New to me Norman B20 looking for set up advice

[RustyMcdangles]

Hey guys, I picked up a Norman b20 cw , I believe it’s a 1999, it’s in pretty fair shape. I wanted to have some adjustments done suit me a little. What exactly is included in a “set up”. I was hoping to have the height of strings brought down , action is a little high imo. Also anybody have any recommendations with strings, I like a more vibrant bright sound. I always used elixers light on my Taylor. Thanks in advance for the advice!

https://ibb.co/0rwC2jy
https://ibb.co/5x0YLkr

[warfrat73]

There's some good info here under "Instrument Setups" and "Acoustic Guitar."

If you're looking for a brighter sound (I think that's what you mean by more vibrant) you might try 80/20 strings.

Edit: OOPs, forgot to include the link to Frets.com, that would have been helpful... http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/pagelist.html#Musician

[warfrat73]

Edited to include link above...

[Swordfish71]

I have a B20 cw, bought new about 15 years ago. One suggestion I can make, keep medium strings on it. I've been going thru a little bit of a fuss with tonality, thinking I needed to get the guitar looked at professionally, but then I remembered I had Light strings on it.... As soon as I put the mediums on it this afternoon, all my tonality issues went away. If you look at my thread on the frets being off... You will find my measures for the action height, relief, etc ... To compare yours to. Enjoy this guitar, I find it has such a mellow tone with the right strings.

[RustyMcdangles]

Originally Posted by Swordfish71

I have a B20 cw, bought new about 15 years ago. One suggestion I can make, keep medium strings on it. I've been going thru a little bit of a fuss with tonality, thinking I needed to get the guitar looked at professionally, but then I remembered I had Light strings on it.... As soon as I put the mediums on it this afternoon, all my tonality issues went away. If you look at my thread on the frets being off... You will find my measures for the action height, relief, etc ... To compare yours to. Enjoy this guitar, I find it has such a mellow tone with the right strings.

I do agree, the tonality is flat, I was told the strings were just replaced, I have no idea what gauge they are, but it seems to lack the clarity I expected I guess. Now I did come off a Taylor bbt which was bright and I used light elixer strings. I’m supposed to get it looked at by a luthier to get a clean up and set up, get an opinion from him. I’ll post a video and some pictures .

[RustyMcdangles]

Just to follow up as I haven’t spent too much time on it yet, I do find it buzz’s a bit , vibrates on heavy playing, I’ll post a few pics if it helps to look at.

https://ibb.co/H2L90LX
https://ibb.co/99KbpbY
https://ibb.co/gDCFdPb
https://ibb.co/GRY5FXK
https://ibb.co/d4L5kx7

[RustyMcdangles]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

There's some good info here under "Instrument Setups" and "Acoustic Guitar."

If you're looking for a brighter sound (I think that's what you mean by more vibrant) you might try 80/20 strings.

Edit: OOPs, forgot to include the link to Frets.com, that would have been helpful... http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/pagelist.html#Musician

Thanks for the read

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by RustyMcdangles

What exactly is included in a “set up”.

I've attempted to answer that question in my Basic Guitar Setup 101: https://www.charlestauber.com/luthie...May%202015.pdf


I grew up in Hamilton. I'm currently living in Brampton.