Work that changes how the instrument plays.

A good setup puts relief, action, intonation, pickup height, and hardware in balance for the strings, tuning, and touch you actually use.

Neck relief changes the room a vibrating string has. Action changes the effort under your fingers. Intonation decides whether fretted notes stay in tune up the neck. None of those adjustments lives alone, which is why changing one part can expose another problem. Tell me where the instrument fights you, not just that it “needs a setup.”

When adjustment cannot solve uneven wear or a poorly cut string path, the instrument may need fret or nut work.

High or uneven frets can make one note buzz while the rest of the board feels fine, or force the action higher than you want. A level, crown, and polish corrects the fret surface and restores a clean contact point for the string. Nut work affects open-string height, tuning stability, and how cleanly the string leaves the headstock end.

Pickups, preamps, pots, switches, jacks, bridges, and other hardware all change what reaches the amp or how the instrument responds under your hands.

A dead or intermittent signal is not always the pickup. The fault may be a worn jack, a loose connection, a dirty or failing pot, or wiring that needs to be traced. Hardware installation can also affect alignment, string path, setup range, and feel. I inspect the system before replacing parts.