Ask the Expert: How To Diagnose and Eliminate Common Nut Problems
Here's a guide to understanding the acoustic guitar nut, a critical area where a few thousandths of an inch can make a big difference in intonation and tuning stability
Ask the Expert: The Delicate Art of Fretwork—and Why It’s Best Left to a Professional
Whether building an instrument from scratch, restoring a collector’s item, or setting up a brand-new guitar, it’s likely that some amount of fretwork will be required.
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Ask the Expert: Can I Use Medium Strings on My Prewar Martin?
Will using medium strings on a 1936 Martin D-18 put too much pressure on the the instrument over time? Ask the Expert.
How to Take Care of Your Guitar in a Very Humid Environment
For those living in an overly humid environment, acoustic guitars can take on serious damage from the air around them. Here's how to take care of guitars in an extremely humid environment.
Ask the Expert: Understanding Acoustic Guitar Scale Length
Here's a guide to understanding scale length on acoustic guitars, an often overlooked design variable that has a big impact on the sound and feel of the guitar.
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Can a Budget Guitar Be Transformed into Something Better?
How can you improve a budget guitar? This is a simple question with a complicated answer. To really tackle the subject, we’ll have to let's consider a few different areas.
Ask the Expert: Sound Advice for Making a Living in Lutherie
Thinking about a career in guitar making or repair? Here are some resources to help get you started off on the right foot.
Balancing Act: How the Weight of Acoustic Guitar Bodies and Necks Affect Tone
Balance between the neck and body of an acoustic guitar is important to the sound and playability of the instrument.
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Ask the Expert: What’s the Deal with Nylon Strings?
Guitar repair expert Martin Keith explains the differences between steel and nylon guitar strings and shares some useful terminology.
Finding and Fixing Rattles and Buzzes on Acoustic Guitars
Here is an end-to-end approach for finding and fixing those annoying rattles and buzzes on your acoustic guitar.
How to Best Take Care of Your Guitars—When They’re Not in Your Hands
With a little thought into how you store and display your guitars, you can keep them in optimal shape, ready to receive your ideas when inspiration strikes.
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Try This Simple Trick to Restring Your Acoustic Guitar with Ease
All guitarists have one thing in common: we eventually need to change our strings. Here's how to restring an acoustic guitar.
Ask the Expert: How to Cure Your Guitar’s Wintertime Humidity Blues
Maintaining your guitar’s humidity level is key in avoiding lots of headaches, from a fluctuating setup to potentially expensive structural repairs.
Can Bridge Pins Enhance Your Acoustic Guitar’s Tone?
There are so many different materials for acoustic guitar bridge pins, but how much difference do they make in your guitar tone?
Ask the Expert: Why Is the Action Suddenly High on My Guitar?
Action (string height) plays a big role in how comfortable it is to play your guitar. High action could be due to a lot of different reasons—some are easy fixes.
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Acoustic Guitar Truss Rods: Correcting an Adjustment Gone Wrong
Truss rod adjustments can make a big difference in an acoustic guitar's playability. However, even the most straightforward adjustments can have their pitfalls.
Ask the Expert: Why Does My New Guitar Need a Setup?
It can be frustrating when a brand new acoustic guitar isn't set up for optimum playability. Here are some reasons your new axe may need setup work right out of the box.
How to Avoid String Tension Problems on Vintage Parlor Guitars
Should you be concerned about string tension on parlor guitars from the early 1900s? Considering that very few of these instruments have truss rods, it's a valid worry.
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Ask the Expert: All About Celluloid Rot—and What to Do About It
Celluloid rot, the degrading of the plastic used for the binding on vintage guitars, is a common occurrence. Here we take a look at why this deterioration happens.
Ask the Expert: How to Minimize String Breakage—and What to Do When it Happens
Is it safe for the guitar, the strings, and the player to switch back and forth between standard and open tunings? Ask the Expert!
How a Skilled Touchup Artist Can Make Your Guitar’s Dings and Scratches Disappear
Touchup is one of the real dark arts of instrument repair, and one that exists in an almost entirely different universe from structural and functional repairs.
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Guitar Wall Mounts, Floor Stands, & More—How to Keep Your Instrument Safe at Home
Cases? Floor stands? Wall mounts? Here's how to keep your acoustic guitars safe and protected at home.
Why Does My Plugged-In Acoustic-Electric Guitar Sound So Uneven?
Piezo systems have evolved into a broad family of acoustic sensors that can be quite musical and robust-sounding—if they are properly installed
Why Isn’t My Acoustic Guitar Intonating Well, and What Can I Do About It?
Here are some things to check if you notice something is outside of the reasonable range of intonation on your guitar and it’s off enough to bother the ear.
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How to Fix Problems Caused by Incorrect Neck Angles on Acoustic Guitars
Neck angle is probably the single most crucial variable for the playability of a flattop guitar. Here's how to fix it if it's off.
