Session strings vs action strings how to#

If you are the adventurous type, doing your own action adjustments can be fun and money saving. We set our guitars to 6/64' on the 6th string and 4/64' on the 1st string-a good all-around starting place for action height-but weвЂ™ll vary this by 25 percent or so in either direction if we know the player involved or for consideration of other factors like scale length. To check the height at the saddle, take a steel ruler that measures in 64ths of an inch and measure the distance from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the 1st and 6th strings. And most of the time, the correct adjustment would be made to the truss rod before moving on to the saddle height. When our customers want to change their action, most of the time itвЂ™s because the guitar has gotten harder to play. Tip: Always stop short of completely flat and you will not run the risk of stripping out the truss rod nut. Putting more relief in will raise the action and taking relief out will lower the action.

Now that you have measured, you can use your truss-rod tool to put in or take out relief (lefty loosy, righty tighty). 011' feeler for this, though some people use a thinner one.

(If you donвЂ™t have a feeler-gauge set, they are cheap and can be found at your local auto parts store.) The amount of relief youвЂ™ll want to see varies some by taste, but you will always want to have some relief in there. Next, we hold down the 3rd string at the 12th fret and check the gap at the 6th fret with a feeler gauge. To measure the relief, the first step is placing a capo at the 1st fret to eliminate the nut from consideration. When we are setting up a new guitar at our shop, neck relief is the first measurement taken and the first adjustment we make. You will better know what your preferences are and if the guitar has, in fact, changed from where it was last set.

Session strings vs action strings how to#

If you arenвЂ™t comfortable with doing this work yourself-and a lot of people arenвЂ™t-itвЂ™s beneficial to know how to take the pertinent measurements to better inform the person who will ultimately work on your guitar. This month, IвЂ™ll touch on how to measure your action and relief, and some basics on how to change them at home. Though most people can tell when an instrument is not playing the way they would like it to, a lot of folks canвЂ™t put their finger on why that is. Almost daily, IвЂ™ll answer a question from a customer regarding the setup and playability of his or her guitar.