Many production made flamenco guitars can be improved by setting up the action. Although this video is for classical, leveling the frets is the same. The difference would be lowering the saddle for a flamenco action. We have many skilled guitar makers and players on the foro and I invite all your input here.

Thanks for the post. Aside from dealing in guitars, Ron Fernandez has been following and playing Portuguese music and instruments. As far as fretboard set-up and action, there are many ways to accomplish the task. My basic method is very similar. Instead of polishing frets with Dremel buffers, which heats the frets and softens/anneals them a bit, I hand-sand each fret with various grits of Micromesh (cloth-backed abrasive, similar to sandpaper). The result is gleaming, platinum-looking fretwork, with buttery smoothness. It's not all just aesthetics either. Experienced players immediately notice improvement in the over-all feel and playability of the instrument. The reason for going through different grits of abrasive (six in my case) is to gradually remove previous grit's scratch marks. In the end, well-polished frets provide nice, consistent contact surface for the strings, resulting in better sound and playability. That is especially true if the player's style incorporates any string-bending. Thanks for the post, Sam.

Happy holidays everyone!

Good point on the Dremel heating up the frets. I use silicon carbide paper of different grits, then finish with very fine emery cloth. Probably similar to the micromesh you mention. Good points on why one should polish the frets and I would add string wear is less with polished frets.

Happy New Year everyone! PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Decade) is over! While on the topic of guitar set-ups, I wonder how many guitar owners out there have felt the need or took the time to have the guitar set-up to maximize its potential??? I'm starting to feel that guitar set-ups are not a universal target. It's like a high quality old school taylor shop--the suit is going to fit YOU and perhaps not so well your neighbor. Perhaps most other friends of yours, or maybe no one else, really, if you are uniquely shaped. Same with guitar set-up. For some, 2mm action at 12th fret is perfect. For others, too high, while the third would exclaim the guitar is unplayable and excessively buzzy. General parameters can certainly be agreed upon. From there, it's a matter of style, habit and preference (are habit and preference one and the same?!).

Couple of weeks ago I had an unusual experience. I had an opportunity to set-up and fine-tune a cheapo $200 guitar, including full fret re-dress, new nut, new tuners, etc. It seems that in most cases, the owner would not justify the expense of doing such a job due to the inherently low cost of the instrument. Well, after taking a few hours to "dial-in" the guitar's geometry, tuners and fretwork, the owner swore they felt they owned a whole new instrument from that point forward. Naturally, acoustic limitations of that instrument did not disappear, but the playability certainly improved drastically.

So, here's my question. How often have you felt the need for and/or requested a set-up for your instrument? Never? Once during the ownership of that guitar? Once a decade? Just curious.

Warm wishes for 2010!

Peter

Hola Peter
When seeing some guitars of my students I have sometimes wondered about these matters of the set up and so I wanted to ask you some specific questions
Is it possible or even probable that a flamenco guitar indeed has an ideal set up to sound and work the best it can regardless of the preference of the guitarist?
I expand this to mean should guitars be altered to suit the pulsación of the guitarists or should the guitarists chose a guitar that is ideal for his/her pulsación and maintain that guitar at its own ideal set up?
I have heard that it is possible to improve an average guitar by such things as set up but my question is it is possible to make a good guitar not sound or work so well by a not good set up?

Saludos

Tomás

Hola Tomás
Let me see if I can answer your question without making the answer too long.

IDEAL SETUP
Yes, I think MY set-up IS IDEAL Seriously though, I think each luthier and repair shop attempt to do their best set-up work. The results, while all in a certain range, are not the same. As long as the set-up is in the range, usually that is all that's needed. Sometimes more minor (but important) tweaking is needed. Such as increasing/decreasing the amount of buzz, for example. Another reason to "tweak" guitar's set-up and due to climate changes. Many people end-up needing their "summer saddle" as well as a "winter saddle"--blame it on the crazy extremes of humidity as well as temperatures!

If one's guitar has a very nice set-up, I think you are right, it would seem best to leave it where it is, and learn to maximize musical possibilities of the instrument.

Periodically, some very poorly set-up guitars show up in my shop. Somehow the player learns to overlook the flaws, or just develops a way of working around those. Once I correct the problems, the feel of the instrument can drastically change for the better. I find players' reactions to "Before" and "After" can quite dramatic. A beginner may not notice much difference. Someone playing the guitar multiple hours a day will certainly notice and appreciate the subtleties. I guess it just makes for a more playable, enjoyable and nuanced instrument.

Can one ruin a guitar by tweaking its current set-up? I suppose if something drastic is changed, maybe. Otherwise, I don't think so. Again, generally, set-up is needed only if there are problems. Whether the musician is aware of those problems or not, depends a lot on the player.

I hope this at least partially answers your question.

Best Regards,