Lowering action on my acoustic.

[stevehollx]

My Larrivee L-03's action is higher than it should be, I think. The guitar sound great, but past the 10th fret, I really have to work at fretting notes. My friend's sub $500 acoustics aren't this bad.

 

I'm pretty much positive the bridge just needs to be lowered. What is the process to do this? Can I do it myself? I setup my electric guitar all myself, but never done anything with an acoustic bridge.

 

How do I remove the string saddle? Do I just need to sand the bottom of the saddle down until it is less high? Won't this mess up the intonation, though, since the strings would be shorter in length?

[dwerlin]

you should just be able to pull the saddle out of the bridge, maybe with the help of pliers.

 

check this out for how to measure exactly how much to sand off of the saddle to get the desired action:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/LowerAction/loweraction01.html

 

as far as intonation, not sure how that's affected but I think since you're changing the lenght of every string by the same amount then the intonation should be fine...but don't quote me on that

[EvilTwin]

Originally posted by dwerlin you should just be able to pull the saddle out of the bridge, maybe with the help of pliers. check this out for how to measure exactly how much to sand off of the saddle to get the desired action: http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/LowerAction/loweraction01.html as far as intonation, not sure how that's affected but I think since you're changing the lenght of every string by the same amount then the intonation should be fine...but don't quote me on that

 

Yeah, you're changing the height, but also the angle from which the strings are set to go down...you're not changing the actual scale length, so I don't think it would be a problem.

 

Whenever I change strings, it's never been a problem for me to just slide the saddle out. If you keep the strings on, you might need to use some pliers, but I'd just go ahead and put on a new set of strings.

 

Larry's sound amazing, but I've played a few that were very tough players from the factory. A little setup work can make an acoustic play pretty much exactly like you want.

 

Good link there with some great information.