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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.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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.
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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...
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
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....