Since many guitar players start playing on an acoustic I saw as fitting that my first posted work would be about one.
This is an acoustic electric by Samick that came to the shop, with quite a few years under her "belt" (ladies and gentleman presenting this blog's first pun).
As far as damage goes the truss rod needed some adjusting, some tuners were too loose and didn't held tuning others too tight and you almost couldn't turn them.
Frets were dirty and showing signs of wear, and the fretboard was full of grime and completely dried up and the action was too high.
Fortunately the truss rod was fine despite being a bit stiff at first, but after adjusting it worked perfectly.
The tuners needed some repair work but by the end of the setup every single one of them turned smoothly and evenly. Neck was straight and tuners were fixed. Moving on to the frets and the fretboard.
To give you a better idea of how high the action was before and after the setup I used euros coins (1 euro to be precise).
Lowering the action makes the guitar become more comfortable to play, it's easier on your fretting hand and that can help make the notes sound cleaner, and bending strings requires less effort because you are reducing the tension on the strings, which makes it easier on not only you but also the guitar neck and the top (in the case of acoustic instruments).
There are no exact measures for the action, I adjust them according to how the client wants it. It all boils down to a question of taste, technique, comfort and the sound you are looking for.
Frets were cleaned and micro polished. I like to leave the frets as smooth as possible, so you don't feel any friction from the fret when you bend or slide.
The fretboard was cleaned and conditioned, and i was surprised to see a quite beautiful grain and color underneath all the grime.
The biggest surprise about this guitar to me was the electric part. It's a passive system by Shadow with a piezo per string, a volume and tone pot. The pickup worked really well in this guitar, the amplified sound is natural and full, none of the thin, harsh highs you get with some piezo pickups.
The tone pot works well too, never gets muddy and if used carefully can't be quite useful to get rid of excessive highs.
In this picture you can see the pickup and the wear and tear of the saddles (before I got to work on them).
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