Chapman ML-2 Gold Top set up

** Warning - long unedited video ahead. Do not attempt to drive or operate heavy machinery while watching or listening to this video at work **

This video shows the set up of Vern's beautiful Chapman ML-2 Gold Top Classic. It's the third ML-2 I've worked on and the nicest of the three partly because I like the gold top, but mainly because of the Seymour Duncan US Blues zebra pickups.

Vern wasn't totally happy with how this shop-bought guitar was playing and suspected the nut wasn't set right. I picked up in London and brought it back to the Reloved workshop for a set up.

The guitar was strung with 10s which Vern wanted changing for 9s. The nut slots weren't perfect (although to be fair, they were much closer to correctly set than either of the other two ML-2s I'd set up before). If anything, they were cut a bit low so we agreed on replacing the nut anyway.

The surprise for me on this guitar was the amount of uneven frets - 100%. The degree of unevenness was relatively minor - except for one or two that were quite high and one or two that were quite low forcing me to take down the rest of the frets to reach them.

I levelled the frets up with a sanding beam (straight box section steel) with self-adhesive 220 grit paper, following the 13.8” radius by hand. I then crowned and polished the frets and re-strung the guitar with 9s. I set the nut action nice and low and took the overall playing action down by around 0.5mm.The result is a much easier to play instrument with clean, resonant notes all the way up to the 24th fret and perfect intonation (which was also slightly out).

Combine that with those delicious Seymour Duncans and it's now a beauty of a guitar.