the Pro Setup will include:
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Adjusting the action to meet your playing requirements
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Dialling in the intonation with a digital strobe tuner
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Adjusting the neck relief via the truss rod
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Assess nut slot heights and adjust where necessary, slots lubricated
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All electronics checked, tested and cleaned
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Fretboard cleaned and hydrated
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Frets cleaned and polished
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Machine heads checked, tightened and lubricated
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Light cleaning of hardware and body, nuts and screws checked and tightened
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Restringing with you choice of string gauge
Please note that all Floyd Rose equipped guitars will require a Pro Setup
Acoustic Setups - £40 - £60 + strings
The setup process for acoustic instruments is in principle very much the same as the setup process for electrics and as such both Basic and Pro Setups apply. Whilst electrics tend to have more scope for adjustments, getting your acoustic setup correctly can potentially a trickier process - any wrong move can kill your acoustic tone and ruin the sound of the instrument. Action adjustments especially need to be done very carefully - you only get one shot to get it right! With that in mind, all saddle alterations are carried out via our saddle sander on a laboratory grade block of granite. These are made perfectly flat to calibrate measuring equipment, so we can guarantee absolute precision and accuracy. No more dead spots or uneven string volume here!
Additional Setup Options
We offer a range of add on services that go to compliment the work completed with a Pro Setup, depending on the requirements of your instrument. Please note that individual prices listed are in addition to the cost of a Pro Setup. Options include:
Fret Level & Dress - Full neck - £40
Poorly seated or worn frets can cause playability issues even if the rest of the guitar is perfectly set up. Ideally, all frets need to be level - this makes for consistent tone, accurate intonation and smooth string bends. Frets with high spots will cause excess buzzing and loss of sustain and worn frets will cause tuning issues, all of which means compromising your setup or playing style. During the fret dress procedure, the instrument will be placed in our neck jig which allows us to recreate the exact tension of your chosen string gauge when the strings are removed. Frets are then levelled with a levelling beam before being recrowned and then polished out to a mirror shine.
For a more detailed explanation of fret wear issues, please watch our video.
Deep Clean - £40
Lets face it - some guitars are FILTHY. Not only are dirty guitars not nice to play, but all that muck and gunk will eventually lead to damage. Dirt gets into your electronics leading to crackles and shorting. Sweat, grime and rust will eat away at your hardware causing bridges and saddles to cease up, screws to round out and machine heads to fail. New strings will become old strings in a matter of hours, the fretboard will make your hands smell and once again setups have to be compromised. If this sounds like your guitar, the Deep Clean option can help you out. With this, all hardware is removed, stripped and ultrasonically cleaned (where appropriate). Everything is dried, scrubbed and polished before being refitted. Moving parts will be lubricated, saddle slots smoothed and polished and pickup pole pieces will be cleaned.
Our aim here is to keep as much originality as possible, however please be aware that sometimes some hardware is just too far gone. In that case, we can offer a range of alternative solutions.
Fret Replacement - £40 + £10 per fret, £180 full neck (unbound), £200 (bound/maple boards)
For those frets that have just had their day, then replacement is sometimes necessary. This includes frets that show severe wear or that have been dressed previously. The old frets will be removed, the neck reprofiled where necessary, new fret wire will be correctly radiused to match your neck and then everything is pressed, dressed and polished. Wintaura Guitar Works stocks every size of Stewmac nickel fret wire, so we've got you covered no matter what your instrument. Please note that in cases where any more than five frets have been replaced, the guitar will be likely to need a set up afterwards. If more than eight frets need replacing, then a full neck fret replacement will be in order.
Restring - £10 + Strings
Sometimes, all your instrument needs is a new set of strings. We stock the most popular gauges of both D'addario XL electric guitar strings at £8 per pack and D'addario Phosphor Bronze acoustic strings at £9 per pack. We're also happy to order specific string sets in if you'd prefer, or of course use your own if you have them. Most of the time we can do restrings while you wait and can even talk you through the process if you're new to playing and unsure of how to restring. Please note that for 12 string or Floyd Rose equipped instruments, it's £20 + strings.
