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i've been lulling this over for sometime. i'm ok doing basic setups myself, though tend to stop when it comes to truss rod adjusts or fret/nut work.

my strat really feels like it could use some proper attention. it doesn't have much sustain and tends to fret out unless you have a high action (too high for my tastes) also i don't think it's normal for the neck screws to still turn. that i can remedy myself with matchsticks and glue. plus i'd like to block of the trem permently. i never use the trem and can't see me selling the strat. i'd kinda wished i'd got a strat with a vintage style bridge. they seem to be stable and solid with just the five springs in.

so, i want to know if you've had a guitar setup professionally and was it worth it.

Whether it's worth it is completely up to you and the amount of work you're interested in doing.

I haven't had a professional set up; I've been interested in doing the work myself, but I only go a little further than you and will play with the truss rod, etc. Any soldering, however, I'm not so keen on (until I take some time to practice on bits of wire and get the skill right) and have had professionally done.
It sounds like you likely need a truss adjust to deal with your fretting out issue, though.

If you're not interested in, or comfortable doing the work required for a proper set up, then, yeah, a professional would be worth it. If you're interested in getting generally more experienced and better at your own set ups, no, it's probably not.

There's less to go wrong with a two screw bridge, young Robert - stick five springs in there and crank up the tensioner. I've yet to find a shop that can set up a guitar as well as I can - think decent setups are pretty few and far between in the UK. Maybe try bribing Fran?

one slight problem. my two post won't sit flush to the body.

At the pivot point (front) or at the back?

I'd strongly recommend learning how to adjust a truss rod, even if you do end up getting it done professionally- it's very good to un-demonise (I don't believe that's a word) these sort of adjustments, if only to make you appreciate how little work is required in comparison to the amount of money you'd spend.

Incidentally, if you do block your Strat trem, I'd highly recommend leaving the springs in; I hated how dead my Strat sounded when I removed 'em.

at the pivot point.

I used to have setups done when I was younger but now I do it myself I don't think there's any change in quality. Truss rods are scary at first but are well within any players ability if they're patient, and I now do it whenever I'm changing action.

If you're fretting out and not getting sustain your pickups could also be too high.

I'm with you on the nut and fret work though, not touched that yet. I've come very close to buying some kit like fret blocks and nut saws but it's worrying.

I tend to only bring my guitars in for "pro setups" if theres work to be done with the neck. i'll do my own truss rod adjustments, but i stop there. I will say nothing feels so nice as after a good fret polish

so i've tighten my springs on the bridge and now i'm checking the action. i'm clamping at the 1st fret with the capo and placing my finger on the 6/7th fret.

there's no gap at all, so no wonder it's fretting out. so which direction do i move the rod in? this will be a pain as the truss rod is at the body end.

i think if you can find a good tech then its worth the money but its hard finding them at times. I started doing my own setups though just 'cause I wanted to learn more and have a bit more control. But if you aren't confident then take try and find someone good locally. Also, maybe ask Fran as someone else mentioned to try and show you how to sort out some of the issues. Given what benecol has said bigging himself up I might be giving him a nudge when I need to sort anything out on my JM

Progrockabuse wrote:so i've tighten my springs on the bridge and now i'm checking the action. i'm clamping at the 1st fret with the capo and placing my finger on the 6/7th fret.

there's no gap at all, so no wonder it's fretting out. so which direction do i move the rod in? this will be a pain as the truss rod is at the body end.

Sounds like you need to ease it off (turn anti-clockwise). Another possibilty is that you need to shim the neck to get the right neck angle - my '73 Strat has a 3-point "Micro-tilt" fixing with an adjustable screw to set the neck angle.

Progrockabuse wrote:so i've tighten my springs on the bridge and now i'm checking the action. i'm clamping at the 1st fret with the capo and placing my finger on the 6/7th fret.

there's no gap at all, so no wonder it's fretting out. so which direction do i move the rod in? this will be a pain as the truss rod is at the body end.

You can use the capo again. Loosen off your strings capo it around the 9th fret and remove the neck bolts, that way your strings wont go everywhere

Loosen the truss rod anti-clockwise.

Progrockabuse wrote:so i've tighten my springs on the bridge and now i'm checking the action. i'm clamping at the 1st fret with the capo and placing my finger on the 6/7th fret.

there's no gap at all, so no wonder it's fretting out. so which direction do i move the rod in? this will be a pain as the truss rod is at the body end.

You're to place your finger on the last fret (21st in theory if it's a 22 fret neck). There should be a gap 0.10" under the 8th fret I believe.

I'd take it into a tech to possibly lower the nut/adjust the truss rod. Once you get that out of the way you can do simple adjustments to keep it playing good. Whenever i try to make big adjustments to my guitars i end up in this bizarre cycle of adjusting more and more until im so pissed off i want to smash my guitar.

ok. at the last fret, there's still no gap. just about to loosen it.

I have played two PLEK'd guitars. A refretted 1962 les paul and an original 1965 sg. They both played amazing. I have wanted all my guitars to be plek'd since.
There is a guy that does good setups here and i got him to work on my les paul recently, it was already good, but the small changes made a difference after playing that thing all weekend.

I think a lot of the problem is that the majority of guitar shops will offer a setup for £40 or whatever the going rate is, but very few are actually good at it. If it's done well it's worth the money but it's certainly not an easy thing to find.

James is bang on - in all my years (</Fran>) the only decent setups I've ever known around the westcountry/southcoast have been from a mad Irish fella in Bristol who has since disappeared. To put this in some sort of context, I took my old Marquee to one of the better local shops to be set-up (with the wisdom of my years, I know know that the trem tension screw needed setting) and they didn't know how to set up a strat. And that's a good shop.

Do what you're doing Rob and learn it yourself - quarter of a turn on the truss rod, and leave it a day or so each time to settle in. Borrow Owen's protip about capoing the strings before you detension and take the neck off, and it'll soon be the work of five minutes. Also, the design of a two-screw trem means that in order to get the trem flat to the body, you don't want the screws cranked right down - that'll actually force the trem up at the back. Let it float a bit at the back. And I'll echo what Doog said - taking the springs out (or even putting a wooden block in at all, in my opinion) takes all the strat out of a strat.

There is a guy who works really near to me who was trained by Patrick Eggle, he's really good at guitar work - the only guy I take my stuff to when its beyond my repair.

http://www.theguitardoctor.co.uk/

Charges fairly reasonable rates too.

i would usually go for a pro setup, i have this eerie feeling whenever i wanted to adjust the truss rod myself.