Anybody have any tips about getting a guitar to play as best it can, excluding stuff like setting the action/intonation which I've already done? Would the fretboard benefit from lemon oil treatment at this stage? (owned about 6 months and played + sweated quite a bit on it). Also what Other things can I do to get it sounding the best that isn't gear related. Things like Copper insulated on the Electrical cavity. Basically any tips would be helpful, as I feel that the guitar has more to give but it might need work. Guitar is in my sig.

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You've pretty much mentioned everything a plain old guitarist is able to do to maintain a guitar. Ie: most guitarists don't know how to do a proper fret dress. I do a lemon oil fretboard cleaning every 4-5 months or so, but also periodically wipe down the frets with a dry cloth to get them to shine and get all that icky sweat and corrosion off. That way the frets are slick and not sticky, and play a bit faster. That's all I really do to my guitars these days apart from truss rod, action, and spring tension adjustment whenever I switch string guages.

I ordered some push pull pots for my Ironbird as I'm putting coil-splittable passives in it, and now I'll take the opportunity to insulate the cavities with copper foil.

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Where have you learned basic stuff like this?

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You can either learn from guitar techs, or from a book or search the net, read this forum

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Ok cool, would the electrical cavity benefit from copper insulation even though it has active pickups?

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I don't think so, but it's worth doing it to a guitar, as you will inevitably grow bored of active pickups.

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A matter of opinion good sir!

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Eh, barely. Shielding only protects the wires in between the pickups, not the pickups themselves. So if you put a magnet near your cavity, you're guna get some really fucked up noises without shielding... similar things will happen near TV's, cathode computer screens (the giant ones), tubes (the stuff inside tube amps), and microwaves, among anything else that gives off electronic interfearence. If you decide to shield your cavity, YOU MUST GROUND THE SHIELD otherwise it simply wont shield

None of my guitars are shielded and they all sound fine though, i run it through so much distortion you cant tell if its distortion buzz or interference buzz. The only time i've ever really heard a difference is on my friends really nice fender american jazz bass when he ran it through a really nice amp. It basically sounded like a noisegate was put into the chain, his noise (very small amount of noise) just dissapeared.

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Indeed, opinions are like assholes. Everyone's got one. Some are just crusty and yeast infected.

EMG's do sound great at first but get tiring after extended use, so little tonal variety out of em...

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Tighten any bolts and screws. Clean everything. Including your pots. They sell all kinds of sprays that inprove conductivity. Sprays like Gold or silver. Just spray it inside the pots. Look inside all the electronics to see if all the soldering is still making good contact.

Just clean everything. Make sure nothing is loose or broken. Do a thurogh inspection. Every last detail. If something looks funny or out of place ask. Wipe off all dust. Enough dust on a bridge can shorten sustain.

Thats all I can think of. heh

Good tip on dust, I generally try and keep my guitar clean but I normally just focus on the body not the metal bits. Whenever its not in use it goes back into the case though. Oh and Soeru I've already been looking at Bareknuckle Ceramic Warpigs but at £220 per set its a big investment!!

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after removing strings, I first masking tape my pickups. i then apply soft steel wool and lightly glide over the frets. I go up and down (parallel to neck) the neck and try not to focus on one spot too long. get the vacuum and suck up the filings with the 'soft brush' attachment and then give it a wipe down with a dry cloth.
i then get a wet cloth and really clean against both sides of the frets, alot of grime builds up there, a good finger nail helps with this. then oil the sucker up. i got rosewood fretboard and it really brings it out and is really smooth. i use a dry cloth to rub out any excess oil that isn't soaked up.

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not sure if this was covered, but its no use to shield a guitar with active pu's, cuz thos epickups aer shielded from the inside.. ever noticed how silent a guitar with active emg's is compared to passive humbuckers

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There you have it, that's what I originally thought. But does it matter if the pickups are shielded from the inside? I thought the point of copper foiling the cavities was to prevent radio waves from bouncing into the pots/cables.

And umm, my passive guitars are quieter than my guitar with the EMG81 85 guitar.

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haha, well i guess theire are always some exceptions,

your right about shielding pots etc, but if your gonna shield the guitar you realy have to shield everything completely, else its no use realy, if i remember right the actualy pickups pick up the most radio waves and what not. but most guitars i see arent to noisie even without shielding, maybe for studio recording and realy loud gig it might make a diference.. but i have no no experience there to judge that.

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Tip: Bore oil works better than Lemon oil, imo. Apply once every 6 months directly after using just a small amout of window cleaner and extra fine 0000 steel wool to clean the fretboard. Make sure the pickups are protected from the steel dust that will build around the magnetic flux or else the field will distort and maybe short out.

Aluminum wool would be ideal as magnetic fields don't affect the material, but still protect the pickups from the metal dust.

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Hmm, for the time being I think I might stay away from wire wool etc, its a new guitar and I don't like the idea of getting too adventurous! I'm the kind of person whose likely to cock it up. I'll definitely give the lemon oil a go and just clean it up generally though.

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Don't forget using bore oil. It is an improvment above lemon imo, but you do the research.

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"Common Sense"

Seriously, if the neck is soiled, clean it. I don't mean that in a shitty way, just too many thinkers are ruined by someone else's memory

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I pretty much learned all my maintainence tips at this forum, except for Floyd Rose adjustments and some other shit, that I just learned by googling it down. Including truss adjustments too.

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Also Guitar Mags are great for maintenance tips, although no offence to the US members here, but UK mags are sooo much better, especially in this respect. I can't remember the number of times I've seen a step-by-step guide on how to set up a Floyd in Total Guitar.

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No offense taken. America is all fluff and no substance.

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