There can be a variety
of factors that affect low or high string action.
The place I always start is checking the guitar for
proper relief. You start here too.
Truss rod
adjustment
There are a couple of
areas of guitar maintenance and adjustment that
players would be better off if they could do them on
their own, when needed. Some aren't comfortable
doing it, and that's ok. Lots of people work on
their own cars and lots of people take them to a
garage. The same is true for guitars.
The term we need to get comfortable with is relief.
Relief refers to the position of the headstock in
relation to the plane of the fingerboard. A good way
to understand this is to envision what exactly we
are relieving and that is string space above the
frets. If the strings on a guitar are 1/2" off the
frets then the guitar has way too much relief. If
the strings are actually resting on the frets then
they have no relief. We adjust relief by adjusting
the truss rod:
TIGHTEN the truss rod to REMOVE relief
LOOSEN the truss rod to ADD relief.
How to do it? First, to do it alone you'll need a
capo. Even if you never use a capo to play, it's
worth getting one just to make these kinds of
adjustments. It will pay for itself the first time
you use it to set up your guitar. Don't get the
cheapie capos that have an elastic strap with metal
eye holes in the strap, or if you do, make sure you
put a protective cloth between the metal eye holes
and the finish on the back of your neck. They can
and will scratch your finish. If you don't have a
capo then you need a friend with at least one hand.
Tune your guitar to 440 concert pitch (A string is
tuned to A. Standard tuning; no alternate tunings.)
Capo the first fret. Fret the 6th string at the 15th
or 16th fret. Take 2 business cards and slip them
between the 6th string and the 7th fret. Do the
cards actually lift the string up to squeeze in? You
need to add relief. This means that your guitar
probably had low action but buzzed pretty badly when
you played. Do the 2 business cards slip inbetween
the 7th fret and the 6th string without touching
either? This means you need to take away relief.
Your guitar probably has high action and no buzzing.
The more complicated adjustment is to remove
relief/tighten the truss rod. The first thing we
need to do in this adjustment is to detune the
guitar to remove string tension. You do not want to
adjust this truss rod fighting the pulling energy of
the strings. This is a major and common mistake by
inexperienced technicians and can quickly lead to
stripped nuts or wrenches or worse.
Once you've loosened the strings, place the
adjustment tool into the truss rod end and make sure
the tool is fully engaged and properly inserted. If
the guitar is older or it's been a while since the
last adjustment, it's probably a good idea to first
note where the truss rod nut is and then loosen it.
If the nut won't loosen, chances are it won't
tighten either and you could stand a chance of doing
some serious damage here. If it loosens well, then,
noting where the nut was when you first started,
begin to tighten it.
Go with about 1/4 of a rotation, CLOCKWISE, so say
you move the nut from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock, then
stop. Tune it back up, re-capo, re-check your
measurement at the 7th fret while fretting higher up
on the neck. Perfect? You're done. Need to go some
more? Uncapo, detune, and adjust more, this time
going only about 1/8 of a turn. Tune up, capo up,
measure, etc. If you still need to adjust more, go
about 1/8 to 1/4 more if the nut turns easily
enough. You don't want to adjust too much in one
day. Here's part two; the neck can/will continue to
move after the adjustment is made. Sometimes you
dial it in perfectly and then a couple of days later
actually have to go back and adjust it the other
way.
The key point I want to make in this adjustment is
NEVER FORCE THE TRUSS ROD. If it's too hard/stiff to
move then take it in to a shop. If after the first
day of adjustment you still need to adjust further
do it as long as you go about 1/2 a turn a day and
give it a day to settle in. If the nut becomes too
difficult to turn and you still have a ways to go,
take it in.
To loosen the truss rod to add relief, the strings
pulling tension actually help you make this
adjustment, so don't detune them. Again, making sure
the adjustment tool is properly inserted and fully
engaged, turn the nut 1/4 turn COUNTER CLOCKWISE
from about 6 o'clock to 3 o'clock. Tune it, capo it,
check it out.
That's it! No mystery. If you try and can't do it,
take it in, but try it first. It's not rocket
science.
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