Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi, wondering how I can fix the neck/action on my guitar... the neck at glance doesnt look warped, the body is good condition, however the action on my guitar is high about .4 centimeters on the 12th fret, how can I lower this, itd be great to cut it down in half, I watched some videos on youtube, followed some instructions on sanding the bridge nut down, but only to minimal improvement. Im looking to learn how to fix this guitar, its my first guitar, its not worth a whole lot of money and its becoming kind of a project guitar for me..

Could it be that the neck is warped, Ive adjusted the truss rod clockwise to bring the bow to a more convex shape, however its fairly tight now and the the action hasnt really improved... The intonation isnt so bad on the guitar, its more or less the action.

Thanks.

If this is a steel string guitar the first thing you should do is project a straight edge from the top of the finger board to bridge. It should clear the bridge by no more than a 1/16th of an inch. If it hits the bridge your in need of a neck reset before you can lower the action much before you run out of saddle.
also, for every 1mm of reduction in string height at the 12th fret, you need to remove 2mm off the saddle.

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Jim Watts has given you a very good place to start. If you would post some pictures of your situation, you will get additional, very helpful advice.

Setting the action height is one step in a setup, and you need to do the steps in a specific order.
First you set the relief, then check the nut height, then set the action height, and finally set the intonation.
Relief is the curvature of the neck due to string tension, and is measured by fretting a string at the first and fourteenth fret and measuring the height of the string above the seventh fret. It should be less than 0.01", how much less depends on the guitar and playing style.
Relief is adjusted with the truss rod, that's all the truss rod does. On older guitars, often the truss rod isn't strong enough to pull the neck straight enough, it needs some help. I use a board, some blocks, and a clamp to flex the neck the direction it needs to go, that takes the load off the truss rod nut and you SHOULD be able to tighten it easily. If it doesn't, there's something else wrong.

Check the archives, there's lots there about setups, but I thought I should post this before you stripped/broke the truss rod.

_________________
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon