Telecaster action a bit too high

thumpingrug

 I bought a telecaster about three years ago and it had a lovely low and light action.  Its not my main guitar as I tend to pick up a Strat or the Variax if I want a noodle so the Tele often gets left for long periods of time.

Picked it up at the weekend and noticed that the action is quite a bit higher than I remember and the strings all feel a bit tighter, even after a retune.

I’m assuming that because its been sat for a while, on a stand, in a room with central heating on over the winter,  the neck might want a bit of an adjustment.   Shall I leave this and see what happens once the heating goes off or does it sound like a tweek of the truss rod might be in order?

Your humble servant

T

Maynehead

Hold down the 1st fret and 17th fret of the low E string, and check that there's a business card (not credit card) thickness of a gap between the top of the 7th fret and the bottom of the string.

If there is more than that, then you need to tighten the truss rod. If there is equal or less than that, you will need to lower the bridge saddles.

For me tweaking the truss rod is just regular maintenance I perform throughout the year, you shouldn't have to put up or made do with a badly set up guitar.

richardhomer

A truss rod tweak should sort it out, as @Maynehead  said. You may well find the guitar stabilises over time to the point where it doesn't need adjusting again - but it's not a major issue if it doesn't. This aspect seems to vary from instrument to instrument.

english_bob

Don't know what you lot are on about.

You don't set the action height on a Telecaster. A Telecaster sets its own damn action height and you quit whining and play it or else you go back to whatever pansy guitar you were playing before.

MtB

^^^  Here speaketh the man who plays a Mark Phillips Telecraster

thumpingrug

Cheers Chaps.  Ill have a tweek a bit later.   

rossi

iI you cant get a nice low action then a neck shim might well help ..It just jacks up the angle a tad and makes it easier to lower the bridge  a fraction to make the strings hug the board to suit .