Lowering the string action on a Gibson Les Paul.

It seems like the bridge pickup is really close to the strings already, and if I lower them they would touch the pickup. This is the way it came. I feel that the action is a little too high. What you think,

Kind of hard to tell what exactly you mean without pictures. Too high for you may be too low for someone else.

Some guys are really good at this sort of technical stuff.. they can just take the guitar apart and put it back together, understanding how everything is working, and therefore make custom changes that get the guitar playing just the way the want it.

I'm not one of those people, and if you're not too, I'd recommend taking the guitar to a tech if you can. You can really throw stuff out of whack and then really find it hard to get back to how it was before. Just make sure you get a solid estimate from a reputable tech, and put a "don't go beyond this cost without calling me" caveat on it.

The two screws on the top and bottom of the pick up ring will raise and lower the pick up. Once you've lowered it enough, you can adjust the bridge posts.

Take due care, you need to be sure that the pick ups aren't too far away (or too close) to the strings.

That said, this would be the most likely resolution.

Just another problem to point out. Watch and make sure your strings to not touch the back part of your bridge. Les Paul's have a weird angle there. If you move those bridge post down too much the strings will hit the back of the bridge and you don't want that. I have messed around setting them up but there is nothing like having a pro do it. Not someone in a Guitar center. Look up Luther's in your area and have him set it up correctly.Ask around who is a good guy to bring it to, I am sure your friends will know of someone. This is what I do any more, Good Luck

Hi fireman86...

try posting your question to Steve White at "ask guitar tech"

hey again fireman86

http://martinrivers.com/Les%20Paul%20Setup.htm

You might take a look thur this website...

good luck
gordon

As far as your action too high or too low which is personal preference you may want to check out this book: The title is Guitar Player Repair Guide (third edition) by Dan Erlewine. It really is the bible of repairing and setting up guitars. I picked this up myself because my pawn shop strat was in dire need of a setup and thought I may as well learn to do this stuff myself. The shops wanted at least 30 bucks for the setup which was the same cost as the book at Barnes & Noble. Best money spent after Guitar Tricks for my playing!

It will walk you thru everything from acoustic to electrics and actually will show you how to make your own pick ups if you really want to get creative. Really getting rid of buzzing, int. probs. will be not be too much for you after a good read. Best of luck.

JJ