Your Guitar Needs a Set-Up
Whether you've had your guitar for years, or you just got one over the holidays, odds are excellent that while it may be playing ok, it will benefit from a professional set up.
I am not suggesting that you cannot set up your own guitar. You can, with the proper training, skills and tools. But what if the investment in these things is not high on your priority list. Wouldn't you be better off getting the job done by someone with skills and getting it right instead of hunting videos and experimenting?
Of course you would! I have been at this a long time and have built up a good toolbox for guitar work and developed very usable skills over decades. Yet I still have my stuff done by a professional on a regular basis. My personal choice is Kevin Martell over at The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario, because I have known Kevin a long time and trust his work implicitly. You've possibly got a good guitar shop nearby, and I hope that you do, because mail order of this kind of thing is tough.
A setup is more than just replacing strings. It involves setting the neck bow properly, adjusting the action, setting the intonation, lubing the nut and the bridge saddles amongst all the other checkpoints. A good setup will also involve reinvigorating the fretboard and a quick polish of the frets to remove any detritus or corrosion built up over time. While opinions differ, I don't change my strings every three months, but I do have a pro setup done every couple of years, even though I do basic maintenance with each string change. Since I am an admitted guitar geek, string changes involve experimentation more than dead strings, because I have discovered over time which strings don't work for me and so I don't use them.
The last year or so have brought new strings to the market, and brought back old strings, and these changes encourage me to check the guitars and get those in need of a setup, done properly. The cost is low, and while I can do most things, I like to have an independent professional check things out.
I've also been changing pickups in different guitars this year and that is work I leave to Kevin. I can operate a soldering iron, but he also mods wiring and capacitors as necessary to give me the tone that I prefer. Since the guitar will be somewhat disassembled, it's also time to have other things checked. Recently I changed the pickups in my '71 Les Paul that started life as a Deluxe but was poorly modded by the first owner. When Kevin was fitting the new Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups he noted that I've probably got one more redress on the frets before it's replacement time. Good to know and to plan for, and gives me time to do some research. Despite whatever talents I may have learned, this determination is beyond my skill and I would certainly never try a re-fret myself.
Even something as simple as trying a different gauge of strings can need some professional help. Like many of you, I try different strings, and I also try different gauges on different guitars to see if I prefer the feel and the tone. For years on electrics I used 10-52 gauge. Lately I find myself going with 10-46, or custom 9.5-46s If the nut slot is cut for a heavier gauge string, you may not like how the string sits. If the slot is cut too narrow, the string will not sit properly and impact the action and the tone. Uncomfortable guitars do not get played. Comfortable ones do.
Nothing is different for bass players, although different gauges may place more demand on proper nut configuration because differences in the string diameter.
If you have a guitar that has a vibrato arm, or one that refers to a tremolo arm (wrong name commonly used) getting the arm set up by a pro is a godsend. I find Strats particularly need help depending on whether you want to allow pitch down only, pitch down and a bit of up and what level of tension that you want on the arm. Sometimes a nut change can help. I have a Strat with a Fender vintage 6 screw tremolo bridge and the only way to make the thing usable was to put a Jeff Beck style LSR roller nut on it. It's awesome now.
Bigsby tailpieces look way cool, but a proper config can help you maintain tuning longer. Let's face it, that design was not built for tuning integrity. If you have a Floyd Rose style trem, with or without a locking nut (get one if you do not have one), getting these things set up for effective use takes a pro with experience. Or days and weeks of screwing around.
Pots that get scratchy or don't move well can benefit from a cleaning, which may involved a bit more than a shot of electrical contact cleaner down the shaft, YouTube experts notwithstanding. A crackly or intermittent pickup selector can also benefit from a pro check. Old sliding switches on a Jaguar had no remedy other than replacement. The original owner had probably kept the guitar in a damp location and while the guitar was fine, the electronics suffered. A professional tech can save you both time and money in bringing things to resolution.
If you received or bought a guitar or bass over the holidays and things just don't feel right, contact the guitar shop directly. If the instrument was bought over the web, particularly from one of the warehouse operators you may have fewer options. I prefer dealing with real brick and mortar stores because I can play the instrument first and most B&M stores will include a set up with the purchase of an instrument at a reduced cost, and sometimes even include it. A professional setup can really make a difference and change an ok guitar into one that you cannot put down.
Play on!