Q’n’A: Gitar Baru

Q: bro ada tips utk menjaga guitar baru bro utk newbies macam aku bro.? how often to polish ke ape ke?? and apa pendapat bro pasal floating bridge ni

A: First of all, congratulations on the new guitar. :D

Set Up

Unless ko punya guitar tu memang fresh baru keluar dari kilang, you might want to have a pro to take a look at it. Ni yg dipanggil “set-up”. It’s something you do on a new, not so new, or old guitars, to optimize the instrument. And mekanik dia dipanggil luthier, or “guitar tech" (luthier actually buat guitar gak, bukan repair jek).

Set-up ni penting especially kalo ko tak biasa dengan Floyd Rose punya bridge. Floyd Rose ni bukan macam fixed or one-way punya bridge. It’s a little more complicated than that. Bile set up ni, dia akan check action (ketinggian tali dari fret). To me that’s probably the hardest to do, at least for beginners. Kalo ko tak experienced sangat, maybe ko akan ingat action ni just adjust anchor screw kat bridge tu jek. Well, that’s part of the story. Kalo curvature fretboard tak betul, tak guna gak. Nanti tak boleh kasi action tu low without too much buzzing.

Nak adjust fretboard ni kena adjust truss rod dia. For Ibanez RG and most guitars screw dia dekat headstock dia. RG punya hidden dekat bawah plastic plate tu. Adjust truss rod ni kalo tak reti jangan try. Sebab kalo terputar screw dia kuat sangat, rosak. Lebih baik buang jek gitar tu dari repair. You don’t wanna do that on a new guitar.

Lagi satu dia akan adjust spring kat belakang bridge tu mengikut string gauge pilihan ko. That’s very important untuk bridge camni.

And adjusting intonation on a floyd rose tak sesenang macam bridge strat biasa tu. So, it’s good to have somebody show it to you.

Nak pasang tali pon, although it looks relatively easy, kena buat dengan betul. Baru lepas pasang pon kena stretch tali tu sume kasi maintain tuning. Your guitar tech should be able to show you how.

So, I think paying a visit to a guitar tech is a good idea. This is something that I wished I knew mase dulu-dulu. Only bile aku nampak guitar tech corner dekat Guitar Center baru aku tau kepentingan dorang ni. Of course, sooner or later you’ll learn more about your instrument, that you can do most of the maintenance on  your own. But if you’re new, the guitar tech may get your instrument to the best playing condition. And that’s a good thing.

Aku beli JS aku aritu, lepas beli 3 hari aku tak main. Tunggu guitar tech balik cuti, kasi buat set up dulu.

Even pros visit their favorite guitar techs. Instructor aku pon, he’s been playing professionally since before I was born. He gets his guitars set up by a tech. And some techs are better than others. I think it’s more art than science.

So, get somebody to take a look at it. Get a quote. Aku tak tau la kalau kat Malaysia bape dorang charge. Kat tempat aku, satu kedai tu dia charge $60 untuk full setup. Aku cakap ngan dia aku just nak dia check action jek, since aku tak berani nak buat sendiri. So dia kasi $12 jek. Lepas dah siap tak sampai hati aku nak baya banyak tu jek. He was having a hard time getting the right adjustment. :P Well, don’t multiply that cost by 3.1 or whatever the exchange rate is. This is almost entirely a service. So, rate dia aku rasa takde la sampai RM50 kot. I donno.

 

Maintenance

Hmm, bape kerap nak polish, I can’t really answer that. Ha ha, I think from now on I should pay attention to that. But lepas main, memang aku lap pakai kain microfiber la. Well, honestly I only do that on my JS, since masih bersinar-sinar lagi, and it cost a lot more. :P

But I probably don’t have to do it too often anyway. Since aku main dalam rumah jek, main pakai baju, tade daki-daki.

Before main, make sure basuh tangan dulu. Especially kalo kat Malaysia, aku rasa udara sana lembap, so korang senang berpeluh (I sweat so much aritu). So, kasi bersih tangan dulu. It’s good for your strings too.

Aku main gitar seboleh-bolehnye tak pakai baju yg ade butang. I mean not butang sampai bawah la. And aku avoid jeans sebab ade butang metal yg besar (except dalam video la, but still, I keep it away from the body of the guitar). I don’t want to scratch the back of the guitar.

Lepas main, lap tali tu. Make sure lap belah bawah tali tu skali. It’s good for the strings, and I think it’s good for the frets too.

Kalo fret to rosewood, once in a while bile tukar tali bersihkan pakai lemon oil type of cleaner.

Ape lagi. Jangan kasi orang pinjam, as much as you can. Kalo orang nak try, do it in front of you. Kalo member mengade nak strum ganas ganas, slap him/her.

And bile dah lama main, your frets especially akan haus sket sebab bending and stuff. Depending on how much you play, at some point, you’ll have to send it to a guitar tech again. Get him to recondition your guitar. Fret tu nanti dia akan sand kasi rata sket, level them and all. That’s something I won’t do myself yet, at least not on my best guitars.

Oh, before lupa. Kalo main berdiri pakai strap, pakai locking strap. That way tak risau terjatuh.