Sketchy Setups — Four New Setup Guides

Gather 'round for a story…

When I started my own setups, a looooong time ago, things weren’t always easy. 

Information was thin on the ground. In the pre-internet age, you had to rely on gleaning snippets of advice from musicians you knew or met. Amazing results weren’t guaranteed.

Then the internet came along (yes, I’m that old, you damn kids). That was interesting. At first, you could read the whole thing in a day but gradually, you’d find sites with little nuggets of guitar information. Of course, many of these nuggets were from guys like the ones I’d met locally—now, they just happened to be guys from different places. Similar results. 

The amount of information on the internet grew. Forum sites shared heaps of tips and tricks and you could often find massively usefully stuff there. As is often the way with public forums, though, a lot of their content was parroted myths and half-truths, personal opinion masquerading as fact, or just plain wrong… 

“You should always do X. You should never do Y. If you touch the truss-rod, it will spell the end of existence.”

So what do you do if you want to get reliable, useful, simple information on guitar or bass setup?

Well (ahem), I may be able to help…

New Sketchy Setups Guides Launch Tomorrow

I can't wait. 

I promised more Sketchy Setups and here they are. Available from Tuesday, 19th July you'll now be able to get the setup skinny on four instrument types. 

  • Sketchy Setups #1: The Fender Stratocaster
  • Sketchy Setups #2: The Fender Telecaster
  • Sketchy Setups #3: The Gibson Les Paul, SG, 335, etc.
  • Sketchy Setups #4: The Fender Precision and Jazz Bass

Each of these setup guides is focussed on just one instrument or instrument 'type'. Why would you want to read about a Strat tremolo when you're setting up a Les Paul? Is it useful to learn about a Gibson tailpiece when you're working on your P-Bass? Just the right information for your guitar or bass. 

Hand-drawn setup guides

Every one of these guides started out with paper, pencil, and ink. They are hand-drawn and hand-written. Even the setup information that's common to all instruments was re-drawn each time (so each guide is a unique snowflake). 

Illustrating like this let me show things that would have been impossible or less clear in a photograph. And it has the added benefit of giving a laid-back and friendly feel to the guides. 

More information will follow…

All new Sketchy Setups available from Tuesday, July 19th. More information will follow between now and then.

Upgrade from early versions

Anyone who bought a copy of Sketchy Setups #1: The Fender Stratocaster will get a free upgrade to the new version. If you haven't received an email from me already, you'll get one soon (check your spam folders and contact me if you haven't heard by launch-day on the 19th July). Thank you to all the buyers of version 1 — I really appreciate your trust.