Electric Guitars: Maintenance

[Strings4Him]

This might be a dumb question, but here goes.

Do electric guitars generally have more upkeep than an acoustic guitar?  Please explain your answer with more than just a yes or no   

Thanks.

[ducktrapper]

This might be a dumb question, but here goes.

Do electric guitars generally have more upkeep than an acoustic guitar?  Please explain your answer with more than just a yes or no  

Thanks.

Not really, yes, maybe, at least as they age. Besides the regular things, you gots pots and pickups and wires and other stuff like adjustable saddles and then I go through strings faster on an electric, as well.  

[thirdlake123]

Not really. There are a lot more things that can go wrong with an electric, but these problems are usually easy to fix. They are much more adjustable than an acoustic and they can take a lot of abuse. Owners should learn the basics of setting up their instrument. It is pretty easy to do and you may find that you have to make some small changes on a regular basis, even with expensive instruments. The more you learn about setups, the more you will notice that your guitar goes through changes. If the guitar has a tremolo you will have to keep an eye on how simple things like changing string guage can change the action. They are not as sensitive to humidity changes, but you can check the fret edges to see if the neck is drying out (sharp edges).

[scoutsteffLV]

interesting question. if both are set-up properly there there should be no difference.  electronic connections can corrode over time especially if you live near a coastline hence more salt in the air but then an acoustic body is more prone to cracking and splitting from humidity fluctuations. seasonal truss rod adjustments apply equally to both.

[Strings4Him]

thanks for the feedback

[JOYCEfromNS]

It is necessary to maintain electric guitar for getting a good quality of sound. Following points need to be remember are:
1)Woods of various types are carefully selected, milled, sanded.
2)The various pieces are drilled, sliced, and cut with decorative and other patterns. 
3)The neck is joined to the body and decorative touches are added.

Maintained

[markslife]

It's YaekoCubr1501's first post/reply, surely we can train him up.........anyway JOYCEfromNS: Yaeko's username kindof sounds Canadianish so maybe that's the deal  

[L07 Shooting Star]

It's YaekoCubr1501's first post/reply, surely we can train him up.........anyway JOYCEfromNS: Yaeko's username kindof sounds Canadianish so maybe that's the deal  

Except that "he" is a she, and is located in Connecticut 

[Mikeymac]

This thread seems like a great place to talk about specific maintenance issues with our Larrivee electrics - no sense starting another thread with nearly the same title!

This is not a place to bag on Larrivee - these are great guitars!

But occasionally there will be maintenance issues, or there may be a mod you've done that you want to share with others. With the new "Tele-style" Larrivee in the works, it would seem to me that Larrivee is serious about being in the electric guitar market, and many of us are serious about playing and enjoying these instruments. So there will be problems or mods worth talking about.

I did recently have a problem with my RS-2/P-90 - and it was specifically an issue with the pickups. My bridge volume control seemed to quit working; no volume at all with the switch in the bridge position. And when the switch was in the middle position, I would only get sound with the bridge control set on around "8" (neck volume turned up, of course). Took it to my tech, thinking he was going to have to order another volume pot from Larrivee (since these are left-handed pots in mine).

He checked everything out and found that the bridge pickup wire had gotten pinched under the plastic pickup cover because the pickup had been lowered all the way into the cavity (this had been done during the set-up to lower the action at the local dealer - the same dealer/tech that now discovered the problem). This caused the outside ground shielding to cut through the lead/hot wire's plastic insulation and cause a short.

He fixed it, but I think this issue came up before that there wasn't enough room on some of these early Larrivees with P-90's - the pickup cavities were a little too shallow to allow for more adjustment of the pickups.

Just a heads up - hope this helps someone else someday.