Action!

[LuisSavesTheDay]

Im trying to lower m action, but its impossible. If i were to lower it, the higher frets would be really nice and clsoe to the board, but the lower frets would be hitting the string. I dont know what its called, but if i were to loosen up the bolt thing on the headstock, and lower my floyd, would taht fix the problem?

Sorry about my unclear wayof saying things. I never make sense :(

[wild_child]

there is a limit to how low your action can go. the strings are closest to the fretboard by the nut, so if they touch at the 1st fret, you've gone too far! lowering your floyd will adjust the action, you shouldnt need to do anything in the headstock area, other than re-tune it.

by the bolt thing, do you mean the locking nut?

[LuisSavesTheDay]

no. Im talkin about the little screw inside of te headstock taht you can adjust. It bends the neck upand down (not drastically). Do ya kno waht im tlakin aobuut?

[wild_child]

oh, the truss rod is what you mean.
i would not reccommend doing that yourself unless your really know what your doing. however, done properly, this will allow you to get the overall action slightly lower.
i'd suggest taking it to a guitar tech and they should be able to get it done properly for you. if you ask them real nice, they might show you the correct way to do it yourself also :)

[LuisSavesTheDay]

well
i cant messp myguitar witht he truss rod, so why cant i do it myslf?

[metalprep6969]

If you adjust it improperly, you may damage the neck. The strings can cause the neck to warp or bow over time.

Another option to keep in mind is that a professional guitar tech or luthier can make a shim to go under the locking nut. That's what my guitar teacher's tech did, and I will be having the same guy do that to my guitar soon.

\m/

[Bongo Boy]

My guess at the reason so many folks warn about doing these adjustments (action and relief) is that so few folks have a way to accurately measure the changes they make--especially with truss rod adjustments. Yes, loosening the truss rod nut will allow the neck to bow forward, increasing neck relief. My question though would be, why do you think your action is too high? Have you taken measurements and compared them to recommended values?

I'm not a luthier, but my understanding of what others have written is that, while truss rod adjustment will change your action, you need to 1) understand the relationship between action and relief, 2) know and understand what the current situation is with your neck, and 3) be able to clearly see the changes in relief that your small, incremental truss rod adjustments are making.

I don't believe that good adjustments can be made without using something like a feeler gage to actually measure relief--I get the impression that "eye-balling" it is not too reliable.

[LuisSavesTheDay]

Eye Balling is relibable in my case. The strings are jsut WAY to high. I dont need to take out a yardstick for the srings, i can SEE the way the strings are way off the fretboard.

[LarryJ]

he is not talking about the strings luis, he is talking about the truss rod and the bow, or twist of the neck. Staring down a neck you might be able to tell the guitar neck is twisted sort of, thats what he is referring to. I definitly wouldn't trust my eyes, or anyone elses when adjusting the truss rod...

Is there a reason you simply can't adjust the action via the tremelo/bridge?

[Metalliska]

There's ways to lower your action by fiddling with all sorts of things on your guitar, best bet tho, i'd see a guitar tech, a set up cost me twenty quid, he restrung it, set the intonation, adjusted the truss, (there needs to be a slight bow in the neck btw), lowered the action, set the bridge radius and saddle height, checked the wiring and even filed and polished a couple of frets that were riding too high (the second fret in particular), meaning even lower action. You could probably do some of these things yourself if you got the right instruction, I'm not saying that you can't do it, but for the sake of twenty quid I wouldn't risk screwing with your guitar, especially if it's expensive. Just my thoughts ltr.

[LuisSavesTheDay]

quid?

[forgottenking2]

In America you can get it done for anywhere from $20.00 (a guy at Guitar Center did a super job for that little) up to $75.00, you can always find certified techs that'll charge you around $50 bucks and they'll do a full ABC pick ups height, clean your fretboard and strings, lubricate the fetboard, adjust your intonation, action, trem system and such things. I think it's worth it, I used to mess around with my old guitar, I was very lucky to have a thing to fix things myself 'cause I did mess it up quite a few times and it was very hard to fix it (I did not have access to a tech in those early days in a little town in Ecuador South America) but I did it for the sake of need... if I had had the facility of paying a guy 50 bucks to do the job for me I would've done it.

So call around and see what the market is like in your area. Or if you have a friend who happens to be in that type of business try and get some tips from him, most of those guys are happy to help you out. (Specially if you bring them business)

I hope this helps.

Regards,

[debaser]

The first thing, before adjusting your truss, should be the straight edge test. You should get a good idea as to the curvature of your neck before you start changing it. Proceed slowly! I would grant the point that it's not a great idea to go messing with your truss rod if you don't know what you're doing. But, if you are determined to do so, be careful and don't do anything too extreme. Adjust it by 1/4 turns at a time, and make sure that it sinks in before you decide it hasn't made enough difference. I usually find that 1/4 turn makes the difference and allows me to move the saddles to a more advantageous position. If that's not working for you, then go immediately to your nearest guitar tech-type of guy and get him to do a full set-up on your guitar. A little experimentation is ok, and probably beneficial over the long run, but it's no substitute for having your guitar worked on by someone who really knows what they are doing.

[MSH1601]

Is the floyd rose aftermarket or did it come with the guitar when it was new?

[Bongo Boy]

quid?British pound (monetary).

If your action is that radically out of whack, truss adjustment is NOT the place to start--that's not what it's intended for.

The initial check of the bow in the neck (by any means at all) is a good idea. As I recall, this is done by fretting a string at fret 22, and measuring the clearance between the string and the top of fret 6 or 7 (can't remember which). Still, the recommendation to use a straight edge to at least see if and how the neck is bowed seems like a great thing to do.

According to the sources I've found that seem to know what they're talking about, the effect that truss adjustment has on action is actually an unfortunate, unavoidable side-effect of truss adjustment, not the intended or desired outcome of it.

[MSH1601]

The thing is why are they fine on the top strings and not on the bottem?

If the FR was aftermarket, then the it may not have matched the profil of the fretboard. Other wise, the other thing is that only one of the hight bolts have been adjusted and not both equally???

[Metalliska]

Yeah sorry, british slang, that was £20,