are you a high/medium/low action person

richardhomer

Skipped;144700" said:

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.

I did a gig with Arlen Roth in the mid 80s. He had two ESP guitars (a Tele-alike and an 'S' type). Both were strung with 10s with actions which rendered them almost unplayable to me. He seemed to have no problem at all....

grungebob

I don't have the time or inclination to measure, I just set it to what ever the guitar wants.

ThePrettyDamned

I like a heavy action on the low strings and full shred on the high e and b. G string set down the middle (oooer).

If you're caining the shite out of single note riffs, you don't want to bend out or rattle.

That said, I find I prefer the tone of my picking with a higher action on the high strings. Low, shreddy stuff sounds great legato but I struggle for picking for some reason. No real reason I can think of.

I wouldn't bother asking the pros what they prefer. They only know what they like, and have no idea what works for you.

Chuffola

+1 to that @grungebob

Sometimes I obsess about the smallest bloody adjustments on my guitars that make very little difference to tone or comfort.

Then, other times, I just play. 

I know which I prefer...

usedtobe

Hmmm... Not really sure.

Phil_aka_Pip

Low-ish. But once "my tech" set up my LP so low that when I tried to bend the strings above the 15th fret there was no choking but they slipped out from under my fingers. So it was raised a bit.

btw he's not exclusively "my tech" but he's the guy I always go to and would not hesitate to recommend to anyone else 

monquixote

I have no idea. 

I just have it as low as it can be, but so it doesn't rattle or choke under any circumstances. 

Does that make it medium?

Bucket

Low, every time.

If it feels like the strings are painted on, that's too high.

JDE

Depends on the guitar/use.
On my electric archtop, 14's, very low.
On my acoustic archtop, 14's, quite high.
Flattop acoustic, 12's, medium action.
Tele, 10's, low.
Semi, 11's, medium.

Too low, and I can't stop my fingers sliding over other strings during bends. Too high, and I can't stop my fingers sliding under. I don't really bend on the archtops, and my acoustic archtop sounds like a banjo if the strings are too light and too low. I play slide a fair bit on the semi, so I need to go a bit higher to stop the frets banging on the slide. I set the Tele up to be a total twang machine, and I think the low action helps this a bit. It takes a bit of adjustment when I swap guitars, but nothing too major. Going from the Tele to my acoustic archtop is like running uphill with weights on though.
If all I ever did was play chordal rhythm, I don't think the action would really bother me. Or the string guage.

Roland

Depends. On the Parker it's low, but doesn't rattle, on the McCarty it's a bit higher so that my fingers can grip the string when bending.  More importantly, I set up the neck with a slight bow so that the action is consistent from 12th fret to 5th, and then slightly lower from 4th to nut.

GuitarMonkey

Roland said:

 on the McCarty it's a bit higher so that my fingers can grip the string when bending.  

This puzzles me a bit. A few people have mentioned bending problems when using a low action.

Once the string is fretted the action is effectively zero anyway so what matters is fret height which must be enough to get some skin under the fret, right? Or no?

bertie

my different guitars have different actions............. flatter boards have lower actions...........mahgonay/HB ones.   Fendery ones I use for clean more, so a higher action is pereferable..........

ICBM

GuitarMonkey said:

Roland said:

 on the McCarty it's a bit higher so that my fingers can grip the string when bending.  

This puzzles me a bit. A few people have mentioned bending problems when using a low action.

Once the string is fretted the action is effectively zero anyway so what matters is fret height which must be enough to get some skin under the fret, right? Or no?

The lower the action the less the upward tension of the string against your fingertips because it takes much less force to push the string down a shorter distance. It's the upward force which makes the string dig into your fingertip more and stops it slipping out sideways. That's one of the reasons I find heavier strings easier to bend on (mostly - unless they're so heavy that the sideways bending force is too great as well).

CloudNine

Only really play Fender style guitars, and have always found a penny (flat on it's side!) under the string at the 12th fret to be a great starting point for setting action. Assuming nut, relief etc. is already set up properly of course, and frets are level. Tend to end up going slightly lower than that, but always start there on the high E and it stays the same through the other plain strings, then raise it just a bit higher on the wound strings.

Bottom line for me is that it has to ring clearly at every fret, unplugged. I don't mean just without rattle, I mean that point where you hear the full tone of the string. If I can't get a guitar to set up roughly like that, I either don't want it, or it needs some work beyond my capability to be done.

I am continually amazed by the way some used guitars I buy are set up.... Not in a good way... 

axisus

I'd say the low side of medium on my main guitar - if that makes sense?

All other guitars are different, just whatever they happen to be. I don't bother altering them unless they are very low or very high. I quite like my guitars to feel different.

RocknRollDave

Re the J Mascis thing on the previous page, I saw a video of him discussing his guitars once and he'd sent one in for some work - new pickups or something, I forget what it was now - and when they sent it back they said "Oh, and we lowered your action for you as it was so high" and he was like "I LIKE it like that, it's deliberate!"

How on earth he plays like that, I have no idea.

Me? i have no idea how you would class the action on my guitars..I'd have to say "medium" as I don't see it as especially high OR especially low...I don't really have much frame of reference to compare it to. I do think low action is somewhat over rated, though

Blueingreen

I like a low action and light strings (9s). I've had hand problems so I need to make playing as easy for myself as possible. 

I'm pretty intolerant of string buzzing so it's a compromise.  I tweak my guitars to get the action as low as possible and wouldn't buy a guitar that couldn't take a low action without buzzing.  I don't think there are negative tone consequences, the only real problem is I can't usually pick up a guitar belonging to someone else and do myself justice - in fact in many cases other players' guitars are virtually unplayable as far as I'm concerned.  

EdGrip

I find that if I try to do bends on a guitar with a low action, the neighbouring string gets sucked under my advancing finger in a way I'm not used to and ends up being fretted and making a noise. With my normal high action, my finger just pushes the neighbouring string out of the way.

streethawk

Regarding string buzz/rattle: often they will be catching on the higher frets, even if all your frets are 'level'.

If that's the case you can create 'fall away' on those upper frets, so they are a tiny bit lower than the preceding frets. 

Bear in mind that you'll typically not be playing those frets very often, so over time they will retain their freshly levelled height and the rest will be gradually getting a weensy bit lower. Not bad insurance. 

(caveats: playing style, make of guitar, radius, blah blah leave me alone). 

Skipped

I can't be certain but it may be the case that "Plays like Butter" was linked (a long time ago) to a trend/fashion for impossibly low action on a high quality guitar.
I am willing to admit that until Guitar Player and other interviews started to appear (pre Internet :-O )   I had simply assumed that all the big name players had guitars that almost played themselves....