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- Apr 30, 2005
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If you play guitar, please watch the 24-minute video below.
If you know anyone who plays, please send them a link to it.
One common difficulty most players encounter is poor (high or low) action.
Action is the distance between the strings and the guitar.
Good action is important because you have to press strings down till they touch the guitar ... and do it in a certain way keeping a zillion things in mind..
Action too high = strings too far above the guitar.
Action too low = strings too close to the guitar.
Both can be a big problem, and spending thousands on a guitar is no guarantee whatsoever of good action.
When playing a guitar with low action, especially loudly, the middle of the vibrating string moves up and down so much that it can actually touch the guitar neck, generating a god-awful buzz.
With high action high it's hard to press the strings down because they're too far above the guitar.
This can vary from so high it's torture to play, to just high enough to make it difficult or impossible to play as well as you are actually capable of.
Next, action problems may be only at a certain area of the neck, ie the action could be low near the head of the guitar but high near the body.
It's an absolute joy to play a guitar with "good action", or what I'd call Goldilocks action.
It's easier on the fingertips, and we can play better, and sound better.
It seems simple, but properly adjusting the action of a guitar is surprisingly complex.
S some of people who think they can, and charge, to do it actually can't.
Even if you pay an "expert" to adjust a guitar's action (aka set up) they may not know what they re doing.
And many of us players just make due with poor action.
I've been playing almost 60 years, and owned many guitars, some costing thousands of dollars.
But only tonight have I finally gotten a grasp on the extremely-complex and interactive puzzle that is adjusting a guitar's action ... correctly.
I've never had it done to any of my guitars because I know too much to trust anyone to do it, but not enough to do it myself ... that is, until tonight.
The genius in this video designed and built a brilliant simplified guitar model from wood.
It clearly illustrates the complex relationship between the many action adjustments and their effect.
And it demonstrates something else that's not obvious, why the adjustments must be performed in a specific order.
Now I'm finally motivated to buy a few tools and optimize the action of all 8 or 9 of my guitars, I've lost count.
Even if you don't play, you may find this video very interesting and informative.
Enjoy.
If you know anyone who plays, please send them a link to it.
One common difficulty most players encounter is poor (high or low) action.
Action is the distance between the strings and the guitar.
Good action is important because you have to press strings down till they touch the guitar ... and do it in a certain way keeping a zillion things in mind..
Action too high = strings too far above the guitar.
Action too low = strings too close to the guitar.
Both can be a big problem, and spending thousands on a guitar is no guarantee whatsoever of good action.
When playing a guitar with low action, especially loudly, the middle of the vibrating string moves up and down so much that it can actually touch the guitar neck, generating a god-awful buzz.
With high action high it's hard to press the strings down because they're too far above the guitar.
This can vary from so high it's torture to play, to just high enough to make it difficult or impossible to play as well as you are actually capable of.
Next, action problems may be only at a certain area of the neck, ie the action could be low near the head of the guitar but high near the body.
It's an absolute joy to play a guitar with "good action", or what I'd call Goldilocks action.
It's easier on the fingertips, and we can play better, and sound better.
It seems simple, but properly adjusting the action of a guitar is surprisingly complex.
S some of people who think they can, and charge, to do it actually can't.
Even if you pay an "expert" to adjust a guitar's action (aka set up) they may not know what they re doing.
And many of us players just make due with poor action.
I've been playing almost 60 years, and owned many guitars, some costing thousands of dollars.
But only tonight have I finally gotten a grasp on the extremely-complex and interactive puzzle that is adjusting a guitar's action ... correctly.
I've never had it done to any of my guitars because I know too much to trust anyone to do it, but not enough to do it myself ... that is, until tonight.
The genius in this video designed and built a brilliant simplified guitar model from wood.
It clearly illustrates the complex relationship between the many action adjustments and their effect.
And it demonstrates something else that's not obvious, why the adjustments must be performed in a specific order.
Now I'm finally motivated to buy a few tools and optimize the action of all 8 or 9 of my guitars, I've lost count.
Even if you don't play, you may find this video very interesting and informative.
Enjoy.
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