Proper guitar setup importance

I do it myself, becouse for my opinion is a very personal thing.
The intonation of a guitar must be perfect as possible specially for detuned guitar with heavy strings, but the action is personal ( in a certaint limit ) and depend by a player.
 
If you can, learn how to do a basic setup yourself (neck relief, action, string heights,nut height, intonation)...there's loads of info out there on how to do it - make sure you take your time take care when doing it - not only will it save you a truck load of cash, but the whole hassle of having to cart your guitars to the tech every time something needs to be changed when most of the time all that's need is a 1/8 turn of an allen key.

But...I would have to say it's vital you get the frets sorted out professionally at the very least, as (in my opinion) they pretty much dictate how good your setup will be...If you have a fret or two (or more) that's 2 high or low you'll end up going round in circles trying to fix the symptoms in other ways that will certainly impact on the guitars playability. Also on this point, don't be fooled into thinking because you paid "X thousand" for your guitar it will be set up right - most times it won't, infact the dodgiest setup I've ever had to sort out was on a custom shop Washburn.
 
This guy I went to looks like he's in his early 50's. After talking a while with him and everythings going smooth, I realized that he thought I wanted my 2 6 strings set up in D standard. When I made sure he understood that I want them in B standard he was totally blown away. His reaction was similiar to this: :OMG: He was shocked that people actually tune that low. :lol:

He was saying that in the 60's when you couldn't buy sets or even single strings they used banjo strings. :guh: Then he said something about moving the strings over if you broke one? I don't know what he was talking about there. When banjo was referenced I started to zone out. o_O

He seems like he has alot of experience with setups and knows what he's doing so I trust that he will do fine. :erk: