Written By Peter Hubscher and Kenny Ruyter

Before you get into the studio, it is a good idea to make sure that your equipment is in its best possible shape. Sometimes it's prudent to borrow other people's equipment, which may be better, but it's also good to have several options available. This gives you more flexibility when something is just not working. In live performance, your job is to set up and get going as efficiently as possible. Recording is more about spending time to make things sound as good as possible. Some players have their tone just right, but getting that on tape is very different. Things sound different when you record them, so it is important to tweak tones. Guitars need to be set up, drums need good heads on them, and singers should be as healthy as possible (imagine doing a vocal session with someone who just got over bronchitis). Here are some tips to get your instrument ready for the studio.

Bass and Guitar

There are three major adjustments to electric guitars and basses: truss rod, action, and intonation. Some people prefer to have a specialist set their guitar up, yet others will try to save the $50 and do it themselves. Having a professional do it for you is usually the best option (if you don't have much experience doing this), but if you're that do-it-yourself guy, get one of your guitar mentors to guide you through the process because you can really mess it up. There are detailed instructions in several guitar books available at your local music store, one being The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. Here's the rough concept though.

Important: No adjustments should be made until you have fresh strings on your instrument! Setting up a guitar with old strings that have dirty, creepy, crawly things growing on them will get you nowhere.

The first thing to do is to check the "straightness" of the neck and determine if adjustments are necessary. Generally, you want the neck to be relatively flat. To check this, hold the guitar up to your face, string side up, with the back strap button toward you nose, and sight down each side of the neck. From this angle you should be able to see if the neck is straight or bowed in any direction. If there is a bow, either toward or away from the strings, a truss rod adjustment may be necessary. The truss rod is a metal rod (think real long screw) that goes right through the center of the neck, which counteracts the pull of the strings. Tightening the screw (righty-tighty) makes the guitar neck flatten up towards the strings (most cheap guitars come from the factory with a slightly loose truss rod, evident by really high action). Loosening the screw (lefty loosey) makes the guitar neck bow back towards the player, allowing the strings to pull more on the neck. The result of tightening the neck too much will cause it to arc towards the strings, making the strings buzz around the first few frets. Loosening the neck too much will result in the neck moving too far away from the strings (think of your guitar becoming a bow you might shoot an arrow with), causing abnormally high action around the middle of the neck. The truss rod is usually accessed from an opening in the headstock right behind the nut. Some guitars have also have covers over the opening. Other guitars and basses might have access to the truss rod at the opposite end of the neck close to the neck pickup. A way to test your truss rod adjustment is to hold down the low E string at the first fret with your left hand, and at the fret where the neck meets the body with your right hand, and measure the gap in the middle (somewhere around the 10th fret), either by eye-balling it, or using a 6-inch rule (a tiny ruler you can buy at a hardware store that has measurements down to 1/64th of an inch). A small gap like 1/16th of an inch is about right. If the string touches the tops of the frets in the middle of the neck, the neck may be too tight. If the string is too high, the neck is too loose. Double-check your work by testing it on the high E string as well. Never turn the truss rod more than 1/4 turn at a time, and retune your guitar between each turn before you take measurements.

Once the neck is about where it should be, you should check the action. Most factory shipped guitars need a slight truss rod adjustment and that's it. But if the action is too high or too low, then an adjustment will be necessary. This adjustment is usually made with the small hex screws at the bridge. There are two per string on a Strat style guitar, and you can raise or lower the action of each string individually here. On Les Paul type guitars or guitars with a Floyd Rose style bridge, the action is raised or lowered by two large screws, one on each side of the bridge. You cannot adjust the strings individually on such a bridge. Check for proper action by playing each string on each fret, all the way up the neck, and make sure there's no buzzing, rattling, or "fretting-out" (you'll know what that is if and when it happens). Also try a few bends here and there to make sure the strings have enough clearance over the frets in front of it so the note doesn't get choked. Proper action varies with style and your personal preference, but just make sure there is no buzzing after you set it up to super shred mode.

Also, on Strats and Floyd Rose guitars, you should make sure that the bridge is parallel with the body of the guitar. If it is not (either being pulled forward by the strings or falling back towards the body), yet another adjustment should be made. In order to adjust this, you will need to open the back cavity of the guitar. The bottom of the bridge is connected to a set of springs (from 2 to 5 springs), which is connected to a plate, which is then connected to two large screws, which are then screwed directly into the body of the guitar. Tightening these screws pulls the bridge down, and loosening them lets the strings pull the bridge up. Here again, like adjusting the truss rod, make small adjustments, and retune each time until the bridge becomes parallel to the body. Be patient, because this can take awhile, especially on a Floyd Rose bridge. If this step was required on your guitar, it won't hurt to double check the action again now that the bridge was moved.

