Recommend an accurate action gauge

BigPaulie

I used to own a cheap Baroque action gauge but threw it away pretty much as soon as I got it because it was printed wonky.

So I bought a D'addario one thinking the quality of this seemingly reputable brand would be better. How wrong I was.

The scales are not "zeroed" properly against the edges of the tool making it unusable as a tool whose purpose is to measure fractions of millimetres.

Any recommendations for a good one in the UK? Stew Mac aren't an option due to the extortionate shipping rates for such a small purchase.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/18409060@N00/albums/72177720307663704

BillDL

The Crimson Guitars gauges are well laid out, easy to read, and accurate, but are £18 each for metric and imperial as they don't have one with both.  They are photographed with the protective clear plastic still on them, hence the slightly scrappy look.

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/string-action-gauge-metric

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/string-action-gauge-inch

BigPaulie

BillDL said:

The Crimson Guitars gauges are well laid out, easy to read, and accurate, but are £18 each for metric and imperial as they don't have one with both.  They are photographed with the protective clear plastic still on them, hence the slightly scrappy look.

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/string-action-gauge-metric

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/string-action-gauge-inch

That looks quite handy. The metric one would be fine.

stylesforfree

BigPaulie said:

I used to own a cheap Baroque action gauge but threw it away pretty much as soon as I got it because it was printed wonky.

So I bought a D'addario one thinking the quality of this seemingly reputable brand would be better. How wrong I was.

The scales are not "zeroed" properly against the edges of the tool making it unusable as a tool whose purpose is to measure fractions of millimetres.

Any recommendations for a good one in the UK? Stew Mac aren't an option due to the extortionate shipping rates for such a small purchase.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/18409060@N00/albums/72177720307663704

Damn, i was looking at the D'Addario one too, how about this Dunlop one? 

Dunlop Maintenance Tools Action Gauge at Gear4music

I can't quite tell but it looks like that suffers from the same problem from the image?

SteveRobinson

You don't really need to measure the string height accurately, or at all. So longs as it plays well what does it matter whether the strings are 1mm above the frets or 1.25mm?

Having said that, I do check the heights and have both D'Addario and Stewmac gauges. Of the two I use the D'Addario one as it's more readable.

ICBM

SteveRobinson said:

You don't really need to measure the string height accurately, or at all. So longs as it plays well what does it matter whether the strings are 1mm above the frets or 1.25mm?

I use a plain steel rule - Rabone Chesterman, if it matters - held against the string at the 12th fret. Accurate enough to read to a quarter millimetre, which is all you really need - any finer than that and it's more dependent on the individual guitar.

PrecisionGuided

The black Stringtec one is very good, but out of stock. Usually about a tenner on Amazon.

Tannin

BigPaulie said:

BillDL said:

The Crimson Guitars gauges are well laid out, easy to read, and accurate, but are £18 each for metric and imperial as they don't have one with both.  They are photographed with the protective clear plastic still on them, hence the slightly scrappy look.

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/string-action-gauge-metric

That looks quite handy. The metric one would be fine.

I have one which I think might be the same as that only with different branding. It works just fine. Metric-only ones are best as it saves buggerising about. 

Is there a point to having one? Absolutely! Having an exact measurement and keeping records of it is very useful and saves guesswork. Most of the time you can just say "Yep, that feels about right" and not measure, but every so often it is good to ground-truth it.

thermionic

Hmm, I bought a Baroque one a few years ago because I thought it was ok, or at least better than the really cheap ones. The other branded ones mentioned above don’t look any better to me, from photos at least. Interested to see if there is a good recommendation.

I did use a steel rule but found it hard to read 0.5 mm increments. The string gauges with a series of increasingly tall rectangles are good because you just move it along until the top of the block appears/disappears under the bottom of the string.

BigPaulie

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Wiz's all round!

GuyBoden

I've been using metric feeler gauges for most of my life, accurate and inexpensive.

They were originally used for tappets on my cars, so have been a good investment.

BillDL

thermionic said:

Hmm, I bought a Baroque one a few years ago because I thought it was ok .....

The annoying thing about the Baroque guage is that each of the guitars I set up with it would only play a minuet and I could never get them to play in 4/4 time.

axisus

IMDB?

thermionic

BillDL said:

thermionic said:

Hmm, I bought a Baroque one a few years ago because I thought it was ok .....

The annoying thing about the Baroque guage is that each of the guitars I set up with it would only play a minuet and I could never get them to play in 4/4 time.

Bach off, Bill

sev112

I’ve got an Amazon one which has metric and imperial which seems to be useful to have both