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Thread: Concerning action

  1. #1
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Concerning action

    I was watching the Grateful Dead’s 74 tour footage and noticed that Jerry Garcia’s string height was set pretty high. He was playing his “Wolf”, which has a single coil neck pickup.

    I had some issues when I had my strats set up with low action, and after raising it a bit I got a whole new palette of colors in my tone, and plenty of extra sustain as far as I could hear. I don’t think I’m biased as I actually like my string height as low as possible and got it higher because I needed a quick setup for a gig and the guitar was buzzing.

    How do you guys like your action?

  2. #2
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Concerning action

    I like mine medium high. It initially made bending strings easier for me then I just got used to it.

  3. #3
    Forum Member redisburning's Avatar
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    Re: Concerning action

    Depends on the guitar.

    The theoretical ideal is as low as it can go without negatively affecting sustain, sound, I suppose. However, this is usually relatively high compared to where most people like their action.

    I will say though on my Les Paul, which is a bit of a freak, the strings would have to literally sit on the frets to stop it from ringing. When I got it back from a setup I was actually kind of upset because it was so low but the guy who did the setup (who does pro player setup which in Austin isnt nothing) insisted that I play it first because the guitar could take it. I cant argue with him on that, the guitar just rings and rings and rings and rings.

    I have to wonder if it's a Strat thing, though, because I've never had a strat take action anywhere close to that low, including my two Suhrs (which overall have my preferred setup), from the factory they do something like this:

    1. Neck relief: while pressing on the D & G strings on the 1st and 17th fret, the relief should measure .005” (0.127mm) at the 7th fret
    2. action: 4/64” (1.587mm) at the last fret
    3. trem height: floating at 3/64" (1.190mm) above body
    4. Pickup height:
    5. ALL SINGLE COILS: LOW E 8/64” (3.175mm) HIGH E 6/64” (2.381mm)

  4. #4
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    Re: Concerning action

    Start at 33:00 minutes in and look at the height of J. Mascis action. Works for him. Blew me away. As for me, I'm not to particular about the height of the action. I don't shred I want the neck as straight as possible (if that works for the particular guitar) and I don't want string buzz. I don't want it to fret out when bending anywhere on the neck. After setting the neck I'll play the big E and little e strings and adjust them until they don't buzz or fret out when bending. Then if the action looks decent I'll take a radius gauge and adjust the 4 strings in the middle for the radius of the neck. That usually feels and plays good for me. However, if I adjust those two strings to play right and then look at the action and it's all jacked up then I'll make additional adjustments or fix the problems and try again.


  5. #5
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Concerning action

    I would guess I like mine medium high, factory spec or slightly higher.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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