Acoustic action (now with post fettling update)

TimmyO · January 29

I was asking around for advice about who could do this for me locally and all round lovely chap @Keefy offered up his expertise (and nut files!) so today things were fettled.

He tweaked the nut slots down so they were a smidge lower and more even and there was an immediate improvement in comfort down the low end.

Then we took turns going at the saddle base on some
70 grit sandpaper. Used the amount of saddle standing proud of the bridge (using a vernier) as the way to gauge how much to remove (and kept re checking and taking it slowly)

Low E action has gone from 3mm to 2.5mm and high E from 2.5mm to 2mm

There is probably scope for a bit more at the saddle but it’s made a feel-able different/improvement and I’m very happy.

At one point I’d ended up making the saddle not square on the base despite thinking I was being very careful - trued it up by deliberately leaning it a bit to get it back flat (there’s an under-saddle element to the dual pickup btw) - maybe doing that but against a block of something vertical would be a good move to avoid that.

Anyway - it’s better now - thanks mostly to @Keefy ;;

Couple of pics of Keefy’s enviable man cave (racks of guitars and basses not shown)

BigPaulie · January 29

Brilliant!

Glad to know it turned out well and you're enjoying that beautiful guitar more.

Andyjr1515 · February 4

ICBM said: Never take off the full height at the first attempt - you will very likely get a bigger adjustment than you bargained for, because the lower saddle means the upward pull of the strings over the saddle is reduced, and the top will settle back down a little, so you may then end up with too low an action.

Wise words! It was only when I started building acoustics that I began to fully realise just how much those tops flex - and what seemingly unrelated adjustments do indeed impact on that flex.

Back to the OP's original question, the action height, when adjusting the saddle, should be measured with the string held down at the first fret to eliminate the impact of the nut.

Likewise, measuring/adjusting the nut slot heights are done independent of the saddle height by holding down the string at the 2nd or 3rd fret

MooseAboot · February 4

Satisfying.

Any recommendations on nut files? @Keefy ;

Keefy · February 4

MooseAboot said:

Satisfying.

Any recommendations on nut files? @Keefy ;

I got my set from StewMac quite a few years ago. It’s fine for most guitars but for basses I use an inexpensive set of diamond-coated files of various profiles.

DavidR · February 13

MooseAboot said:

Satisfying.

Any recommendations on nut files? @Keefy ;

Amazoncom MusicNomad MN667 6 pc Diamond Coated Electric Guitar Nut Slotting File Set - Super Light Strings with Storage Case Musical Instruments

These are specific to the job of cutting down nuts on acoustics. Make sure you get the acoustic set. .013" .017".024".032".042" and .056" Stock number MN670. They're not cheap but, having learnt slowly and by error, they're loads better than generic small files and 100% better than the wire files you can buy which are not only fairly useless but can often only be used once.

Got mine from Merchant City Music in Glasgow.

Excellent advice about lowering nuts in stages btw. If you're doing it yourself there's no rush.

(Loads of great advice in this tFB thread. Why could it not have existed 30y ago!)

DavidR · February 13

P.S. I've never found this particularly helpful because you can only measure the height with the strings in and, anyway, it ain't that accurate to use. Not in my hands anyway!
MusicNomad MN601 Precision Nut Height Gauge Main Out Of Package