First things first, put your guitar on a protective surface. Fender make some good inexpensive roll up work bench mats. Once secure, a peg winder is a handy tool for multiple tasks, including, winding strings on and off, removing acoustic bridge pins, built in string stretcher and the deluxe Planet Waves Pro Winder has a built in pair of wire cutters. Slacken the strings off to start.

With the tension off the strings, cut each one to make pulling them through the bridge holes a little easier. This also makes it easier to pull them through the machine head.

If you have a removable tailpiece, slide it out and the ball end of each string should drop out easily enough.

Now lift and remove the bridge and place to one side along with the tailpiece. This hardware is quite dirty. Please see our detailed tech sheet specifically on cleaning your guitar.

Wind up the strings at the headstock end as seen in the far right of the picture, helps prevent strings flying around as you remove them. Then unwrap each string from the tuning posts.

I’m going to treat the fingerboard as it’s quite filthy and dry. The frets also need a good clean and polish. You may not need to do all the steps in the fretboard treatment, you may just need a little lemon oil if your board is dry. If you play regularly though, then it’s worth following all steps listed every few months. Here a cardboard mask is being made to protect the guitars finish during the cleaning process. Simply cut out a piece the width of your neck.

With the body of your precious guitar protected and low tack tape to help secure it down. it’s time to use a ball of wire wool. You need the real fine stuff, this size is 0000. Start at the heal end of the neck and rub your way up the board following the grain and going up and over all the frets. This will clean the wood and get rid of any dirt and crud that may have built up. Remember, do not use this technique on a finished fingerboard. For lacquered boards, simply use a small amount of Naphia on a 100% cotton cloth to remove dirt, greace, etc.

With the board now clean, it’s time to polish those frets. Mask each fret off using low tack tape. Again on finished fingerboards its best not to use any kind of tape, especially on vintage instruments, just to be safe. Alternatively, you can use fret gaurds, which are simply a piece of flat steel with a groove cut through the center to accept a fret. You can’t use fret polish with them, though you can use wire wool and very fine sandpapers to polish the frets which is what i’m using here. Polishing pads, ranging from 3200 grit hrough to 12000 grit.

I could use a metal polish here as the frets are masked off. However this method will help remove fine scratches and marks in the frets, which ultimately makes playing feel nicer during bends. I start with the 3200 grit and work my way up to 12000 grit. It does take time, but on a fine instrument like this Gibson, it’s worth it.

You can see the results here, nice and shiny and super smooth! Once done, remove all the tape carefully and remove any remaining masking.

As the board is quite dry, it’s time for a little Jim Dunlop Lemon Oil. I keep all cloths in separate bags for various jobs on the instrument. When you’re dealing with delicate/vintage guitars it’s particularly important. i.e. not using a metal polish cloth to oil your fingerboard, etc.

The Jim Dunlop Formula 65 Lemon Oil is great as it has a sponge end so you have no spillage of any kind, plus I find it easier to apply. Spread the oil across the entire board and leave for 5 minutes to absorb, before rubbing in further and whiping away any excess. Oil like this can really bring a dry and tired board back to life.

To see detailed information on cleaning your guitar and various finish types, please see the category page for indepth tech sheets. With the bridge and tailpiece back on the guitar, it’s time to string up. Make sure when placing the
bridge back on the bridge posts, it’s facing the correct way, you want the intonation screws facing towards the tailpiece, as pictured above. Start with the low E and feed it through the rear of the tailpiece.

Pull the string all the way until the ball end prevents it coming through any further. It’s worth taping down the tailpiece with a small piece of low tack masking tape, as you’ll probably find it’ll want to slide down the body. Not only annoying, but it can scratch your guitar. Once you have the first string on you can remove the tape.

Slide the string through the first machine head post and begin winding it on, turning the tuning peg counter-clockwise, so the string winds on the inside of the post rather than the outside. Keep an eye on the bridge end as you wind each string on too, as they can jump out of their saddle slot.

Leave some slack to wind on (1-2"). Keep the string taught and you should end up with a neat job. The better you make your winds the more stable your tuning will be. You want the strings to move as little as possible when wrapped around the tuning posts.

Again with the plain strings wound on you can see a neat job has been done, with all the winds nicely butted against each other. You want to wind on more with the plain strings as they do slip more than your wound strings. As you wind each string, I tend to over tighten each string slightly to help stretch it in as I move onto the next one.

Once all tuned. Give each string a little pull. Doing this now will save you a lot of frustration later when your guitar keeps slipping out of tune during a gig or session. Stretch them, then retune. The neck was perfect so no need to adjust it this time. Next comes string height, which is controlled by these two set screws above. Clockwise will lower action, and counter-clockwise will raise it.

Set your action so you have as little buzz as possible, it’s often a matter of preference and it can be a back and forth process. One of the final tweaks you may have to do is your intonation. This is, shortening or lengthening the string. Have your guitar in tune for this, and start with the high E. Play the 12th fret lightly. If it’s slightly sharp on the tuner, then you need to shorten the string. Use a small screwdriver of the correct size and turn the intonation screw counter-clockwise, retune and check again. Clockwise should the string be too flat. You want the 12th fret and open note to be the same pitch. Work your way down each string until complete

Lastly we’ll set the pickup height. This is quick and simple. Just fret down on the last fret on each E string, then adjust each pickup screw. You generally only have two screws per pickup, one at the top and one at the bottom. Tightening them will raise the pickup, loosening them will lower the pickup. With your finger pressed firmly on the last fret, adjust each side. On the bass side you want about 2mm gab, between pickup and string. On the treble side, I generally set it to 1.5mm distance.