I finally “nutted up” on adjusting my own action and intonation

There are tons of videos and explanations. The key things to remember are small increments and go slow. The first time you do it is definitely nerve-wracking. The first time a neck creaks definitely tests your bladder strength. But unless you have an unusual situation (like a frozen truss rod) or do something really stupid, anything you do is reversible.

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I think the things you can only really screw up are knowing what direction to turn the truss rod for increasing/decreasing the neck relief. Also, what direction adjustable saddle screws turn to lengthen/shorten the relative string length. Some adjustable bridges work counter-intuitive to the direction you might think they're supposed to be.

Adjusting the tremolo spring claw tension should prove interesting if increasing/decreasing my string gauge...also, I've not yet tried adjusting saddle height on a tremolo guitar yet, so this will be a new adventure in shoulda/woulda/coulda.

Regards flying the plane...have fun at the restaurant this evening...am staying home and listening to some quiet music instead of turning up and listening to my tinnitus after-hours...
 
There’s nothing to be scared of really. Ok, there is one thing and that’s over tightening the truss rod. Don’t do it! However once you learn how to do setups on all your gear you’ll be laughing.

Floyds take a little bit of practice, but it’s not rocket surgery. There are so many resources on the internet there’s just no reason not to learn this stuff, IMO.
 
There’s nothing to be scared of really. Ok, there is one thing and that’s over tightening the truss rod. Don’t do it! However once you learn how to do setups on all your gear you’ll be laughing.

Floyds take a little bit of practice, but it’s not rocket surgery. There are so many resources on the internet there’s just no reason not to learn this stuff, IMO.
Yup. My non-PRS HSS imported guitar arrived this morning, and for the price point/value, I'm quite pleased with the guitar. No 60-cycle pickup hum from my FM9 (maybe because of the input gate/noise reduction), but even a gig volume/strings unmuted, the guitar stays quiet at rest.

The intonation at the 12th and 17th frets is slightly off, though (which I attribute to temperature changes during shipping), so my friend and I will spend a little time tweaking the guitar until everything is perfect. I'm hoping to learn how it should be done correctly, so I won't make any bad decisions and screw something up had I not learned correctly in the first place.

TBH, I had seriously considered a Silver Sky SE, but the backlog on orders is a bit silly to wait for. I was fortunate enough to locate one of the remaining non-PRS HSS examples before they were even more difficult to find online.
 
That’s definitely one good way to do it. Get something cheap-ish and practice on that.

The money some people drop on PRS gear and then have to pay somebody to change the strings... When you can buy a Squier bullet tele (or some other perfectly serviceable instrument) for like £150, why wouldn’t you?

I mean, FFS...
 
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