Re: Gibson factory setup ... sucks?
Aceman, books are nice, forum advice is nice, experienced judgement is priceless.
Many people can do their own setups just fine, and more power to them. If I never saw another setup again, I wouldn't miss it at all, and would be happy to forego the nickel and dime work to spend more time with neck resets, refrets, and restorations, so I am in no way inclined to discourage people from doing it themselves.
That said, not everyone can pull it off. When you're trying to nail something down to as close to perfection as possible for your particular style, many simply do not have the experienced judgement to determine how adjustments are best made. If you're pushing for that little bit lower action, or trying to eliminate a little buzz in one area, not everyone knows how to best judge whether there is a little room to adjust the truss rod, or if it would be better adjusted at the saddles. Very, very few people can cut nuts properly, without which doing I feel the rest of the setup is essentially gone to waste. It's not always that simple to evaluate if the setup potential is being limited by inconsistent relief in the neck, or a slight hump at the body, or a high fret, or kick up at the extension. There are dozens of little minute issues that are not easily apparent to many, and certainly not easily taught to a good level of understanding through books or online instruction.
Some people have a knack for ferreting out things like this, but many don't. Those without suitable experience or uncanny intuition can often be better served by trusting the adjustments to a professional's hands. If the professional is good, they will watch and listen to the player's style, and try to maximize the setup to match their needs rather than just defaulting all setups to "factory specs" (I've heard of those, but don't think I've ever actually seen them from a factory
).
Different players have different degrees of skill in setup, as well as different levels of desire to learn that skill. I strongly encourage many players to at least learn how to maintain a setup by making their own seasonal adjustments, but feel most could still be best served by an initial setup by a competent professional in areas like the nut, as well as at least an inspection and sometimes service of the plane of the frets to even allow for an ideal setup to be maintained.
While the idea that everyone should be able to do their own setups better than a professional sounds nice, I believe it is overoptimistic, and in my experience certainly proves not to be true. I can't tell you how many guitars I see come in set up by their owners where I see they were obviously chasing their tail, trying to find solutions from the wrong angles, or missing critical shortcomings of the instrument entirely. There are as many different suitable routes to a good setup as there are players, and doing it yourself simply isn't for everyone.
