New acoustic - easy on the fingers

earwighoney

thomasross20 said:

Whistler said:

Winny_Pooh said:

It's quite simple. Take the Martin for a setup and progressively lower the string gauge. 

I do this for myself. I start by buying a new nut and saddle so that I can experiement filing those down. The original nut and saddle are safely stored should I need them or for when I sell the guitar.

Do yuo file the nut at the bottom or the nut slots? 

I do the slots. Do a little at time until I get a string height I prefer.

Whistler

Me too, I file the slots so that each string is done to my liking.

thomasross20

Hmm.. I've never done the slots. Don't you have to match the arch or the fingerboard/bridge.. think I might muck it up. 

Winny_Pooh

On some guitars I do the slots then lower the rest of the saddle to match and leave just a faint indent for the string to rest in. 

ICBM

To get the nut exactly right you have to file the slots - they need to be individually right, and to an accuracy that would be difficult to achieve from the bottom.

It’s not hard to do it right as long as you go carefully - even a couple of file strokes too much can mean a big problem when you get close to the final depth. If you go too deep you will need to replace the nut or use some sort of method to fill the groove slightly - which can be an acceptable fix but it’s still a bit of a bodge compared to not needing to do it!

Proper nut files are quite expensive but nearly essential - you can just about make your own from old needle files and hacksaw blades, but it’s actually more difficult than cutting the nut, and they need more skill to use. Proper ones aren’t *that* expensive anyway.

marxski

Same problem here. Took my Eastman to Jonny Kinkade and he called me to say it was ready. He mentioned that all Mahogany guitars are easier than Rosewood/Spruce… I would have been sceptical but who am I to disbelieve a master luthier? Apparently rosewood bodies have less ‘give’ than Mahogany and it is all part of the equation/feel. Over time (in years) they do loosen up a bit.

Littlejonny

See if you can get your hands on a Taylor Academy 12e. In my experience they are very easy to play and sound pretty great. Maybe the GS Mini would be similar. They have a great pick-up system too (ES2). 

I recently had pains in my hand which really worried me (I do the same job as you - teaching and theatre work) and I’ve been enjoying playing my Martin recently (which I don’t think has a very forgiving neck profile) since I tuned to Eb. Also, I’m consciously working on playing lighter.