Why every guitarist should learn how to do a proper setup

     As someone who repairs instruments and teaches guitar for a living it goes without saying that I do a lot of guitar setups. Everything from someone wanting to lower their string height but not knowing how to set the bridge radius to fret level leveling to even things as simple as changing strings. While fret leveling is a serious undertaking and should be left to someone who knows what they are doing most other issues can very easily be done yourself.
     You would be surprised how many guitarists who have been playing for years are still too afraid to change their own strings and will pay someone like myself a good sum of money to do something that takes anywhere from 5-30 minutes depending on the guitar. With the wealth of information on the internet such as YouTube you really should know how to do this as it is essential to have strings on the instrument. I think this really boils down to fear that you will somehow mess the guitar up, this simply will not happen. Even with the overly complicated Floyd Rose system you would have to try to cause any real damage.
     The basic setup is where there is the most controversy as how the guitar plays is a very subjective. I do however see a lot of botched setups where someone tried to setup their guitar without paying attention to what is happening as they are making adjustments, not knowing what they are really trying to accomplish and finally not doing any research or asking questions. Ultimately this guitar ends up in my hands and when I ask how they want me to set it up they respond with "I don't know, make it easy to play." With that answer is would try to read the player by asking them what style they play ect... and do a relatively standard setup for that style which would need to be tweaked for that persons preferences. This is why every guitarist should know how to do a setup.
     Most guitarists think that doing a setup involves a lot of measuring and specialty tool when in reality it really doesn't take anything you probably don't already have. Since there are so many tutorials on the internet there is no point in me going through it step by step so here's a list of what you will need.
Truss rod wrench, usually an allen wrench or socket
Small screwdrivers
Variety of guitar picks to use as feeler gauges for string height (my preference is 1.14mm, standard setup height is 1.5mm)
Capo
Set of feeler gauges if you have them, not necessary but nice to have.
That's all you need. Now don't be afraid of adjusting your guitar, it's a lot easier than you think.

1.14mm pick as a feeler gauge.