Lessons from Bob Mayo, Dan Hovey & others
Bending & Vibrato
You're bending strings with your ring finger, but use the two behind it for strength. eg: use all 3 to bend
Listen to different players, Clapton, BB King, SRV, Mark Knopfler, etc. Listen to their vibrato. You might want to watch a video of them as well until you get better at hearing what they are doing. Think about when they use it, how much they use and what kind. You want to give your lines a vocal quality. This really distinguishes the best players.
Guitars historically emulate horns; and horns emulate vocalists. Think about singing with your guitar. Remember to breath.
You can roll your finger over the string, or you can move it up and down. Very different effects. Learn them both.
Stringing up
You don't want a lot of wraps around the post because they hold tension. Changes in tension mean changes in tuning. No bueno.
You need just enough for a good break angle over the nut; Fenders will have string trees to assist here where they need them. Gibson headstocks go back at enough of an angle that they don't need them.
I tend to want to wind just enough to let the string wrap to the bottom of the post. (always wrap down from where the string goes through)
Put the end of the string through the hole and then back over and around so that first kink grips the string, and the tension of being tuned holds the string in place. This works really well. (I'll add a pic) it will hold with no wraps if you do it right. (but still do some wraps)
If you have binding in the nut (you'll hear ping-y noises when tuning) you can have a luthier work on the nut or try using big bends nut sauce. Even with a great nut on my Les Paul I still use nut sauce, it's great stuff. You can also try graphite from a pencil in the slots. A graphite nut is also a great option. I use one on my yellow strat and it stays in tune for days usually.
There is a new step-by-step with photos here: https://www.joepampel.com/post/string-tune-your-guitar
Stretching Strings
After the strings are on and tuned to pitch, you need to stretch them.
Grab each one, one at a time, across the 4 fingers of your picking hand. Give a gentle tug away from the guitar body, starting at the nut and slide down to the bridge slowly, tugging along the way.
The string will go very flat the first time. Tune it back up and repeat 2 or 3 times.
When it barely goes flat, you're good to go.
Do all 6. This will keep your guitar from constantly going out of tune in most cases.
90% of the time when I see someone who just plays at home, this is what they are missing. They play out of tune guitars that just get worse as they go. It doesn't have to be that way.
Setting intonation
Bob (my teacher) was a fanatic about intonation. He checked it every time he changed strings. This might sound a little OCD, but once you start doing it more you'll see that individual sets of strings can have oddities which just make the guitar a little off. He was also backing up people like Aerosmith, Peter Frampton & Robert Plant, so maybe we can take him seriously. Being perfectly in tune a) sounds a lot better and b) is more fun because what you are trying to accomplish actually happens. It kinda stinks when you go to do something and the resultant sound is off pitch. If you have a distorted tone going, it's even worse. The best bands sound great in part because they are in tune and perfectly intonated. It's a little thing that means a lot.
If you have more than 1 guitar, a good strobe tuner is a solid investment. Mine paid for itself the first week I had it, vs paying for setups on all my guitars. Look for a Peterson. You don't need their craziest models. I found a used 490 on eBay for about $300. It has a built in mic for my cello and other acoustic instruments. You can plug in electrified instruments.
The "betterness" of the strobe is their accuracy over typical "LED" tuners, primarily because they don't need a "null" in the circuit to indicate in-tune-ness. They are infinitely variable, and sensitive. Western instruments use a tempered scale (which means they are a little off to begin with) You don't need to be more off. To learn more, hit the Peterson site, go to "support" and read page 27 of the 490 manual. Next time you're at your repair person's shop, you'll notice the strobe on their bench. You'll start to notice them in backstage photos of your favorite bands. There is a reason for this.
Setting intonation is pretty easy; put some blue painters tape on the body by the bridge to protect your guitar's finish. Tune to pitch and then compare the harmonic at the 12th fret to the same note fretted at the 12th fret. They should both be in tune. Don't panic if they aren't. Don't try to set intonation with a normal tuner. Get a strobe or hire someone else.
If the fretted note is sharp, loosen the string and then move the saddle back (away from the nut). Be very gentle fretting the note, pushing hard will make it go sharp.
If the note is flat, move the saddle towards the nut.
Go in small increments, loosen the string, then maybe a 1/4 turn of the saddle adjustment screw at a time, tune back up (the string will have gone flat or sharp, depending on how you moved the saddle) and see where you're at.
What is going on? Your 12th fret is at 1/2 the scale. You are doing a fine adjustment of the length of the other half. It varies by string thickness; you'll learn to see the normal pattern of your saddles pretty quickly. The wound strings will almost always form a row, and then the 3 plain strings will as well.
Play some other notes (fretted) just to check yourself. Sometimes you may need to compromise perfection in one spot for goodness in others. (see the page about tuning to help you make these decisions)
If your action is too high, your guitar will tend to play sharp.
Here are some sample bridge saddle pics to help you see the pattern. They will all do it, with some variations.
Here is a Gretsch 6120; one trick here is the saddles have been reversed on some of the strings to give more usable range. If that low E was still sharp you could reverse that one, as an example. The high E being back where it is here is unusual, but it was what worked.
Here is a modern compensated Telecaster bridge. The angles of the saddles gives you the two groups of saddles ramping up. (3 wound, then 3 unwound)
here is a mid 70's SG with a "harmonica" bridge. You can see the two groups sloping up.
