Should we really have to have guitars set up so often in this day and age . Many guitars cost upwards of say Ā£400 or 500 and still need to be sorted. I can understand people that feel they need a particular set up but all I seem to read on guitar forums etc is about setups. As a home player I expect a new guitar to be playable without string buzz or super high action etc.
"go and get it set up " is what im reading but why isnt it done properly in the first place ?
Rant over .
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The only guitars I have there that were setup correctly out the box were from monoprice.com.
The only guitar I didnāt have to set up is my recently purchased Les Paul Studio, and even that had to have the intonation corrected for some strings.
The Harley Benton guitars I have all were set up more or less correctly by Thomann technicians, but all needed lowering the action or straightening the neck a bit. They were playable, of course, but I want to have all my guitars set up to my liking.
Anyway, itās always worthwhile to check everything that can be user-adjusted. Besides, thereās no ideal setup that works for every guitarist as some players prefer, for example, the action set higher than recommended.
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Because different players have different needs. This means the manufacturers go with what will satisfy the āworst caseā for heights on things like saddles and nuts. It would be really annoying to need to go immediately buy a new nut and/or saddle, then cut it to your desired height, just to use your new instrument.
You can make the same argument for other things, like strings - āwhy cant it come with my preferred stringsā. Far more cost effective to give a balanced preference than offer different models with easily adjusted differences.
So far (after 6 guitars), I have seen only a need to lower my bridge height and adjust the truss rod. These are things anyone who can turn a screw with some care should be able to handle. Knowing what height is good for you is a matter of trial and error for yourself in all cases. Having someone else do the work will require them learning your preferences which is also likely some additional trial and error.
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I don`t buy it but I bow to your experience . 
Some guitar stores have their tech do a quality inspection and standard setup before dispatch and you can tell them your specific setup requirements in advance.
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Iād think that itād be a good idea to set up, if, the guitar plays poorly for you. ie high action, buzzing strings, intonation not being correct. Them type of things. If you like the way your guitar plays, then Iād think leave well enough alone.
Myself, I donāt consider that a expensive guitar. And Iād think that even expensive guitars āmayā need a set up.
To me, thatās wishful thinking. Some mfg.s say they set up from the factory. While this may be true. It may also still not meet āyourā needs as to how āyouā like it set up.
Iād guess because it costs money or time (which is money) for a mfg. to set up. If a guitar is cheap enough the mfg. may find somewhere to cut corners prior to sale. ie, no setup.
All that said. Iāve not had to set up my guitars. Two used ones were most playable (perhaps the previous owner did a setup?). Didnāt have string buzz and intonation seemed pretty close to me. However I do usually adj. the bridge for lower action if I can get away with it w/o getting string buzz.
The one guitar I got new said it was setup at the factory. And it was, mostly. Again, I lowered the bridge for lower action for how I like my action. Also that guitar had some fret sprout. It was shipped to me and bought off line. So could be a change in environment between where it was to where it ended up at. fwiw. The new guitar I got the oem stood behind there alledged setup and paid for me to take my guitar to my local shop to have the fret ends trimmed down to fit.
So.
My answer would be itās best to have a setup, but depending on your guitar and how it plays for you, ya may get away w/o. Each guitar is different.
Good luck.
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Some guitars arenāt even close out of the box. The manufacturer assumes that you will set it up.
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Watch a few Phil McKnight videosā¦ he does the inspection like EVERY guitar manufacturer should.
I have purchased some guitars that are extremely playable out of the box (DāAngelico is very good at this) & others that need a lot of work (Both Squire & my Gibson Les Paul).
I donāt expect everything to be to my personal taste but do expect a generically good setup regardless of purchase price!
Tod
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I take issue with the āgo and get it set upā comments. No, learn how to do it yourself. Basic guitar setup is easy and doesnāt require expensive tools.
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For one, this is somewhat akin to purchasing a bicycle and insisting that the height of the saddle be adjusted correctly for you before anyone knows what height it needs to be for you. The bicycle is ārideableā without this adjustment, but for it to be the most comfortable for you, the person setting it up needs to know what your preferred seat height is first. Same with the ācontact pointsā of the grips, saddle, and pedals. LOTS of tiny variations possible there so they just throw some āstandardā stuff on (or not, in the case of pedals) and you have to know what you want to change whatās already installed. Or make a choice for what isnāt. A guitar is no different. Thereās a ārangeā of what string heights could be but your style and preferences need to develop before you know what that needs to be for you. If youāre new, that may take awhile. If youāre more experienced and you know what you want already then you can take care of that right away.
A guitar involves a much higher level of precision, so such adjustments are much smaller. Less expensive instruments are more likely to be made in a factory on an assembly line, and while the machines can do a very good job, finish work and adjustments need to be made. Level of QC of the mfr is going to determine how well-done the finish work is handled before it makes it to the shop (or to you if you bought online). Some of those things CANNOT be made until it gets to its final destination because the guitars are typically made of wood and wood moves according to temp and humidity. They can do all the work in the world at the factory, but if the instrument then goes into a box and then into a shipping container, spends weeks on a ship and probably weeks more in port, then onto a truck to go where it needs to go next and then maybe into a warehouse where it sits and then onto a truck again and so on. All those fluctuations are going to make any setup work done at the factory a complete waste of time.
Itās even debatable about whether setup done at the warehouse before itās shipped to you is a waste of time because itās still going to go into a box and then onto a truck or a plane before you end up with it where it then needs to acclimate to your conditions at home. If that instrument was built in a place with certain conditions and then passed through places with very different conditions which are different from the conditions where you live, this can be a LOT of movement that needs to stabilize.
