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Why did Bryan Adam's fingers bleed in the summer of '69?
Because every fricking guitar you can get near has a PAINFULLY HIGH ACTION (height of strings)
Guitars with sweet low actions do exist, but there's already a dude/ette with no biceps playing it 24 hours a day and going without food.
Here's how to lower the action of your own guitar.
It'll feel so good you'll play it instead of eating/bathing/sleeping.
There won't be anything left of you but bad posture and enough hair to comb over your face.
The cheap ones start out too high. Old ones get that way over time from the tension of the strings.
For examples of both kinds, I'll be dropping the action on this Chinese-made "Backpacker guitar" that cost me a penny brand new (plus $24.99 shipping on ebay) and also an original Martin Backpacker.
Because every fricking guitar you can get near has a PAINFULLY HIGH ACTION (height of strings)
Guitars with sweet low actions do exist, but there's already a dude/ette with no biceps playing it 24 hours a day and going without food.
Here's how to lower the action of your own guitar.
It'll feel so good you'll play it instead of eating/bathing/sleeping.
There won't be anything left of you but bad posture and enough hair to comb over your face.
The cheap ones start out too high. Old ones get that way over time from the tension of the strings.
For examples of both kinds, I'll be dropping the action on this Chinese-made "Backpacker guitar" that cost me a penny brand new (plus $24.99 shipping on ebay) and also an original Martin Backpacker.
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Signing UpStep 1Go Nuts on the Nut
You probably want your strings as low as they can be without buzzing while you play.
That depends a lot on how you play. If you play hard you'll need the strings to be higher or they'll buzz.
If you play slide or bottleneck guitar, you'll want the action higher still.
In fact, if you use the slide all the time, you don't really have to use the frets, and there's no such thing as an action that's too high. Keep that in mind when you get a free guitar with a really bent neck.
Regardless of your situation, the best way is to find a guitar you like playing, and measure the action
If you only have access to the one you're working on, just whittle down the notches in the nut and bridge until you like how low it is. If you wittle too low you can put a drop of superglue in the notch and let it dry. Or put a piece of paper under the string.
If your neck is straight and your fingerboard is flat, you'll be able to put them lower.
Here I am whittling down the nut notch on the penny guitar. You can use a triangular file if you have one.
Play with the string and sight down it. The nut notch should be as deep as if there were another fret there holding up the string. In other words the string height differece between the nut and first fret should be the same as the difference between the first two frets.
That depends a lot on how you play. If you play hard you'll need the strings to be higher or they'll buzz.
If you play slide or bottleneck guitar, you'll want the action higher still.
In fact, if you use the slide all the time, you don't really have to use the frets, and there's no such thing as an action that's too high. Keep that in mind when you get a free guitar with a really bent neck.
Regardless of your situation, the best way is to find a guitar you like playing, and measure the action
If you only have access to the one you're working on, just whittle down the notches in the nut and bridge until you like how low it is. If you wittle too low you can put a drop of superglue in the notch and let it dry. Or put a piece of paper under the string.
If your neck is straight and your fingerboard is flat, you'll be able to put them lower.
Here I am whittling down the nut notch on the penny guitar. You can use a triangular file if you have one.
Play with the string and sight down it. The nut notch should be as deep as if there were another fret there holding up the string. In other words the string height differece between the nut and first fret should be the same as the difference between the first two frets.
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however i own a martin backpacker and wouldn' t touch the action. use (elixir) 47 to 10 strings and it' s just fine. recommended to have those strings as no truss rod. low action and heavier strings risks deforming the neck.
cheers and ta
"In its basic form, the mechanism is a steel rod with an anchor at one end and an adjustment nut at the other. It is inlaid (usually in a curve) into the center of a neck. Tightening the adjustment nut pulls the rod straight, thus straightening the neck. Loosening it allows the neck to move with the influence of the strings, consequently allowing the neck bow."-Gene Imbody
http://www.athensmusician.net/archive/2001-05-01_geneimbody1.shtml
From Wikipedia:
A truss rod is a guitar part used to stabilize and adjust the profile (also called the relief), of the neck. Usually it is a steel rod that runs inside the neck and has a bolt that can be used to adjust its tension. The first truss rod patent was applied for by Tim McHugh, an employee of the Gibson company, in 1921[1], although the idea of "truss rod" can be encountered patents as early as 1908
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods.html
For more information or tools check out Stewart McDonald at
http://www.stewmac.com/ They sell luthier tools, parts, books, DVD's Etc.
A note: most guitars, even cheapos, have an adjustable truss rod. If the neck has too much 'bend' you can use to straighten the neck (I personally wouldn't level the fret until the neck relief was to my liking.)
Too much 'relief' is very common in older guitars--the string tension pulls the neck forward.
For most guitars:
Tighten the truss rod to bend the backward (away from the front.)
Loosen it to bend forward.
They work by compressing the neck--the fret board is denser than the neck, so tightening the rod pulls backward (the wood in the back (neck) compresses more than the front (fretboard)...)
Don't just crank way. Adjust the rod in 1/4 or 1/2 turns of the nut. Some of the adjustment will be immediate, but it may take a day or so (especially for 'relaxing' the neck--and doubly so if the neck isn't strung.)
The other main cause is using a set of strings that the guitar wasn't designed for: I.E., a heavy 'jazz' set on a skinny rock guitar; or thin (.09) R&R shredding strings on an old beast that was designed for a set of 0.14s.
I should also have mentioned that some adjustable truss rods are 'bi-flex.' They not only pull, but they push, also:
They have a loose 'center' setting, which is no tension. From that point, turning the nut in either direction results in tightening--
Turn clockwise to compress the neck wood (more convex fret board.)
Counter-clockwise to expand the neck wood and compress the fret board (more concave.)