petelanger
Forum Replies Created
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Wow! I’m not sure how you would be able to decide which shim or shims to buy. I’m seeing a lot of YouTube videos on the subject though. Also saw one where a guy took a plane to neck to relieve high Action.
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Pictures are good, I see what you mean. That is way high! I already understood this when you said 4mm at the 12th fret. Sorry I got your Zager and Taylor confused when you mentioned the Zager.
Do you still have buzzing? Because I’m not seeing where you could. It looks to me like you could start by tightening the truss rod to take out some of that high action.
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Don’t start filing on your Zager guitar frets! It’s most likely much to valuable to tinker with if you don’t know what your doing.
I don’t understand what you mean here:
this puppy needs more relief/bow, but that would give it a higher action, and it’s high enough that I have to press harder than on my Zager parlor. What it looks like to me is that the saddle/bridge was set too high so the strings go from a next to nothing point at the nut to 4-5mm at the 12th fret. What would happen if I filed down the lower fret bars (they stick up a fair amount) just enough to give more relief at the nut end? Or is that a no-no?
the action is high but you’re wanting to file frets, this doesn’t add up in my head.
Edit: Now that I’ve thought about it some more I think I understand. You have buzzing near the nut but at the same time there is high action at the 12th fret. Now it makes sense. Sorry, I was not seeing it clearly. This is fixable, probably adjust the nut to raise the strings just a tad there and lower the action by adjusting the truss rod. Could possibly need to lower a bit at the saddle. I actually did all these things to my Donner guitar and turned it from unplayable into something that really sits well with me. A bit of buzz has returned on the low E string, I probably goofed a bit when I filed the slot for that string and set it a little too low. Now with the summer humidity back things changed enough so that minimal clearance is not quite enough anymore.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by petelanger.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by
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Regarding the tuning pegs: they aren’t that hard to change out, a set of can be purchased for 15 – 40 bucks on Amazon. But maybe you could donate the guitar to the Guitars4vets or a similar organization. I’m sure somebody would appreciate it.
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Tuning pegs aren’t that hard to change out, a set of can be purchased for 15 – 40 bucks on Amazon. But maybe you could donate the guitar to the Guitars4vets or a similar organization. I’m sure somebody would appreciate it.
Truss rod adjustments are made exactly for the purpose of realigning the neck. You might want to get someone to help you if you are not too familiar with using hand tools. You will need either a hex key or a nut driver. The truss rod runs through the neck underneath the fretboard, therefore tightening it will make it bow backwards and loosening it will make it go forward along with the string tension. Based on how you described the situation, it sounds like you want take relief out of the neck by tightening the truss rod which means turning the nut clockwise. Don’t get too nervous about it, if you turn the wrong way you can just turn it back again.
Tony has a video on the subject: https://youtu.be/KFlIFN8oPDw
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Congrats on your third TACiversary Moose! I’ve got my second coming up in 2 weeks, and very much still a beginner, but there’s no going back to not being a player! We’re on this journey for good!
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</div>I occasionally get this redirect but always can get back in on the next attempt. It’s never continuously kept me out. I don’t have a Mac, never have owned one. All my devices can connect: Windows 11, Androids and Linux.
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My Donner Acoustic has a metallic cover and it’s not a triangle – it’s more shaped like a bougie board. Then the electric has no cover at all.
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There isn’t always a “triangular shaped” cover over the hole to access the truss rod nut. Sometimes the nut is accessed through the sound hole, that’s how it is on my Takamine acoustic.
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Ah, the bridge pin. Is it popping up or loose in the hole? I should think it’s fixable either way. I would buy a set of bone pins and just replace them all, about 10 bucks.
I was recently reading about how you can improve the sound of your guitar by using unslotted pins rather than the typical slotted ones. Very interesting, the theory makes a lot of sense and I might try this some time. It does involve a fair amount of work and cutting into your bridge with a mini saw that StewMac makes, so not for the squeamish. https://youtube.com/shorts/1YQZaProch8?si=YNgnlmbuAZtLR-i1
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I gave a reply to that, I think it’s worth fixing. Tuning pegs are cheap, replacement is usually very easy – just a little screw underneath and a nut on top to undo. It could be a good confidence building experience just doing it. If the guitar is worth dirt, buy some dirt cheap replacements on Amazon. Just make sure you get some that are compatible with your guitar.
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Did not know that about Taylors, thanks for informing us @Skyman911 !
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Ah, I do think any string will buzz as you start to lift your finger off, especially if you’re not fretting right close to the wire. It could be Martins do it more than others. I don’t really have any Martin strings anymore. I have D’Addarios and Ernie Balls mainly. I really like the D’Addarios the best on my Acoustics.
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But if your action is high, then the strings shouldn’t be anywhere near your frets so I’m a little confused.
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In that case you may need to lower the bridge. I did this with my Donner. I replaced the nut and the bridge with new units made from bone. I’m not sure what they were originally. It was a fair amount of work, especially fabricating the nut with all the slots with the proper depth and width. The bridge was pretty straightforward. I just had to file it down on each side.
Filing frets is not that simple, it’s easy to do a lot of damage. I filed mine but I had to fabricate a bunch of tools to do it safely.