how to lower your action...

[Mitchhelpmeplez]

how do u lower your action?

[kevinmoore73]

Stop showering for a few days? (rimshot)

[puff father]

Originally Posted by kevinmoore73

Stop showering for a few days? (rimshot)

[James Banner]

On the bridge saddles there are some screws. Turn them anticlockwise (to the left) to lower your action. Don't turn the bridge screws because then you'll mess up your intonation.

James

[Mitchhelpmeplez]

Originally Posted by James Banner

On the bridge saddles there are some screws. Turn them anticlockwise (to the left) to lower your action. Don't turn the bridge screws because then you'll mess up your intonation.

James

Thanks a lot man, it helped.

[GlennW]

You can also shim the neck instead if you prefer the strings a little higher off the body.

[James Banner]

Originally Posted by Mitchhelpmeplez

Thanks a lot man, it helped.

No problem!

[Mitchhelpmeplez]

Originally Posted by GlennW

You can also shim the neck instead if you prefer the strings a little higher off the body.

shim the neck?

[ehque]

Originally Posted by Mitchhelpmeplez

shim the neck?

Ignore him, he's talking about something else.

[GlennW]

I'm not talking about something else. I'm talking about shimming the neck to lower the action. Operative word "action" - the distance from the frets to the bottoms of the strings. You'll have to adjust the saddles, sure.

You can lower you action by lowering the saddles, but your strings will get closer to the body. I like mine up in the air, not down close to the body.

I've been playing around with this stuff almost twice as long as you've been breathing.

[202dy]

Shimming a neck changes the geometry of the instrument. Changes the trig, too. When a neck is shimmed, it changes the neck angle. Depending on how it is shimmed, it will have the residual effect of raising or lowering the strings. Shimming a neck is a serious undertaking and is to be used as a last resort when setting the action of a guitar. If the geometry is correct there is no need to shim the neck.

All of this is academic. An accurate diagnosis cannot be made at this time. The OP has not provided any measurements for his guitar. It is recommended that he post these numbers. It is the only way an accurate diagnosis can be made. That is, if an accurate diagnosis can ever be made between strangers possessing varied communication skills on the internet. If the OP does not know what and where to measure then the sticky at the top of the page will be extremely informative.

[jimnto]

I can't deal with the fret buzz and my truss rod is fully loose - ie I can't get it to bow up. My strings are almost straight along the neck and when I play up above the 7th fret, the notes kind of 'choke' but hitting against the frets. I had to shim the neck in order to rais the strings off the body. The bridge pieces were almost full up.

At least it works for me.

[Rattman]

Originally Posted by kevinmoore73

Stop showering for a few days? (rimshot)

Hey ain't it so.. ain't it so!!! ha ha ha!! This happened to me ONCE.. amd brother after hearing that, you never wanna ever hear it again.. LESSON LEARNED!!

[GlennW]

I've read owner's manuals of guitars with a micro-tilt system which say to use the micro-tilt to adjust string height.

To me one of the biggest advantages of a bolt-on neck is the ability to alter the neck angle and get the strings further from body/pickguard.

We've all probably seen saddles with quite a bit of the allen screws poking out of the top and the strings close to the body. If that's what you like, fine, set it up that way.

For me string-to-body distance is a very important part of the overall setup. I like to set Fender style saddles high and adjust neck angle and then readjust the saddles to get good action.

[202dy]

Originally Posted by GlennW

I've read owner's manuals of guitars with a micro-tilt system which say to use the micro-tilt to adjust string height.

To me one of the biggest advantages of a bolt-on neck is the ability to alter the neck angle and get the strings further from body/pickguard.

We've all probably seen saddles with quite a bit of the allen screws poking out of the top and the strings close to the body. If that's what you like, fine, set it up that way.

For me string-to-body distance is a very important part of the overall setup. I like to set Fender style saddles high and adjust neck angle and then readjust the saddles to get good action.

It may be in the owner's manuals. They weren't written by luthiers or techs. They were written by professional copywriters under the direction of a marketing executive. Most of the language in the owners manual is chosen to bolster confidence in the purchase. Nuts and bolts are specifically left sketchy so that the average buyer does not monkey with the item. Besides, if a luthier wrote the owners manual it would be thirty pages long, ring bound, and might ramble into the finer points of rosewood versus maple versus ebony. Make that three hundred pages.

Changing the neck angle is used after everything else has been exhausted. It isn't a go to technique. It is like taking a car in for a front end alignment when all that is needed is to put some air in the tires. It might need it but the answer is almost always somewhere else. It might be a high fret. It might be a hump in the board. It might be a false string. The neck doesn't get moved until everything else has been checked. In a pro shop it only takes a few minutes to take the measurements and check the frets.

It is a valid and necessary technique in some cases. But the fact remains on this thread that the OP has not given enough information to indicate that surgery is needed. Remember, too, that many novices are reading these recommendations. These people do not have your experience and knowledge to assess whether or not pulling a neck is what has to happen. Until that happens it is prudent to recommend bandages and aspirin.

[GlennW]

The OP asked a simple question, "how do u lower your action?" That was the question, no info about any specific problems or how far was given.

Lowering the saddles was suggested. That's true, it will lower the action, but, that will also bring the strings closer to the body which also changes the right hand side of the setup. How much it will lower the strings depends, it's usually not a significant amount. And lowering saddles is not the only way.

Most people seem to be hung up on the left hand side of the action, or setup - the string-to-fret distance.

For me, on both guitars and moreso on basses, the right hand side of the setup is very important. I'f your right hand likes the way a bass feels part of that is because of body-to-string distance where you pluck the strings. You can have two basses with identical string-to-fret distances and relief (left hand action), but if these basses have different neck angles they will have different string-to-body distances (right hand action) and can feel very different to your right hand when you play them. The greater the difference in neck angles, the greater the difference in body-to-string distance.

When the strings are up high, my right hand fingers feel like they're reaching "up and over". When the strings are low my fingers feel like they going "down and in", which I find uncomfortable. I prefer "up and over", and begin my setups with this in mind because I feel that strongly about it. For me it makes all the difference in the world in how a bass feels when I play it.

[Mitchhelpmeplez]

Thanks for all the help so far, but the reason i want to lower my action is so I can play up higher in my fret board. I want to be able to tap up quite high and make it sound clean and not like i is "shaking".

[ehque]

Originally Posted by 202dy

Remember, too, that many novices are reading these recommendations. These people do not have your experience and knowledge to assess whether or not pulling a neck is what has to happen. Until that happens it is prudent to recommend bandages and aspirin.

+1. FWIW none of my repair customers have come back to me complaining about string to body distance either. I use a floating thumb or pickup anchor technique, the body-string distance doesn't bother me either.

Recommending shimming in this case is really recommending an operation to fix a sprain. Can be done (i've had it done), but not what everyone (or even most people) are looking for.

[ehque]

Originally Posted by jimnto

I can't deal with the fret buzz and my truss rod is fully loose - ie I can't get it to bow up. My strings are almost straight along the neck and when I play up above the 7th fret, the notes kind of 'choke' but hitting against the frets. I had to shim the neck in order to rais the strings off the body. The bridge pieces were almost full up.

At least it works for me.

Heavier strings might help.