How to lower your action on your guitar...

polygon

I have high action on my acoustic guitar. Has anyone tried lowering their action before? I'm thinkin about lowering my saddle. I'm afraid to mess with the truss rod or the nut. I'm thinking about bringing it in to a shop to have it done just so I don't screw it up. Any suggestions would be aprreciated though. thanks

exhausted

if you aren't comfortable working on it yourself, take it to a shop.

Pacomc79

exhausted wrote:

if you aren't comfortable working on it yourself, take it to a shop.

I agree, though information is available at http://www.mrgearhead.com and http://www.projectguitar.com

polygon

thanks for the responses. After doing some research, I've found that the truss rod, nut and saddle are all inter-related. Changing just the saddle height will inadvertantly change the other two. Definitely am going to a shop to get this done.

freewheelin_mind

i just grinded mine off with a file, that lowered it a fair bit.

who's_pearljam?

If you used to have lower action and it's changed, it might be a simple truss rod adjustment, or some guitars were never right to start with.

If you're a bit handy you might be able to do this:

Sight down the neck, and if it's bowed forward, it probably needs the truss rod adjusted.
You would take off the truss rod cover if it's on the headstock, or have to reach it from inside the guitar at the end of the neck. Get the tool that fits and loosen the nut first (left) a tiny bit, then if it tightens relatively easily, give it a quarter turn (NO MORE YET). let it rest for a few minutes and sight down the neck again. If it changes, give it another go if you need to until it's straight. You may feel the difference.
If you go too far, the strings will buzz on the frets and you just loosen the truss nut a bit. Sometimes you leave the neck bowed forward a bit so the strings don't buzz,, (called neck relief), but you do that after the neck is straight and work from there.

That's how it's done.
If you don't feel comfortable with this, and it's an expensive guitar,,, take it to a tech, but try to look over their shoulder. It's a great thing to learn how to do yourself.
If that doesn't do anything, or the neck is straight now,,, then you can get a tech to fiddle with the saddle and the nut to lower the action. That gets done after the neck is adjusted to what the factory specs are, if there are any specs.
I've seen many people fall in love with their guitars again after they get them set up right.

The other possibility is that the guitar top may have bowed upward and the strings are higher. Then usually you would sand down the whole wooden bridge and adjust the saddle. That is for a tech to do!

good luck!