How to Tell If a Fender Is Fake Fake Fenders are everywhere in the used market — especially on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Reverb. The good news: most copies are caught by the same nine checks in this guide, and you can run most of them from the listing photos alone. A counterfeit Fender usually fails on details: the logo is slightly wrong, the serial number doesn't decode to the claimed year…
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How to Buy a Used Guitar Online Without Getting Scammed Buying a used guitar online is the best way to get a great instrument for less — and the easiest way to lose $500 to a fake, a partscaster, or a "too good to be true" listing that turns out to be exactly that. Every week, buyers get burned on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Craigslist by counterfeit Fenders, Chibsons, and outright scams. The…
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Free Guitar Tools Every free tool on Owning A Fender, in one place. Whether you're dating a guitar by serial number, pricing one for sale, or dialing in a setup, start here. For resources organised by instrument, visit the PRS guitar hub or Yamaha guitar hub to move from identification to setup and string choice. Guitar Worth Calculator Wondering what your guitar could sell for? Our free guitar…
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The free guitar worth calculator above gives you an instant estimate of what your guitar could fetch on the used market. Pick your brand, rough era, and condition — the calculator does the rest in seconds. No email required, no signup. Just a quick, honest ballpark. How It Works Tell us the brand and model — Fender, Gibson, Squier, PRS, Epiphone, and more. A free-text model field lets you add…
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A PRS guitar setup starts by identifying the hardware on your instrument. A Custom 24 with a standard PRS tremolo, a Silver Sky and a McCarty 594 can need different bridge instructions even when some of their action measurements overlap. “Core,” “S2” and “SE” do not identify every adjustment by themselves. Quick Answer: Identify the bridge, fit your intended strings and tune before measuring…
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There's a moment in some guitars' lives where they stop being instruments and become stories. For most, that moment never comes. For one Ibanez JPM100 P3, it came twice: first on stages around the world under John Petrucci's hands between 1997 and 1999, and again on the 11th of November 1999, in a corridor beside the stage of the IJsselhallen in Zwolle, the Netherlands, when Petrucci opened the…
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Getting Fender Jaguar pickup height right starts with identifying the pickups and measuring a repeatable gap. A traditional Jaguar single-coil, a Player humbucker and an aftermarket replacement can need different settings. The useful result is a guitar whose pickup positions work together, with enough string clearance for your playing. Quick Answer: Tune up, fret each outer string at the last fret…
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After changing action, recheck Jazz Bass pickup height and balance: lowering the strings also reduces pickup clearance. Jazz Bass String Height: Exact Specs and Setup Guide Dialing in your Jazz Bass string height is the single biggest playability upgrade you can make without spending anything. The Jazz Bass bridge gives you four individually adjustable saddles, and a couple of millimeters of…
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What's Next? Now that you've decoded your Fender guitar, here are the best places to continue: Fender Setup Guide — Exact specs for Strat, Tele, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Mustang, Bass Setup Specs Lookup — Find factory specs by year and model Guitar Action Height Guide — Dial in perfect string height My Gear Garage — Track your collection and maintenance schedule Garage Pro — Maintenance log with…
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Takamine Guitar Setup: Identify the Saddle Before Adjusting A Takamine guitar setup starts with the same questions as any acoustic: are the strings right for the instrument, is the neck relief suitable, and where does the action feel uncomfortable? The extra decision is identifying the saddle and pickup assembly before removing material. A generic acoustic saddle-sanding instruction does not fit…
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Best Strings for Martin Guitar: The Right Set for Your Model The best strings for Martin guitar players depend on body size, playing style, and whether you want the factory voice or something more personalized. Martin builds guitars with solid tops, scalloped or non-scalloped bracing, and a long heritage of acoustic tone — the wrong string set can choke that voice or make the guitar harder to play…
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The best Les Paul string gauge is the one that suits your tuning, picking hand and bends. Genre gives you a useful starting point, but it cannot tell you how hard you fret a chord or how much resistance you enjoy under your fingers. Quick Answer: Start with 10–46 for a balanced Les Paul setup in standard tuning. Try 9–42 for easier bends, 9–46 for lighter treble strings with the same bass gauges…
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Do New Guitars Need a Setup? Inspect Before Adjusting Do new guitars need a setup? Some need adjustment, some need a repair assessed, and some already play comfortably. A new guitar setup checklist should help you tell the difference. The purchase price, shipping distance or day on the calendar cannot decide that for you. Start with condition, tuning and a short playing check. Record a useful…
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Squier Bass Setup: Identify, Measure, Then Adjust A Squier bass setup starts with the instrument in your hands: its neck, bridge, pickups, strings and tuning. An Affinity PJ, a Classic Vibe Precision and a Mini Precision can share a logo while needing different string choices and hardware checks. High action, a thin sound or a buzzing note needs diagnosis before adjustment. This guide covers a…
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Guitar Fret Buzz: How to Diagnose and Fix It for Good Guitar fret buzz is the most common setup complaint players run into. It shows up as an annoying rattle or dead note when a string vibrates against a fret it shouldn't touch. The good news is that buzz almost always points to one of four things: neck relief, action height, nut slot depth, or uneven frets. In this guide, you'll learn how to read…
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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels Acoustic guitar truss rod adjustment changes neck relief: the small forward curve that gives a vibrating string clearance over the frets. Measure that curve before turning anything. High action, stiff open chords and fret buzz can come from different places, and the truss rod cannot correct all of them. Quick answer: Tune to your playing pitch, check the guitar…
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Acoustic guitar action height is the gap between the top of a fret and the underside of a string. A useful setup begins with an accurate measurement, followed by a diagnosis of why the guitar feels difficult to play. High strings do not automatically mean the saddle needs sanding. Quick Answer: For a six-string steel-string acoustic, about 2.4–2.8 mm on the low E and 1.6–2.0 mm on the high E at…
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A useful Yamaha acoustic guitar setup starts with the guitar in front of you: its full model name, installed strings, pickup system and actual playing problem. An FG800 with hard-to-fret chords does not automatically need a lower saddle. Measure first so you can distinguish neck relief, nut clearance, saddle height and a changing environment. This guide is for six-string Yamaha steel-string…
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Photo by Felipe Randolfi on Unsplash Best Strings for Squier Stratocaster: Top 6 Sets (2026) The best strings for a Squier Stratocaster are usually nickel-plated steel in the gauge that feels comfortable at your tuning. For standard E tuning, start with .009–.042 for easy bends or .010–.046 for a firmer feel. Staying with the gauge already fitted is the simplest replacement when you like how the…
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Guitar setup cost depends on the work your instrument needs and what the quote includes. A restring, an adjustment service and a fret repair are three different purchases. Comparing their headline prices as though they buy the same result makes it easy to choose the wrong job. Quick Answer: Published examples checked on September 14, 2026 include £60 at Booths Music, from £70 at Andertons, $85 at…
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