When I bought my Strat, I had it setup by the luthier at the store. I've since come to the conclusion that everybody associated with that store is interested in one thing only - selling guitars. Customer service doesn't even occur to them. They took three times as long to set my Strat up and the end result just wasn't as good as it should have been (there's a lot more to this story, but I'll save that for another day).
So I didn't buy my next guitar from them, nor my next amp. I feel better now. Still, now I have a problem - my level of trust has dropped and I suspect I'll get better results doing it myself. So here I go trying to find the right tools for setting up my own guitars. I even have an el-cheapo guitar (my first!) to practice on before I risk desecrating the precious (the Maton).
Most of the basic tools were already in the room. Screwdrivers, feeler guages, etc, but one thing eludes me - a notched straightedge.
I occurred to me that in order to assess the neck for straightness, I'd have to remove the Frets. This seems a touch tedious when all you'd actually want is a straightedge with notches cut in it to avoid the frets! Unfortunately, I can't find anyone who actually sells such a thing. Am I going nuts? Is this just plain silly?
Can somebody please set me straight before I pull out my Dremel and butcher a ruler...
Also, any tips on setup process would be helpful. I've found a bunch of great tutorials (the best one can be found
here) but more info = goodness!