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But 2.5” at high E is high, as you know prob under 2 and a bit more. What’s it like at the low Evat 12 - typically maybe 0.5mm greater ?
id personnly look at those key observations , possibly make some little tweaks of relief/truss rod but anything more let someone really knowledgable look at it
Bur see if you can find then culprit first
you may have already done these, if so sorry
The case actually has some spare saddles.
My band, Red For Dissent
You generally want relief in the range of roughly 0.1mm to 0.2mm. (You may already have that, but measuring it provides peace of mind by removing any lingering doubts.) With that done, you can turn your attention to the saddle height.
(I am assuming here that your nut is more-or-less right - that is easy to check. Capo first fret: if it feels wildly different (not just a little, a lot) then the nut needs attention. Best to have that done by a professional as the cost of the tools is way more than the cost of having someone do it.)
After that comes shaving the bottom of the saddle. You may or may not want to do that yourself. I take it to the chap who looks after my guitars (and made a couple of them); he charges me $20 if he feels like it but mostly doesn't bother. But normally expect to pay maybe £25. People here say it's not so difficult and (unlike the nut) doesn't need special tools, but I've never done it myself. Having watched Paul do it many times, it does look very easy - but watching an expert make something look simple and actually doing it yourself can be different things!
Mind you, 2.5mm is not all that high. It's a little more than most people would prefer, but far from unplayable. Most good makers ship ex-factory at about that height, because a little too high is a simple adjustment while a little too low is a much more difficult one. We all have our own styles and likes, but as a guide I generally set an acoustic guitar to somewhere between 2.0 and 2.6mm on the bass side, 1.5 to 2.0mm on the treble. Any lower than that and I start to lose tone and volume and start to buzz a bit. A more delicate player with a lighter touch might prefer half a millimetre lower.
@imalrightjack
If the relief seems OK to you and the action at the nut over the first couple of frets is OK (you mentioned that it plays OK at the nut), then I would loosen the strings, remove the saddle, compare it with the spares provided, and try it with one that is marginally shorter in height. On some acoustic guitars you can remove the saddle without removing the bridge pins. I have a soft piece of rectangular rubber about the same bounciness as a very soft pencil eraser, and after loosening the strings I ease it up under the strings to lift them up. I keep loosening the strings bit by bit as I slide it up towards the bridge. I can usually get enough clearance to lift the saddle out of the slot and slip in another one, but without the rubber block being pressed down much onto the soundboard. This way the strings don't unravel at the tuners.
My band, Red For Dissent
I'd let it acclimatize to your house for at least 2 weeks before doing more than a truss rod tweak
ah Tannin said that.
The pro way to check is to press the string down with the left hand between frets 2 & 3.
Then tap the string down between the nut and the 1st fret.
You can do the same thing one fret up with the capo.
If the nut is too high it feels like a huge movement, and you get a louder noise when the string hits the first fret.imalrightjack said: you mean first fret string height from the fret?