Acoustic action

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Mrs SanTTa bought me an interesting electo-acoustic a couple of weeks ago.

So far I've straightened the neck out (just by bringing the strings up to tension tbh) and I'll treat the drier-than-a-dry-thing fretboard with some lemon oil tomorrow.

The action is uncomfortably high.  The nut end is fine, the bridge is the culprit.  I'm assuming that I can just take the bridge out (I've done that bit) and then sand/file the offending 2mm off the base before putting it back into the slot?  Having measured it fairly carefully and accurately, I reckon bringing the bridge height down by 2mm should do the trick, without introducing any fret buzz from strings touching them where they shouldn't.

It all seems logical to me - just the equivalent of screwing an electric bridge down - but I've never done any work on an acoustic before and I just wanted to check that there are no "gotchas" in doing what I'm planning on doing.

Any thoughts?
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Comments

  • nutboxnutbox Frets: 34
    If the bridge sit to low after sanding it down,you might need to sand the wooden base down as well to help the string angle coming out of the pin holes and over the bridge. From what I have read. Cheers dazz good luck
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  • underdogunderdog Frets: 8334
    I've done exactly what you suggest and had no problem, just make sure you sand it level and don't take off too much.
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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    Have a think about the geometry before you sand the bridge down. The old string position and the new position form two sides of an isoceles triangle with the apex at the nut, and the half-way point of the side corresponds to the 12th fret. If you know how much you want to drop the action at the 12th fret you can work out how much to take off the bridge, which corresponds to the base of the triangle.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    If it's an electro with an under-saddle pickup, you must make certain that the bottom of the saddle ends up absolutely flat, or it will cause string balance problems.

    The easiest way to do this is with a sanding board - a piece of sandpaper glued firmly to a very flat piece of wood/material (thick chipboard or MDF is ideal) which you rub the saddle over after you've cut the height off. You can easily tell when you've got it dead flat - first rub it at right angles to the saddle until there are even scratches in that direction, then along its length until they all disappear.

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  • BigMonkaBigMonka Frets: 1763
    That's what I did with mine but do it in small increments with regular checking rather than going straight in at 2mm - you can always take more off but you can't put it back on!
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27345
    ICBM said:
    If it's an electro with an under-saddle pickup, you must make certain that the bottom of the saddle ends up absolutely flat, or it will cause string balance problems.
    Thanks - it is, and I'll now take extra care to get the base level.
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  • BigMonka said:
    That's what I did with mine but do it in small increments with regular checking rather than going straight in at 2mm - you can always take more off but you can't put it back on!
    Which is true, but you CAN shim it, which shouldn't be a problem at all - so long as the base is flat and the shim is flat, the string tension should ensure all the contact you need.
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