With the neck adjustment in place, and the action set, the most important adjustment is next: Intonation. Checking the intonation is making sure that you get a pure octave at the 12th fret, and without your notes becoming sharp or flat as you play higher up the neck. This is a test that needs to be performed with an accurate tuner. First tune your guitar perfectly. Use a tuner with a needle; digital tuners are not for setting intonation. Then play the 12th fret harmonic of the string. Watch the tuner say its perfect, and then play the 12th fret (octave) of that string and watch what the tuner does. If the needle doesn't move, the string is intonated correctly. If the needle goes sharp or flat, an adjustment is necessary. To make a sharp measurement go flat tighten the screw at the back of that particular string's saddle. To make a flat measurement go sharp loosen the screw. Repeat for all of the strings. For Floyd Rose equipped guitars, you'll need to use a hex wrench. The hex screw is found on the front of the saddle for each string, right in front of the locking mechanism. To access the screw easier, loosen the string so you can bend it out of the way. Then loosen the hex screw and move the saddle with your fingers. Tighten the hex screw back in, tune the string, and check the intonation.

There are other things that can cause problems with the guitar in the studio. A large culprit is a loose jack. This will cause several things, clicks and pops, weak signal, it may even cause your guitar to cut off. If that is the case, you need to open the axe up and fix the solder joint. Be careful when you tighten the plug from the outside, as you may break the wire on the inside. Batteries. Some guitars have active pickups or active eq. Make sure you have a brand new battery for your session. Make sure you have new strings before your session, but be warned that this is not the time to change your string gauge. It can mess up the intonation, action, and truss rod.

Your guitar rig has several things that you can potentially improve on. Simple solutions make big differences. New cables can get rid of lots of problems. Try to keep your effects chain to a minimum. The less hiss the better. Some people use gates to control hiss, but I don't recommend gates because they don't solve the problem, they just cover up the mess. If you have a tube amplifier that is aging, you may consider putting fresh tubes in it. A new set of preamp and power amp Groove tubes can mean night and day differences in clarity and tone. I hate to say this because the truth can hurt. My opinion is the more simple the rig, the better. It will be more stable. If you have a cheesy Crate amp and use a Pod to get different tones, borrow someone else's amp for recording. You'll thank me for it later.

Drums

Drums can be tweaked in many ways as well. You can tune or replace heads, eliminate rattles and squeaks, and use alternate sounds to give a diverse quality to the instrument.

Rattles and squeaks come from things vibrating against each other. Stands too close to each other can vibrate and cymbals without sleeves can rattle. The bass and hi hat pedals can squeak. You need to spend some time with your drum set before the session to eliminate these problems. To test the set, strike each instrument once and listen to the set. Find and eliminate all extraneous noises. The cymbal stands need to have felts and sleeves in them to prevent squeaks and noises. The sleeves also prevent keyholes in the cymbals. You can use household oil on the bass pedal and hi hat springs to control squeaking. There are other ways to improve tone as well. Make sure that the bass drum is suspended in the air by the two feet that hold it up. That increases bass. Also for a clear kick sound, try not to rest the beater against the head. That restricts the head thereby choking the sound. Achieving good drum tone is very technique oriented. Ask some mentors and colleagues for their opinion.

Tuning drumheads can be a tedious process. It is best to let someone show you how to do this. There are a few important things to consider. Seating the head is probably the most important thing. What you are trying to achieve is that the rim holds the head against the shell squarely. An improperly seated head can make a drum impossible to tune. If you leave a head improperly seated for a long time the rim will bend to fit the head, permanently damaging the drum. You can tell if your heads are seated correctly by measuring the distance between the rim and the shell (at the edge of the drum head). If it's not even all the way around, your head is seated improperly.

Be sure to select good heads from the music store. Here's a test you can do to see if the head is going to be good. Remove the head from the box before you buy it and while holding the rim, tap on the center of the head. If the head seems to make a tone, you're o.k. Don't buy a head that has wrinkles or it isn't tonal. This test ensures that you have chosen the right head. For jazz, I personally recommend Remo Coated Ambassador heads all the way around. For a rock setup I'd get Remo Clear Ambassadors for all the toms, a Coated Ambassador for the snare, and an Evans EQ-4 for the bass drum.

Here's how to get a new head on correctly. With the rim off, place the new head on the shell. Push down gently and evenly all around. Put the rim on top and set all the screws finger tight. Now seat the head by pushing solidly and evenly in the center of the drum. You may hear some crackling sounds as the paint gets used to its new position. Now finger tighten all the screws again, because they just got a lot looser from you pressing on the head. Ensure that the head is seated properly by checking the gap at the edge of the head and rim. If its even you can now tighten the drum with your key. Using a star shaped pattern, tighten each screw about 180 degrees each. Count as you go noting how many lugs the drum is composed of. When the drum is in range of being tuned to the right pitch, check the pitch of opposing lugs. To do this strike the drum with the key about an inch from the lug you are checking. Notice how the pitch varies from lug to lug. The goal is to get each pitch point to sound the same. First, try to get the opposites to sync up in pitch with each other. Then try to get the pairs in sync with neighboring lugs. Once the pitches are all the same, it is time to get the drums pitch accurate with your tastes and in line with the rest of the kit. To raise or lower the drums pitch use 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16th turns to fine- tune the drum. Maintain the star pattern the whole time. Use the counting technique to know how many lugs you've adjusted. Check the tuning points as you go and make fine adjustments accordingly.