Legacy Tribute setup issues

Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:43 pm

Quick history

I got my Tribute a few years ago and had a friend with lots more experience set it up. There were two issues I could resolve.

1) The high E had a secondary ring to it, once I fretted passed the 6th fret. It sounded like a very light buzz. Mt musician friend couldn't hear it. ( Too many years behind the amp, I guess. ) It's a high frequency. I thought it might be a vibration on the saddle, but I couldn't adjust it out, and I didn't want to go too far from factory on that.

2) The intonation was off, but it showed up as out of tune on open, first fret, chords. Barr chords and stuff higher up the frets is fine. So, I started to adjust the string length, but some were not getting quite right and I was running out of turns I could make. Then I started wondering about the string height. I've played for years with acoustic guitars, so my helper watched me play and decided to leave it a bit high. If it is TOO high, I thought I might be stretching the string TOO much to be correct when fretting the 12th fret with checking the intonation.

I tried to find the proper string height for my Tribute Legacy, but all I find is the standard Legacy, which is NOT the same geometry.

Point me in the right direction, please.

John

Re: Legacy Tribute setup issues

Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:19 am

JohnW63 wrote:Quick history

I got my Tribute a few years ago and had a friend with lots more experience set it up. There were two issues I could resolve.

1) The high E had a secondary ring to it, once I fretted passed the 6th fret. It sounded like a very light buzz. Mt musician friend couldn't hear it. ( Too many years behind the amp, I guess. ) It's a high frequency. I thought it might be a vibration on the saddle, but I couldn't adjust it out, and I didn't want to go too far from factory on that.

2) The intonation was off, but it showed up as out of tune on open, first fret, chords. Barr chords and stuff higher up the frets is fine. So, I started to adjust the string length, but some were not getting quite right and I was running out of turns I could make. Then I started wondering about the string height. I've played for years with acoustic guitars, so my helper watched me play and decided to leave it a bit high. If it is TOO high, I thought I might be stretching the string TOO much to be correct when fretting the 12th fret with checking the intonation.

I tried to find the proper string height for my Tribute Legacy, but all I find is the standard Legacy, which is NOT the same geometry.

Point me in the right direction, please.

John


The setup for the Tribute and USA Legacy will be the same.
The only difference is the neck radius of each guitar, so you
would adjust the saddles to have them follow the radius of the neck.

See the information we have in the G&L Knowledgebase: G&L Tech Tips.

Hope this helps.

Re: Legacy Tribute setup issues

Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:03 pm

Actually, Craig, the setup info is not correct from the Legacy to the Tribute. Setting the bridge as per those specs gave me a VERY high action. Much higher than was playable. Perhaps something changed in the production of the Tribute, but when following the stock setup steps it was way off. When I followed the steps, I kept asking myself , " Why is my factory setup so far off from the settings this PDF is telling me ? "

Re: Legacy Tribute setup issues

Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:14 pm

JohnW63 wrote:Actually, Craig, the setup info is not correct from the Legacy to the Tribute. Setting the bridge as per those specs gave me a VERY high action. Much higher than was playable. Perhaps something changed in the production of the Tribute, but when following the stock setup steps it was way off. When I followed the steps, I kept asking myself , " Why is my factory setup so far off from the settings this PDF is telling me ? "


Sorry, I should have pointed you to the current factory setup post: Current Factory setups for DF vibrato G&L guitars.

Hopefully, this will get you setup.