Snappy title eh?
Anyhoo today I took delivery of a Finlayson d-5ce. I’ve been playing more acoustic during lockdown and my existing two were less than inspiring.
So Christmas was coming and GG had this down at £270 on Friday. Looked good, I liked the scoto-Canadian idea so why not.
It arrived this morning and the first thing that struck me was that it was a lovely looking thing. Quickly followed by, Ooft look at that action you could get a bus between string and board
tuned up and yep it was really high. Proceeded over a few hours to tighten the truss up a bit at a time until it got the point that I was wary of tightening it any further. At this point it was still “on the high side” - between 3.5 and 4 mm at the 12th
Thought no, it’s going back, slackened strings, loosened rod a bit, tuned back up and the g string snapped at the post.
So two questions. Should I try anything else to lower the action (don’t want to be sanding saddle on a new cheapie). And, what will GuitarGuitar do about a return with a broken string?
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As you probably well know there’s not a plethora of options if the neck geometry is correct, even less if it isn’t . And yes you shouldn’t be having to tinker around to get it to play. But if it’s got a way high saddle or if there’s a pickup under it you, or the shop may end up shaving a few mm off it
I guess the the question is whether to do it or send it back. I’ve got no real experience with acoustics and don’t know if I can/should expect better at this price point.
What is the relief? You haven't mentioned that at all and you shouldn't be adjusting the truss rod without checking it - the truss rod controls the relief, not the action - the action is only affected indirectly.
Hold the guitar in the playing position and fret the G string (or B if it's still missing ) at both the first and the 15th frets. Look at the gap between the string and the 7th fret - it should be smaller than the string diameter (if it's the B - about half the string diameter if it's the G), but there should be a gap. This isn't perfectly accurate but it will tell you if it's in the right ballpark.
If it is, check the nut height - that makes a surprisingly large difference to the action as well. Fret each string at the 3rd fret and look at the gap between the string and the 1st fret - it should be small, ideally less than 1/4 of the string diameter (that's very small, on the thin strings).
If and only if both those two things are right, and the action is still too high, how much of the saddle is sticking up above the wood of the bridge?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
If you like the guitar otherwise I'd probably get it looked at rather than send it back. If you do need to send it back, don't worry about the broken string - that can happen randomly for no reason. I would leave the pieces on the guitar.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Its definitely better sounding than what I’ve got and it looks good, I just can’t quite decide if I want to keep it. The current “comedy” action is clouding my judgement a bit.
On a a related note then. I’ve been in shops and tried loads of guitars at c£500 and never seen anything like the action this had out of the box. Do the shops get sent special display ones, open loads of boxes to get a good example or do they fettle the display ones?
Most shops would pick a better example for a display model or fix it if they have an in-house tech.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Edit: That was on the low E
I slightly relaxed the truss rod & took about 2mm off the bottom of the saddle, and like ICBM suggested, that took a little over 1mm off the 12th fret action, and I have to thank him for explaining the top movement because I couldn't work out why the action had fell that fraction further than I expected (luckily I was sanding in stages and measuring, so I didn't overshoot).
I'd never done anything like that before, but it's easy - just go slowly, be consistent and make sure the bottom of the saddle is flat when you're done. I took slightly more off the treble side than the bass side and ended up having to put some extra effort into the middle for a bit to remove a curve that was developing as I sanded.
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@ICBM you mentioned cutting the saddle down rather that sanding. Is there a preferred way to do that or is just rusty hacksaw from the shed time?
If the guitar has an undersaddle pickup, it's *essential* that the bottom of the saddle is straight and flat, and at a right angle to the sides. I do that by rubbing the saddle on a sheet of sandpaper on a known flat surface, eg kitchen worktop.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
thanks to @icbm for the advice and @Cirrus for the "you can do it" pep talk