Woodo Guitars are delivered with factory setup. This means that the instrument "out of the box" can be near but not perfect for your personal style of playing. It's possible that you want to lower the action, adjust the neck, intonate or replace the strings. We have gathered some tips for you in this page.
ACTION
Usually people want that their instrument should be playable with ease. And the keyword for the playability is the action. We'd want the strings to locate as close to the fretboard as possible without hearing the string buzz against the frets. If your playing style is hard, you'll probably end up hearing the fret buzz sooner than a guitarist with a lighter touch. Besides of your playing style there's several factors which are important : action by the nut, neck adjustment and action by the bridge.
We'll focus on the two latter, because most of the adjustments are made there.
There's a truss rod built in the neck. This piece of a metal bar is there to work as a counter weight to the force the strings causes to the neck. The truss rod is adjustable ie. you can use it to decide how much the neck is bowed. This bowness is called "relief". To check the relief of your guitar take the guitar on your lap, and with your right elbow push all the strings against the pickups. Push the strings against the fretboard by the first fret by your left hand. Now, with your right hand index finger push repeatedly a string against the fretboard by the ninth fret. Check how much spacing there is between the string and the fretboard. You should have about or less than a string width. The neck should have certain amount of relief (bow), but how much, that's yours to decide.
To adjust the relief, unscrew the truss rod cover plate by the nut and, use the provided hexagonal Allen Key to adjust the truss rod. A quarter turn is usually enough. Turning clockwise tightens the truss rod and the neck is getting straighter. Turning counter clockwise gives you more relief (bow). Always do loosen the nut first. This is a good practice and a more secure one. A broken truss rod means usually goodbye for the guitar. Re-tune the instrument and test play. If you're getting more fret buzz within 15th-22nd fret, your neck is bowed too much. And if you get more buzz on the frets 1st-5th, the neck is probably too straight or even back bowed. When the buzz lays evenly over the fretboard, your relief is okay and now it's time to adjust the action.
Let's adjust the action. Use the provided Allen key for lifting or lowering the strings by the bridge. Screw until the fret buzz almost disappears. Little buzz can be left in order to get a lower action. Re-tune and test.
INTONATION
Intonation means that you adjust the string lengths to match to the scaling of the frets so that you'd get the correct pitch when playing a certain note. Intonation is done by moving the bridge saddles back or forth. In order to check whether your guitar is intonated correctly, tune your instrument and compare a fretted note of 12th fret on each string to the open note of each string. They should match. If not, here's what we do. If the fretted note was higher than the open one you should increase the string length and if the fretted note was lower than the open one, you should decrease the string length. Repeat the procedure with all strings.
INSTRUMENT CARE
There are different kinds of oils and waxes on the market today for fretboard, strings and body. Using these products will increase the life span of your guitar and makes it more pleasant to play with. Almost all Woodo Guitars come with Natural Satin Finish, which is a matt finish. After awhile the parts of the body which are most exposed to touching can become glossy. You should use wax or oil recommended for musical instruments usage to keep your guitar in shape.
For Spalted Maple and Aboyna Burl products we recommend carnauba oils or waxes. The fretboard likes to have some lemon oil say once a year. This is how you keep your guitar nice and playable.
Excellent resource for more information : http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/
