How low is "low" action to you?

[GuyaGuy]

You lost me at back bow...but from what you wrote, I think you meant bow or relief. Back bow will cause the strings to buzz even with high action. I like my relief slight if I can get away with it, and my action medium to high. But, it's a little different on each of my guitars because they seem to have individual sweet spots as far as adjustment goes. Low action to me would probably be most other people's guitars.

oops. yup, i meant "up bow" aka relief.

[Mind Riot]

Well, I do have a very heavy picking attack. I use Dunlop Jazz IIIs. There is buzzing that occurs because of technique and then there is buzzing that occurs because of a warped neck or unlevel frets. You can argue about how close to level frets should be, but for me if you get buzzing at 2/32", then you should level the frets. If you would rather run your action at 3/32" or 1/8" then that's cool, but the industry standard is around 2/32" at the 12th fret.

If that works for you that's great, but you're implying (purposely or not) that anyone who sets their action higher than your "industry standard" to avoid buzzing has a defective guitar and as someone who does fretwork I'm telling you that isn't always the case. There's just too many factors involved to set one standard and call everything else sub par. And while many companies do use roughly the measurements you quoted from the factory, those settings are only a starting point and not a hard and fast benchmark for the way comfortable action is supposed to be set. That begins and ends with the player, and my point is that just because you personally can't conceive of a guitar that buzzes at 2/32" not having fret problems that doesn't make it so. Someone with the exuberant attack of Buddy Guy will need his action set higher than that for clean notes without buzzing even with professionally installed and leveled frets and a good setup, and it has been documented that he does in fact have his action set higher than that.

In any case, thus far this thread has borne out an interesting cross section of opinions. Keep 'em coming, everybody!

[warriorpoet]

1/16" low 3/64" high.

Of course, I set it this way to keep intonation more accurate, and had to adjust my playing style accordingly (much lighter fretting hand and pick attack than I used to have).

[lndianScout]

I set my action until I just start to get fret buzz, then I will raise it until it stops, I've never measured it..

[Electric Blues]

5/64 on the low E is "standard" Gibson factory spec. I have my guitars set there and find that it lets me play most anything and not worry about buzz if the neck is set up correctly too. If I go down any lower, I have to start worrying about how I attack the strings and I don't find any advantage to having it lower that 5/64. Maybe I'm missing out on something?

[sxyryan]

I don't necessarily measure mine. I do it by feel. I will set it real low, tune it up and play it a bit. I make sure to hit all the frets and strum some chords. It typically buzzes a bit so i will detune, then raise it a hair and retune. It takes a while but when your done you have the action exactly as high as you want it, and you dont have to pay to have the guitar set up. I also usually have my main guitar with slightly higher action, so i can play a tiny bit of slide if i get the urge.

[Harry-L]

I learned on cheapies so I ended up liking my action medium to high. But, I do want my neck almost dead straight - maybe 0.010" relief.

I play mainly blues and really dig in on huge bends and beat on the strings when the mojo hits. Not sure I could do that with really low action.

[Mind Riot]

Of course, I set it this way to keep intonation more accurate, and had to adjust my playing style accordingly (much lighter fretting hand and pick attack than I used to have).

Sleek, baby. You must have a lot of finesse in your picking hand.

[Doctor Morbius]

I don't have a set standard or preference on action so I didn't participate in the survey.

What I do is adjust the bridge, whether it's a TOM or saddle style, lower than it should be. From there it usually buzzes like crazy. Then I gradually raise each saddle until the buzzing goes away. I don't attack too aggressively so I can usually get it fairly low.

[garthman]

I go for approx 1/16" on all strings with neck virtually straight.

[angus_old]

i set it as high as i can stand. the lower it is, the worse it sounds

[Mind Riot]

/ Your guitars have what could be called "Man Action".

 

 

Although I should probably think of a term for it that has a little less potential for misunderstanding.

 

 

What is it with me and the innuendo in this thread? I just can't stop.

[ashasha]

I've found that it really depends on my playing like others have said. Over the years my picks and attack have both gotten harder so I really can't go as low as I would like in theory. But to be honest I can play just fine where they are at, which is all over the place and different for each one. I do try to follow the radius once I get an idea of where the sweet spot is for me. And I like a slight amount of relief, too straight and it is just too stiff.

I've got one guitar that I did the frets on and got the neck damn near straight, action set with no buzz and the strings were too low. I didn't think that was possible, but it is for me.

Most of my other guitars are set to just where it buzzes heavy when I smack the living crap out of it, most of the time it is just a slight buzz.

[jlw001]

If that works for you that's great, but you're implying (purposely or not) that anyone who sets their action higher than your "industry standard" to avoid buzzing has a defective guitar and as someone who does fretwork I'm telling you that isn't always the case. There's just too many factors involved to set one standard and call everything else sub par. And while many companies do use roughly the measurements you quoted from the factory, those settings are only a starting point and not a hard and fast benchmark for the way comfortable action is supposed to be set. That begins and ends with the player, and my point is that just because you personally can't conceive of a guitar that buzzes at 2/32" not having fret problems that doesn't make it so. Someone with the exuberant attack of Buddy Guy will need his action set higher than that for clean notes without buzzing even with professionally installed and leveled frets and a good setup, and it has been documented that he does in fact have his action set higher than that. In any case, thus far this thread has borne out an interesting cross section of opinions. Keep 'em coming, everybody!

I'm at a loss for understanding your point. Are you saying that fret level and neck relief are subjective rather than objective? I understand that different people like having higher or lower action, but there is a standard of workmanship that most people subscribe to.

Are you saying that even if guitar A (with optimal neck relief) just stops buzzing at an action of 4/32" and guitar B stops buzzing at 2/32" action, then the workmanship of both guitars is the same? I just don't understand the gist of your point I guess.

I agree that string action on the guitar should be set to accomodate the players technique and desires. Some people like extremely low action and low gauge strings, while others like higher action and high gauge strings. However, this should be independent of the construction and fret job of the guitar.

Any guitar should be able to accomodate most players preferences. My experience is that most every guitar I have played will achieve 2/32" at the 12th fret with only minor acoustic fret buzz.

[Durden Singer]

Not sure exactly.
I just set the action on my Tele, first time doing anything like it. Had to shim the neck - it was all pretty frightening.
It's a little lower than I'd like. But not enough to bother doing anything about quite yet.

[Mind Riot]

Any guitar should be able to accomodate most players preferences. My experience is that most every guitar I have played will achieve 2/32" at the 12th fret with only minor acoustic fret buzz.

Right, and my experience is that 5/64" is more realistic with heavy pickers. We're probably just of two different mind sets about what constitutes minor buzz. I personally like not having any buzz that lasts more than about a third of a second after the note is struck, no matter how hard I hit it.


Truthfully, I feel kind of silly talking at such length about such a tiny difference as 1/64", but that's my point, just that I don't think that a guitar that still buzzes a bit at 4/64" has some defect. In my experience even with good fret work 5/64" on the low strings is more realistic, but only for heavy handed players.

Man, I feel really silly. Talk about trivial, huh?