What's the difference between a setup and a restoration?

Short answer: they're not even in the same conversation, and there's a third category people forget sits between them — repair. A setup dials in a guitar that already works. A repair fixes one specific thing that's broken. A restoration is a whole different animal: it's for guitars carrying years of age, deferred maintenance, and a pile of old repair issues that were never dealt with and have compounded on each other.

What a setup covers

Truss rod adjustment, action at the nut and saddle, intonation, nut slot depth, sometimes a fret level and polish. Nothing's broken here. Nothing needs rebuilding. You're just dialing in a machine that already works — no drama, no surgery, just fine-tuning. A basic Restring & Setup runs $50–100 plus strings; step up to a Signature Setup ($100–150) and you get a genuinely better-than-new experience with a general disassemble, clean and reassemble that exposes any bits of deferred maintenance.

What a repair covers

A repair fixes one specific, identifiable problem on a guitar that's otherwise fine. A cracked top. A lifting bridge. A dead pickup. A headstock break. Stuff happens — I've broken guitars too, that's not a moral failing, it's just gear. Repairs typically run $150–300 depending on what's actually wrong, fret work is $150 for a level/crown/dress or $350+ for a full refret (more on that distinction here: How do I know if my guitar needs a refret?), and electronics work is usually $150–300. The guitar doesn't need a rebuild. It needs one or two things fixed, and then it's done.

What a restoration covers

This is where people get confused, so let's be precise: restoration isn't just "a big repair." It's what an old or vintage guitar needs after years, sometimes decades, of age, deferred maintenance, and a stack of small repair issues nobody ever addressed — and that have now started interacting with each other.

Dried-out finish. A neck that's shifted. Hardware that's corroded or seized solid. Electronics nobody's touched since the Ford administration. Cracks on top of old repairs on top of more cracks. One guitar, many compounding problems, no clean line between them.

That's a restoration, and it bills at $75/hour because there's no fixed scope — you genuinely don't know everything you're dealing with until you're inside it. Honestly, I love those jobs. Reviving something that's been neglected for 20 years and getting it back into daily rotation is some of the most satisfying bench work there is.

Just… don’t bother if you are “concerned” about what it might cost. Restorations typically run over $500 and easily over $1000. It’s a Pandora’s Box of hidden problems, non-standard parts, and unforeseen side quests.

Why this distinction actually matters to you

If your action is bad because of a warped top or a neck joint that's thrown in the towel, no setup fixes that permanently — you're just masking a structural problem, and it WILL come back, meaner than before. If your guitar has one broken thing — a cracked bridge, a dead pickup, a headstock break — that's a repair, full stop, and it should be priced and scoped like one. Don't let anyone quote you a restoration for a single fixable problem.

And if your grandfather's guitar has been sitting in a closet for 30 years and needs everything — finish, hardware, electronics, structure, all of it — that's not a repair with a fancier name on the invoice. That's a restoration, and it needs to be treated like the multi-front project it actually is.

The honest answer to "what do I actually need" almost always requires eyes on the guitar itself. Book Now for a free evaluation and I'll tell you exactly which bucket you're in before you spend money solving the wrong problem.

(Wondering how this maps onto a plain old setup vs. fret job question, or whether electric and acoustic setups differ? See What's the difference between a setup and a fret job? and What's the difference between electric and acoustic setups?.)