Lowering my action, what's the worst that could happen?

[u6crash]

I was playing my acoustic the other day and maybe it is my imagination, but I thought it used to have better action. So first I tried a simple truss rod adjustment, but I'm not seeing much change.

 

Now I'm thinking of taking off the saddle and removing a bit from the bottom. I don't see the harm in doing this, but before I go ahead and do it, maybe someone can tell me some do's and don'ts.

 

If this adjustment is so simple, I can't help but wonder why the bridge is so high up in the first place except that maybe some people don't want their action too low on an acoustic.

[Old_Joe_Clark]

well the "worst" that could happen is that, while you are sanding the bottom of your saddle, you get a brush burn from the sandpaper and you tear off a fingernail. As you pull your hand away, it hit's your guitar which falls on the floor. You take a step back and trip on the saddle that's under your foot now. You reach for the table but you pull a lamp down. It breaks. Your house catches on fire and you are never heard from again.

[kwakatak]

Check the sticky "Is My Guitar Sick?". Freeman did us all a great service by documenting how to set the action properly.

[u6crash]

Ah, cool. That will help a lot. Didn't even think to look under "Is My Guitar Sick".

[postalsock]

just dont ruin your neck, i would take it to a pro.

Just a side note, whos that black man with the cool glasses. I bought some glasses like that and i need some lenses put in em. Taking it back to the 50's baby.

[plushpinkypully]

Originally posted by Old_Joe_Clark well the "worst" that could happen is that, while you are sanding the bottom of your saddle, you get a brush burn from the sandpaper and you tear off a fingernail. As you pull your hand away, it hit's your guitar which falls on the floor. You take a step back and trip on the saddle that's under your foot now. You reach for the table but you pull a lamp down. It breaks. Your house catches on fire and you are never heard from again.

:D

[Red House]

There some good articles on frets.com on saddle work. Dont mess with the nut yourself though.

[nip]

Originally posted by u6crash I was playing my acoustic the other day and maybe it is my imagination, but I thought it used to have better action.

Change in temperature and humidity may very well make neck change quite a bit. And the top may also raise or lower a bit.

Tross rod should be adjusted primarily for reasons that the actuall bow of neck is wrong, not action adjustments.

Change in action may very well demand a new intonation to be performed because the stretch on the string while pressing it will be different. But if it was ok before and only neck has changed or top elevated a little bit, it's probably not needed.

[Greg Bogoshian]

Actually, if your action is now high, you would want to check and see if string tension has caused the top to "belly up" at the bridge. Look for a bulge and uplift behind the bridge causing it to tilt. This should be addressed with a JLD Bridge Doctor first.

If that is not the problem, then you might need a neck reset. Place a straightedge on the frets and extend it to the base of the saddle. It should line up right near the base of the saddle where it goes into the slot. If it lines up too low, such as at the base of the bridge or worse, it is definitely indicative of a neck reset being necessary. This is the way to address it.

If you simply try and shave the bridge to lower it, or lower the saddle, what will happen is you will change the angle of the strings coming off the saddle making a shallower angle and you will not put as much energy into the soundboard making the guitar sound thin and weak on projection and volume. Not the way to go.

[nylon rock]

The most likely worst that can happen is that when you sand down the saddle, the flat will not be flat. This happens all the time with sanding operations because of technique. You'll get a lower height but there will be a rocking possibility within the bridge slot. Compare the flat to a straight edge once you've taken off the amount you want and then improve on the flat.

A non-flat puts a stress on a bone saddle and it could possibly crack many years later, but I'm making all this up just from worst case scenario common sense.

Don't get into a struggle of removing more and more trying to get a perfect flat, though, or you may have nothing left by the time you're through.

[nip]

Originally posted by Greg Bogoshian If you simply try and shave the bridge to lower it, or lower the saddle, what will happen is you will change the angle of the strings coming off the saddle making a shallower angle and you will not put as much energy into the soundboard making the guitar sound thin and weak on projection and volume. Not the way to go.

Thank you for writing that. I was about to start a thread about relations between action height and tone.

[Greg Bogoshian]

Happy to be of service...

[Freeman Keller]

Originally posted by Greg Bogoshian If you simply try and shave the bridge to lower it,

 

 

I don't think Greg is advocating shaving the bridge - please don't do this (ever).

 

The original post says "So first I tried a simple truss rod adjustment, but I'm not seeing much change." but what is implied is that the subtle relationship between the truss rod and the saddle is not fully understood (the truss rod might affect the action but that is not its main function). In answer to the question possed in the topic heading, the main thing that CAN happen if you lower the action too much is to start developing string/fret buzzing. Please read this

 

http://www.bryankimsey.com/setup/neck_relief_1.htm

 

You can also loose volume as Greg says.

[Hudman]

There is NOTHING wrong with sanding the bottom of your saddle if it's too tall.

The key is taking your time (take a little bit of at a time - test fit it often) and keeping the bottom of the saddle nice and level.

I never heard of shaving the bridge to lower the action at the saddle. Bone saddle blanks sell for $5 (if you mess your's up). Bridges are more expensive (if you mess it up) and you could damage your soundboard removing it.

[Greg Bogoshian]

If you lower the SADDLE, that is very doable, but expect that it could lead to loss of volume, projection, and potentially to buzz... I would suggest to do this to get a thick glass plate and feather on some high quality sandpaper. Then, mark off how much material you need to take off and provide even pressure across the saddle and move it back and forth on the sandpaper which is mounted to the flat plate. Keep it perpindicular to the plate.

[kwakatak]

Yeah, shaving the bridge is actually a last-ditch effort to compensate for a bridge that has rotated slightly toward the sound due to bellying/lifting up. I had this done to my Takamine along with having some internal shoring installed underneath the fretboard extension as an alternative to a full-blown neck reset. I wasn't pretty, but along with a new compensated (plastic) saddle the action of the guitar returned to normal.

Looking back with 20/20 hindsight I should have just had him reglue to bridge and install a JLD instead of planing it level. I would have saved myself a little heartache.