Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Thomas "Duck" Petry on January 24, 2017 at 7:50pm

Yup, ya could use a shorter bridge.  Won't matter if you are only going to play slide, but if you are wanting to use the frets you have a problem.

Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 24, 2017 at 8:41pm

The term is Action: the height of the strings above the frets on a guitar.

*Most* acoustic guitars are about .080" gap between the 12th fret and the bottom of the string. For reference, a quarter is about .07 (when new) At the first fret, it is real important to get that pretty low, otherwise fretting a string at the first position stretches the string a lot, making a sharper note...

A good rule of thumb is the thickness of a medium pick is a good starting point. Note that if you set the bridge FIRST, lowering the nut will also lower the string at the 12th fret. So I always get the bridge close, adjust the nut, and finish on the bridge.

There are a lot of variables here:
-String tension: higher string tension can tolerate lower action.
-How hard you play: the more energy you put into a string the more the string will move, which will buzz on lower action.
-How level your frets are: a neck with a little relief will buzz less than one with a back bow, or a couple of high frets...

Keep in mind that if your action at the 12th fret is 1/8" too high, lowering the bridge by 1/8" will only lower the action 1/16" . . .

Hope this helps. you might want to have 2 bridges ready: sand one down until it buzzes, measure, and then cut the next a little taller. if you are going to play fretted and slide, like Duck said, you'll want to err on the side of high action, just a little... until you're a better slide player....

Hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by Don Bear on January 25, 2017 at 6:49am

Thanks John and Thomas. I'll work on it as suggested and see what happens. My mistake was not realizing the difference between slide and finger playing and the height of the neck on the box. Oh well, live and learn. Having fun with this new hobby though.