If weāre talking about a more expensive instrument that was built by hand, then there are going to be more potential subtle variations from one instrument to another that need to be accounted for by a setup.
And once you have it at home, donāt expect that youāre done with setups. Weather conditions change there, too. Do you humidify your instruments or not? Do you need to DEhumidify your instruments? As you play your instruments, there is wear you need to account for. Strings wear out. Frets wear out. Nuts wear out.
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They are set to factory spec, then loaded an a truck. In sum cases then loaded on a boat, then unloaded from the boat onto another truck, taken to a warehouse and sit there until they are loaded on another truck and taken to the music store where you buy it and put it in you car and take it home.
Where you donāt like the strings and put lighter ones on.
Your guitar has traveled further in itās first month of life in a box, unheated and unhumidified than most people do in there life.
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This is such a good answer.
The fact is everyone set up is a bit different depending on anatomy and experience, and even style. People who play and do a ton of bends are going to have a set up very different than someone who never bends. Its the same as someone who fingerpicks exclusively versus someone who is pick only strum master. Even in the BLIM master classes I have heard a couple of the artists say stuff like āI like my guitars set up this way which isndifferent than most hecause I do _______ā
I am definitely in the l want to set up on my own camp. Of course I change my own brakes on my 4 runner myself amd Intend tontake everything apart as soon as I get it just to see.
I like being able to maintain and repair my own stuff like that. I dont like being dependent on anyone. A little off the question at end, sorry
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Iāve sold a lot of bicycles over the years and have measured a lot of people to get saddles adjusted even roughly correctly. And thatās not even a pro level fitting like many road cyclists do, where you are measured and you ride and are measured again and so on and the fitter makes tiny adjustments to account for your personal anatomical differences. So itās an easy analogy for me to make.
I do a lot of my own labor on things, also. But I draw the line at a lot of stuff on cars. My father made sure to teach me a lot, and one of those things he taught me was to HATE working on cars. So I pay other people for that. Which is just as well because car stuff has become a LOT more computer-controlled than it was when I learned to strip down an engine and clean a carburetor (my first car had one of those, but none have since).
I do seem to have an affinity for wood and itās an affinity that I have periodically nurtured over the years.
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A guitar can be setup for the average player,mid point string height and correct intonation, and there shouldnāt be any fret buzz. If thatās not to your suiting then itās not hard to adjust bridge height, and change strings, although changing strings can require but changed which unless your confident a trip to a luthier maybe best.
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Iāll start with the conclusion. Try to suss out whatās likely to be warranty work and whatās stuff you can do without voiding the warranty. (I agree thereās an inbetween of not warranty and donāt fancy doing yourself, but Iāve yet to come across that one).
Not being perfect can work in your favour, particularly if you have a good idea of what you want.
3 of the 6 guitars and basses Iāve bought needed warranty fixes.
The most recent (my electric), needed some fretwork. I asked the guitar tech to do a set up and put new strings on it whilst he hadthe guitar in 6 months after purchase. I expected to pay for at least the strings, but didnāt need to as the warranty fix needed the strings to be removed which apparently meant new strings included. They were the size I wanted (10s) than the 9s the guitar came with. They were also coated so should last a good while. He also did a set up on the guitar at no cost to me - which i guess he had to as he canāt really give it back in an unsatisfactory state.
It was a similar story with my Rickenbacker 4003 (the nut on the low E string needed cutting lower). I thought the strings on it had lasted a year. After the experience with my electric 6 string, I now suspect he changed the strings. We spoke about how i wanted the bass set up, which he did for me. It now plays well. I also suspect the original owner traded the bass in a it was painful to play, but probably didnāt know enough to realise it was fixable with a visit to the guitar tech and became disillusioned with it.
20 odd years ago the bridge on my electro acoustic came away from the body. Maybe I ended up with a well set up guitar, maybe i didnāt. I didnāt know enough at the time.
So 3 imperfect guitars, the latter 2 of which now play well, in part because I knew enough to know I couldnāt do the work myself and I had a good idea of what to ask for wrt set up.
2 of the other 3 Iāve bought needed stuff doing to them. They were things I thought i could do (based on having an old one to mess around with and instruction from various sources) without voiding the warranty / they were designed to be user adjustable. Both taught me things about guitar maintenance and set up, that played into me knowing the Ric and the electric were likely to be warranty fixes. I was thus fairly confident about taking them back and having an informed discussion with the guitar tech.
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Just two weeks ago, I bought a new PRS. Everything about it felt perfect for me. I havenāt had to tweak anything to make it comfortable to play. That having been said, someone else might not like the way it plays. 
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Most guitars are set up to a certain spec, leaving it for the player to find what suits them, and like Mathew says, learn to do it yourself, itās good practice and good for you. After all, it is yours for life, I hope
In such cases I would definitely recommend them to take the guitar to a luthier. If the user canāt even guess what the issue may be (after all, he is an absolute beginner), they wonāt even know what to learn in order to fix the problem.
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If the thing is buzzing from day one and assuming itās not something that you can easily fix yourself, why would you pay a luthier? Get the retailer to fix it for you as theyāve sold something thatās borderline unplayable.
To go back to the bicycle example, if you got a new bike home and the brakes rubbed, you wouldnāt rush to pay a mechanic to fix it so why do so many people accept a lower standard from guitar shops?