Raise the action = Holy Crap my guitar just tripled in value

anthon_74

So at Django in June this year, Mr Roch mentioned that he believed the action on my Alta Mira was too low... Now, I prefer low action, but I decided to give it a try so I put a couple of pieces of business card paper under my bridge to raise it slightly, and while it helped, the sound didn't change a whole lot.

Then my friend Mick removed the business card paper and replaced it with thin wood slats that raised the action slightly higher than the business card paper and.....

Kaboom ! It's like I have a new guitar ! The sound is drier, clearer, fuller, and opened wide up. I am actually shocked by the difference in the way the guitar sounds.

So then I went home and got out my 8 year old Gitane (which also has very low action), and put a higher bridge that had been sitting around since I bought it and......

Kablam ! Suddenly my seemingly unimpressive Gitane DG 300 suddenly sounds like a $3000 guitar...

I really prefer playing on low action, but I like the improvements of the sound quality of each guitar a lot more so I guess I'm gonna have to get used to it.

holy crap !

Anthony

noodlenot

it seems like you had a $3000 bridge there...

pmh425

I had a similar experience with my Dell Arte Sweet Chorus.I purchased it used and the action was quite low and the guitar did not sound right at all. I shimmed the bridge and it made a huge difference.

MichaelHorowitz

anthon_74 wrote:

Kablam ! Suddenly my seemingly unimpressive Gitane DG 300 suddenly sounds like a $3000 guitar...

Yes, cranking up the action will "turbo charge" your guitar. However, it's generally more effective on the Asian imports which tend to be overbuilt. A fine, handmade instrument will give you that sort of volume while still being setup with fairly low action, so you get the best of both worlds. In fact, many of the French guitars will "lock up" and just go dead if you raise the action too high as the tops are so responsive, the added pressure just shuts them down completely.

Bohemian

For clarification..what exactly are the numbers.. presuming height at the 12th fret for
Low Action
High Action

Are we talking 2.5 mm as compared to 3.5mm ?

And doesn't this also relate to the particular instrument and neck angle and bridge height ?

Jazzaferri

The magic for each and every guitar is the string break angle. When that is right, the top sings. That will also vary a wee bit with string tension.

A master builder can usually get that right and get a good action height at the same time.

anthon_74

Well, I don't have a metric ruler, but according to my tape measure, it's about 3/16 of an inch at the 12th fret. Now, the metric conversion chart has this at approx - 4 mm, which seems high to me, but it's still lower than many of the guitars I've played at django in june, including several of Michael Bauer's collection.

I don't know, maybe I'm measuring wrong. In any event, on my alta mira, the action still feels quite manage-ably low. Up at the high frets, for example, if you bend a string, the strings near it still slide sort of below your fingers as opposed to getting "caught" on them like they do with guitars that have high action.

I don't know...

My Gitane, however, now has TOO high action, so I have to get that bridge fitted properly..

Anthony

anthon_74

okay hold on a minute - How do you measure action ?? Is it from the top of the actual metal fret to the string, or from the top of the wooden fret BOARD to the string ??

Bohemian

Top of the fret at the 12th... to the underside of the string... usually low E and high e'

anthon_74

okay so if I measure the action from the wood to the string, it's 3/16 of an inch which is about 4.5 mm, BUT if I measure it as from the top of the actual fret to the string, it's 2/16, which is 3 mm.

If you measure it from the metal fret, then my action is comparable to Michaels Duponts.

If you measure it from the wood, it's quite on the high side.

Anthony

Bohemian

3mm sounds right.

And ,yes, from the fret, not from the fingerboard (wood)