action

What in the world is action and is it better lower or higher?? :confused: :confused:

how do you adjust it?

your bridge.

Yeah, depending on the guitar you have there can be different ways to adjust the action. Also, a lot of people get action confused with neck relief, which is the arch or bow of the neck. Ideally a neck should have a little bit of relief--so the distance from the fretboard to the strings should be fractionally bigger from roughly the 3rd to 10th frets.

Usually when you adjust the action you go for the bridge, like pure said. But sometimes you might need to adjust it at the nut. Then you raise the nut or file the slots down. And if all else fails, you can put shims in the neck pocket.

Make any sense? ;)

i have also been having a little problem with the action of one of my guitars.
its a set in prs style guitar

my problem is the action of my guitar can't get lower than .6 centimeter and my personal prefference is action lower than that. if it goes any lower it starts to buzz on the higher frets.

i took it to the guitar shop because i thought it was the neck causing this problem but they said the neck's perfectly straight, and the neck is connected to the guitar at an angle. the neck is raised a little bit. and still that didn't make any sense that i can't have the action any lower because if the neck is straight, the strings would be parallel to the fretboard when i lower the action.

example 1 is how it is now (the neck's angle is exaggerated)
example 2 is what it should look like when i lower the action



but when i lower the action, there's buzzing on the higher frets and it doesn't make sense.

is it cause my frets aren't even?
is it cause my nut's too low?
it can't be the nut cause the nut wouldn't effect the upper fret buzzing
and i don't see why the neck angle would be bothering this cause i could lower the bridge so the strings are level and parallel to the fretboard.

I don't think you should go to that store anymore because you don't want the neck perfectly straight. You want some bow (relief) to it because when the strings ring out, they make an elliptical shape. So if theres some bow in it, the elliptical shape will avoid hitting the top of the frets which will stop the fret buzz.

they have a monopoly on my side of town...

anyway umm.. i never messed with a truss rod before and i don't really trust them either and they overprice things. i went over there and asked them about the buzzing and he told me i'd have to pay $80 and a month if i want them to put my guitar in perfect condition. the guy just raised the action and charged me $5. i could have raised the action myself and not wasted my time. and i went there to get my action lowered, not raised.

can you give me detailed instructions on loosening the truss rod? cause i want to do it myself. i don't want to go to the music shop and have them charge me probably $25 or something.

http://mysite.verizon.net/jazz.guitar/guitarsetup.htm try that out.

I did it, didn't break anything and i'm gonna wait till tomorrow to see the full effect.

just in case that doesn't solve anything... could there be another cause to my problem?

You might need to build the nut up. That's a job for an experienced tech, unless you feel lucky.

Originally Posted by: Mark PavYou might need to build the nut up. That's a job for an experienced tech, unless you feel lucky.

i guess i have to feel lucky cause i don't trust my tech.

Originally Posted by: AkiraIf everything else fails, it might be a case of you need your frets to be filed. When you lower the action, does it only buzz on some frets but not others? (assuming the action is consistantly the same all the way along).

yea it only buzzes on the higher frets and only certain strings.
but if it is the frets, i don't understand. the guitar's only 3 months old

Have a really close look at your neck. It will help if you can get some kind of straight edge to put along it--even along some of it--to judge how straight it is.

Does the neck kick up close to where it joins the body? Sometimes necks can have more than one bend in them. They can bend one way in one place and another way at the other end. They aren't necessarily uniform, unfortunately.

i checked, the neck's only got one curve, and its really not that big.

i waited till today to see if my truss rod adjustments did anything, and i realized no matter how much relief i try to put on, its always gonna have too much resistance. i turned it to the point of the truss rod nut being loose and the neck had almost no dip at all.

Without seeing the guitar it's hard to say for certain, but it sounds a lot like you're gonna have to shim that nut. Depending on the material and quality of the nut you might need to buy a new one after taking the old one out. Sometimes they break as you do it.

To take it out get a razor blade, a small piece of wood and a hammer. Scratch around the edges with the razor blade first, then knock it out slowly, going from the fretboard side and hitting it and then around to the headstock side. Use the wood to cushion the hammer taps. Go back and forth till it's loose and then pull it out. You might need pliers.

Once that's done, find a piece of wood or metal to put underneath it to raise it up. Glue everything down with some kind of wood glue or whatever. Superglue will be a nightmare if the nut has to come off again, so don't use the firmest adhesive you can find. Just use something mild.

After you've done this--if you've been game enough--you can restring it and adjust the action at the bridge again.

Good luck. ;)

that's out of my control. maybe i should pay the $80 to get the guitar in perfect condition..

Originally Posted by: mxhWhat in the world is action and is it better lower or higher?? :confused: :confused:

If the actoin is too low we get buzz... I understand that on an electric guitar a small amount of buzz is acceptable. I disagree I set my action high enough to bend 1.5 steps more or less. I also belive that the lower the action the lighter your touch has to be. A light touch takes pratice. I belive Gibson sets the les paul to have a .005 bow.... With an acoustic guitar I belive that the is no amount of acceptable buzz. Both guitars have to be played with a balance of finger pressure and pick or right hand press. to produce a solid sound. If you have not been able to get an acceptable amount of bow Maybe the strings are too light for the
neck. For me I prefer .010 for electric and .012 > .011 for acoustic. The thicker string will sound much better and stay in tune longer, also last longer. It may be harder to play but it is well worth the sound. Especially that thin tinking sound from an E string too light or a G string too light. I used to keep an old acoustic around that was always strung with strings that are too heavy for praticing purposes,building finger strenght, calis,and dexterity. I used to buy my strings in singles making my own gauge, That way I could put a heavier string on the top and keep the bass E and A string from getting too heavy. Well thats about it :)

malmsteen has EXTREMLY high action :cool: his a shredder

if you have too high action, won't your strings bend when you fret them?

Originally Posted by: pureif you have too high action, won't your strings bend when you fret them?

I see what you're getting at, but on a 'normal' guitar bridge (I'm thinking Locking Trem / tune - o - matic / vintage strat etc) I don't think you could get the bridge high enough to make a difference. Intonation has to be adjusted to compensate, but fretting a note should move the string sufficiently to alter the pitch.

I may be wrong. If you fitted a cello bridge to a guiter.... well, then you'd have a problem... :D