InstrumentMaintenance

Proper Instrument Care

Since climatic conditions in your area may differ greatly from those under which the initial adjustments were made, we recommend the following suggestions:

BASICS

A solid case of a good quality is a must for your instrument; the best will be a thermo-insulating case

The most critical factor is changes in temperature and air humidity - these might cause deformation, even cracks in soundboards and/or sides. Pay more attention in winter, please! Abstain from radiating heat!

Do not leave your instrument, either bare or in a case, exposed in the sun e.g. inside the car. Never ever display it near car windows. Do not expose your instrument - bare or in case - to the frost. If you can't do otherwise, let it become slowly acclimatized. A place with minimum of air humidity of 45% is highly recommended; optimal humidity is between 45 - 65%. Get a humidifier to keep the optimal air humidity (45 - 65%). A temporary solution is to insert half of apple or potato in plastic bag and put it into your instrument case. Water evaporated out of apple/potato meat has the same effect as the mentioned humidifier

Clean your instrument with special cleaning formula only and /or with friendly agents based on natural materials

The instruments are equiped with Elixir® strings made by W.L.Gore®. These strings are coated by the Gore Tex® fibre that extends the expiration time and keeps the original sound and playability. Elixír® strings should be changed after about 120 playing hours. If you are using standard strings (non coated, non protected), we suggest you to change them after about 30 hours of playing; do not play with oxided and/or dirty strings since that significantly contributes to wear of your instrument fingerboard and frets. Use medium gauge strings (0.13‘), but no stronger

Do you wear a belt? Shift its buckle sidewise towards your hips or even to your back. Scars and dents are unrepairable

ADJUSTMENT

Your instrument has been hand adjusted to the closest tolerances, and set up for the best possible playing action; that is customarily in the range of 0.3 - 0.5 mm. You can test it by doing the following:

-Put your instrument on a straight surface. With the finger of your left hand, press the low E string at the 1st fret and do the same with your right hand finger on the last fret - use the string as a straightedge

-Look at the gap around the half-way mark of the fingerboard (7th or 8th fret) between the frets and the string - the action should be as aforementioned; that is around 0.3 - 0.5 mm

-If there is a need to adjust the action again after you've changed the strings, use the enclosed adjustment key. You'll do the necessary adjustment by turning the embedded truss rod nut, accessed via the soundhole, clockwise or counterclockwise; don't forget to have the strings in tuned position. By following the instructions just mentioned, a truss rod adjustment can be easily made so that the instrument returns to its optimum playing conditions

We'd like to point out how much of a gap you want is personal preference, and it depends on many factors - the most essential is the style and technique of the right hand playing, the force of attack, gauge of your strings etc.; that's why the manufacturer is not responsible for meeting personal preferences of such a kind. The guarantee does not apply to string action but to the functioning of the adjustment mechanism only. Never use the force when adjusting your instrument

STRING CHANGE

1-string

2-saddle

3-bridge

4-guitar top

5-under-bridge plate

6-string-ending ring

7-bridge pin

8-guitar-side

Take look at the instruction pictures

Crook the ring-end of the string to the bow, or to the acute angle

Fix the end of the string thru the hole by using the bridge pin. Keep the string-ending ring away from the bridge pin, the ring mustn’t be caught by the pin – the string tension can cause the ring to extract the bridge pin out from the hole and the string will get free

After changing strings you might find the bridge saddle slightly off its position, due to the use of wound syringe-tension (see blue arrow-indicator) . It may not be fully set by its bottom surface onto its base, so you can experience some unequal tones or the signal can go dead when using piezzo pickups

Put on the strings and tune roughly. Put your instrument onto a straight surface and while doing fine tuning, press in the middle of the saddle against the move of tightening strings that is backwards to the guitar edge (see red arrow-indicator). You can use a wooden block, a pencil, or just hold the saddle carefully with thin pliers to ensure that the bridge pins aren’t extracted from the holes

STRAP BUTTON INSTALLATION

1-fingerboard

2-truss-rod block

3-bolts

4-Alu heel-rod

5-neck-heel

Take look at the instruction pictures

Find centre of the heelcap to install the strap-button - see the indicator (arrow)

No more than 10 milimeters to screw up the heel

Before screwing drill the heelcap using correct bit

The Alu heel-rod (of all models !) has a total length of 76 milimeters, measured from the bottom edge of the fingerboard - use this information to choose the right drill bit and screw