are you a high/medium/low action person

d8m

Keep going through phases every few months with my Hamer.

Lower the action as low as it can go with the high frets buzzing.

Few months later get fed up of the choking out and lack of sustain so raise it up.

anyone else as indecisive as I am?

koneguitarist

Medium to high for me, just cant be bothered setting it for myself half the time.

octatonic

Low to medium low for me.

Deijavoo

High please. Every time.

GuitarMonkey

Low. 1.25mm treble, 1.5mm bass. An almost straight neck and nut slots a hair's breadth higher than the first fret.

That's low, yes? Not stupid low, but low.

Bogwhoppit

GuitarMonkey said:

Low. 1.25mm treble, 1.5mm bass

That's low, yes? Not stupid low, but low.

Mine are much lower lower. My Tele is .9mm and .7mm.  My Strat 1mm and .9mm. Its only my Gibson's that stay around the 1.5/1.2 mm mark.

 

No fret buzz on any of the guitars as I stone and dress the frets to very high tolerance, plus have a very light playing touch.I just finished fret dressing the MIC Tokai I got from jonnyburgo and have that sitting at around 1mm/.8mm and still room to go lower.

 

However, my acoustic is like the Severn suspension bridge, I could drive a small family salon between the bottom E and the 12th fret.
 

mike_l

Low-medium low, and getting lower as I've changed from 10's-9's, making me play lighter, and being able to get the action lower.

And no buzzing either........

@d8m perhaps your guitar(s) need a little tweak of the truss rod(s)?

GuitarMonkey

Bogwhoppit said:

Mine are much lower lower. My Tele is .9mm and .7mm.  

What radius is the fretboard? Don't the strings choke when you bend a note?

EdGrip

Medium-high. I like hitting chords.

ICBM

Medium. I don't like buzz and rattle, and I play fairly hard.

Bogwhoppit

GuitarMonkey said:

Bogwhoppit said:

Mine are much lower lower. My Tele is .9mm and .7mm.  

What radius is the fretboard? Don't the strings choke when you bend a note?

USA Standard 9.5", and 12 on the Gibson's with some variation in between.  No choking either.  I lent someone my strat once and they couldn't play it, there fingers kept sliding over the top of the strings when they went for a bend.

 

I must stress I cant get that action out the factory, I spend a lot of time levelling and fret dressing.

GuitarMonkey

ICBM said:

Medium. I don't like buzz and rattle, and I play fairly hard.

What height do you consider to be medium?

ICBM

GuitarMonkey said:

What height do you consider to be medium?

No idea, I never measure stuff like that. It varies depending on the guitar anyway.

Higher than what you would want to play widdly stuff and lower than an acoustic.

jd0272

'Medium'. I've not got a light touch.

streethawk

Bogwhoppit said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Bogwhoppit said:

Mine are much lower lower. My Tele is .9mm and .7mm.  

What radius is the fretboard? Don't the strings choke when you bend a note?

USA Standard 9.5", and 12 on the Gibson's with some variation in between.  No choking either.  I lent someone my strat once and they couldn't play it, there fingers kept sliding over the top of the strings when they went for a bend.

 

I must stress I cant get that action out the factory, I spend a lot of time levelling and fret dressing.

Yeah I'm not great with the fingers slipping over the string thing either.

J Mascis does a fair bit of bending:

:-S

Chuffola

Erm....

That appears to be ridiculously high. 

I'm a kind of medium, I think. I always try to go low but I think I have a heavy touch and always get a bit of rattle.

1.5 - 2mm sort of height at the 12th I would guess.,

stonevibe

Nah, that is about right for J.

impmann

Medium to high. I play hard and can't stand choking on bends. Yes you can dress em down like Bogwhoppit (I have to for a couple of mates) but I do prefer to fight the guitar a little. Plus I ain't no widdler... :-)

equalsql

Medium for me too. Like to feel the fat of my finger on the string when bending it.
(that sounds a lot more purvey that I meant it to be).

Skipped

Random observation:
Guitars hung on the wall in shops often have a lower action that I am expecting.
Guitars played by people that seem very talented to me often have a higher action than I was expecting. I have never met Robben Ford but I would be surprised if I picked up his guitar and found the strings right on the frets.

Ah - Here is Robben now! Why don't we ask him!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvvNhmweAGw

EdGrip

Skipped said:

Ah - Here is Robben now! Why don't we ask him!

^_____^