Here is a Les Paul, also using reversed saddles but with 2 clear groups.
Finally, my strat, with a modern Wilkenson bridge also with 2 groups.
Setting your action
Your saddle heights should roughly follow the curve (radius) of your fretboard. StewMac makes gauges to help make sure you're in the right range. The low E will be a bit higher than your high E when you're done, which only makes sense because it moves more. Hence the "roughly" above. Your action will get incrementally higher as the strings get bigger.
Traditional best practice is to set the action as low as it will go without buzzing. I tend to like mine a little bit higher than that, I just play kind of hard and I also practice acoustically a lot. I like the guitar to ring out and be "loud" (for an electric anyhow). This seems to help the plugged in tone as well. Some repair guys call it a "blues setup". Metal/hard Rock players tend towards the lower is better school and the amount of gain they use makes up the loss in mechanical sustain. Whatever you call your setup, play with it and see what is most comfortable for what you're doing. There is no right or wrong. Too low and you lose energy to interference, too high and it gets hard to play and interferes with good intonation.
Once you find a height that feels good, check your intonation. It's probably off now. ;)
Be sure to play notes all the way up the neck on all 6 strings to make sure you still can; often there are high frets that will cause problems in certain high ranges. You may need to raise action to accommodate this.
Tuning
* It would be a good idea to understand the various things that make tuning a lot more challenging that it would be intuitively. I have tried to gather the high points here: https://www.joepampel.com/post/all-about-tuning
Listening / figuring out songs by ear
Bending vs Fretting - what note are they bending from? Is it a pre-bend? Listen to the short solo on "Mr Blue Sky" which is mostly bends. Check out Paul Kossof bending a 4th in the solo for "Alright now" (not even doable on guitars without a pretty flat neck), listen for the pick attack (or not - is it fingers? Tapping or hammer ons?)
Plain strings vs wound - listen to the difference so you can hear it reliably
Voicings - you don't always need to play all 6 strings. you only need 3 to make major and minor chords. If you have a keyboard around, sit down with your guitar and play your guitar voicings on a piano. Overkill? You betcha.
Listen for the open strings - are they open tuned or using a capo? You'll start to hear the voicings like your cowboy "D" chord and when it gets moved around, there is typically a capo involved. "Here comes the sun" (7th fret), "Thick as a brick" (5th fret) are two popular examples you have probably heard. Move it around, play some normal voicings and you'll hear other songs come together.
The Led Zeppelin Complete books are nearly a guitar school when you see Jimmy Page's arrangements, techniques and tunings. If you like LZ, go for it.
The Beatles Complete Book - same thing, but it's more about the arrangements, which if I may say so, are brilliant.
Gain
I met Bob Mayo, funnily enough, because I think he felt sorry for me or my band. Maybe both. We were rehearsing at The Loft, trying to play "Ten years gone". I had a master-volume solid-state amp at the time, with built in distortion and it sounded pretty awful. To overcome my own inexperience and the equipment, I had cranked the gain up. He kinda shook his head, politely borrowed my guitar and took us through a 5 min master class in guitar tone.
If you go back and listen again, carefully, to those old Zep, Aerosmith, AC/DC... you name it.. all the old bands basically using 4-input non-master volume Marshalls or older Fender, Vox, Supro, Ampeg... amps; they are not playing with lots of gain. That's really a modern phenomenon (and another post...) If you crank those old amps up a couple of things happen; first, you are now in an intense sound field (they're loud!) which vibrates your guitar, which then sends a signal back to the amp, and so on. With a little luck and careful body positioning you get great & nearly effortless sustain, move a little closer and you get feedback. Kinda magical. Second, you roll your guitar volume back when you aren't taking a lead, which tends to thin out your sound a bit*, (but is great for cleaning up & rhythm playing) Finally the amp itself is often distorting from front to back... preamp, phase inverter and output stage are all contributing. As are your speakers. The sound is rich, detailed and dynamic; the entire system becomes an instrument. You will hear a level at which the response of the amp changes, it will go from thin to thick, small to large.. it's hard to describe but you can't miss it. When then cabinet is resonating and this feedback loop has started to kick in between the guitar, amp & speakers. In order for this not to happen at deafening volume, you need a smallish amp. And then when you roll the guitar volume from 7-10, (or even just change your pick attack) you'll go from clean to mean like that and it is just magical.
SO... consider getting a smaller amp (15-30W range, 1x12 or 2x12 speakers) that you can turn up a bit. If you need more volume add an extension cabinet, not watts unless you need more clean punch . If you choose an amp with 30-50W, you can usually get by with a 1x12. Also, no master volume, or run the master all the way up if you have one. Volume is about moving air. (here: https://www.joepampel.com/post/perceived-volume-watts-and-speakers ) You want the whole thing working, you want the speakers working too. You'll hear a good amp 'come alive' above a certain level. Below it, it might be thin sounding, and suddenly it will come alive, full, with nice sustain. Like getting your car's engine into its power band. This is where you ideally want to be when you're gigging. You can always mic a little amp but it's hard to get a big amp working without causing PA problems.
* with the typical older wiring schemes this is true, such as "50's" wiring in a Les Paul. Some players don't like this and change the circuit and many modern guitars come with more modern circuits but try the old ones before you write them off. There is a lot to like there. Not unlike the "imperfections" in the Fender Tweed Deluxe (model 5E3)
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