What Tools Do You Actually Need to Set Up Your Own Guitar? (And Which Ones Are a Waste of Money)

Here's the honest answer before the sales pitch you'll get everywhere else: you need a lot less than the internet wants you to buy. I set up guitars for a living, and the kit that handles the vast majority of what crosses my bench would fit in a sandwich bag and cost less than a set of strings and a night out. The specialized stuff exists for a reason, but most of it solves problems you won't have for years, if ever.

A setup comes down to three adjustments: the neck (relief), the string height (action), and the tuning accuracy up the neck (intonation). Get comfortable with those three and you can make a used guitar that "plays okay" feel like it plays right. There's a fourth job at the nut that trips people up, and that's where I'll tell you to slow down.

The short answer: the core kit

If you buy nothing else, buy these. Every one of them earns its keep, and the whole list is genuinely inexpensive:

• A set of hex/Allen keys, metric and imperial. Truss rods, bridge saddles, and locking nuts all use hex fittings, and guitars mix metric and imperial depending on brand and era. A cheap dual set covers nearly everything.
• Screwdrivers, Phillips and a small flat-blade. For pickup height, some truss rods, saddle intonation screws, and pickguard/control-cavity work.
• A string action gauge (or a decent steel ruler marked in 64ths and millimeters). You cannot repeat what you can't measure. A $6 machinist's rule does the same job as a fancy branded one.
• A set of automotive feeler gauges. This is how you actually read neck relief instead of guessing. The set from an auto-parts store is the same set the "guitar" versions repackage.
• A capo. Not for playing here, but for holding a string down at the first fret while you measure relief.
• A clip-on tuner. You almost certainly own one. It's all you need to set intonation.
• A string winder and wire cutters. Quality-of-life, not strictly setup, but you'll change strings every time you do this.

That's it. That kit will let you set relief, action, intonation, and pickup height on the overwhelming majority of electric guitars. Everything past this point is either a convenience or a specialist tool for a specialist job.

How the core tools map to the three adjustments

Neck relief: feeler gauge + the right truss rod wrench

Relief is the tiny amount of forward bow in the neck. Too much and the guitar plays high and sloppy in the middle of the neck; too little and it buzzes. You check it by capoing the first fret, holding the string down at the last fret, and measuring the gap around the middle of the neck with a feeler gauge. You're looking for a small gap, in the neighborhood of .006"–.010" (roughly 0.15–0.25 mm) as a common starting point, then adjusting to taste. Many players and techs aim for "nearly straight with a hair of relief."

The catch is the wrench, and it's the tool most people get wrong. Gibson-style guitars typically use a socket/box-style wrench, usually 5/16" (8 mm), though some newer models moved to 1/4". Modern American Fenders commonly adjust with a 1/8" hex key, while older vintage-style Fenders can need a flat-blade or even removing the neck to reach the adjustment. PRS uses its own tool. Don't memorize all that — just identify what your specific guitar needs before you touch it and use the correct, fully-seated tool. A slightly-wrong wrench rounds off a truss rod nut, and that's a bad day. MusicNomad publishes a free truss-rod-wrench-by-brand finder if you're unsure.

Action and intonation: it all happens at the bridge

This is where you'll spend most of your time, and where a cheap ruler and a screwdriver do the heavy lifting. Action is string height; you set it at the 12th fret. A common starting point on an electric is about 1.5 mm (roughly 1/16") on the treble side and 2.0 mm (about 5/64") on the bass side, then you nudge it to your own preference and playing attack. Intonation is whether the guitar plays in tune as you go up the neck: you compare the open string (or 12th-fret harmonic) to the fretted 12th-fret note on your tuner and move the saddle until they match.

Different bridges, same idea. On a Tune-o-matic the whole bridge rides on two thumbwheels, so overall action is set with those and each saddle has a small screw for intonation. On a Strat-style bridge, every saddle adjusts independently. Neither is harder than the other once you understand what each screw does — you just need the little hex key or screwdriver that fits and something to measure with.

What's a waste of money (for most people)

I'm not going to pretend specialist tools are useless — I own a wall of them. But if you're setting up your own guitars at home, here's what you can skip, at least at first.

Radius gauges. These check that your string heights follow the curve of the fretboard. Genuinely useful for a fast, precise saddle setup, but not required: measure and buzz-check each string as you go and you'll get there without them. Buy them later if you catch the bug.

Branded "setup kits" sold as essential. A lot of what's in those tins is a repackaged auto feeler gauge, a ruler, and hex keys you can buy for a fraction of the price. Pay for the convenience if you want it — just don't believe you need it.

Anything promising a "pro fret job" at home. Fret leveling and crowning are real, valuable services, not a beginner's first project on a guitar you care about. That's a skill you build deliberately on a beater, not something a $30 file kit unlocks.

The one job to leave alone: the nut

If there's a single place I watch people turn a good guitar into a repair bill, it's the nut. Cutting nut slots to the right depth is what separates a guitar that plays easy at the first few frets from one that fights you, and it's precise work. It calls for gauged nut files — sets can run north of $80 — and the failure mode is unforgiving: cut one slot a hair too deep and the open string buzzes, and now you're shimming or installing a new nut. The cheap workarounds are slow and fiddly, and there's often nothing thin enough to cut the top two slots properly.

That doesn't mean you can never learn it. It means the nut is the honest line between a confident weekend setup and actual lutherie. If a used guitar you're eyeing needs nut work, factor a tech visit into the price — it's usually quick and inexpensive for someone who does it every day.

So should you learn to do this yourself?

My honest take: yes, learn the core three. Relief, action, and intonation are safe, reversible, and they teach you what your guitar is actually doing. Once you can do them, a used guitar stops being a gamble — buy something that's set up indifferently, spend twenty minutes with a $30 kit, and you've got an instrument that plays like it cost a lot more than you paid. That's a big part of why buying used makes so much sense.

Leave the nut and the frets to a pro until you've got real reps in, and don't feel bad about it — even players who do their own setups usually hand those two jobs off. Know where your line is, and the rest is genuinely fun. Plenty of the guitars in our current stock — including that Root Beer Les Paul Standard in the photos — are exactly the kind of instrument that rewards a careful setup.

FAQ

What order do I do a setup in?

Fresh strings first, then relief (truss rod), then action at the bridge, then intonation, and pickup height last. Each step affects the next, so working out of order means redoing things.

Can I really set up a guitar without a radius gauge?

Yes. A radius gauge makes matching string heights to the fretboard curve faster and more precise, but measuring each string's action with a ruler and checking for buzz gets you a great result. Add the gauge later if you catch the bug.

What's the one tool people skip that they shouldn't?

Feeler gauges. Most people eyeball relief and get it wrong. A $6 automotive set turns "I think the neck looks okay" into an actual, repeatable measurement.

Is it worth paying a tech instead?

For a full setup on a guitar you rely on, or for nut and fret work, absolutely — it's fast and inexpensive for a pro. For routine relief, action, and intonation tweaks as seasons change, learning to do it yourself pays for the tools in one or two visits.

Sensitive to getting it wrong? None of the core three can hurt a guitar if you go slow, make small changes, and re-check. Loosen strings before big truss rod moves, and never force a wrench that doesn't fully seat.