Action

[William B.]

Would the truss bar make the strings lower?

Action is the right term?

Cleaned my guitar, tighten screws and changed the strings yesterday.

I thought maybe this could be changed too.

I may have read it here in the past but I forgot, sorry.

Thanks in advance, have a great day!

It's like 4 or 5 picks

 

[Forgetabull]

Start with your saddle. Need lowering a lot. Your strings at the 12th fret should be around 1.5-2mm off that fret depending on how high an action you like and how levels the frets are.

You should also check your intonation once you have lowered your saddle.

Typically you only adjust the truss if you are buzzing or high on the first handful of frets.

 

[William B.]

Start with your saddle. Need lowering a lot. Your strings at the 12th fret should be around 1.5-2mm off that fret depending on how high an action you like and how levels the frets are.

You should also check your intonation once you have lowered your saddle.

Typically you only adjust the truss if you are buzzing or high on the first handful of frets.

Does the acoustic have that stuff?
Sorry forgot to mention it's my acoustic.
I don't know what saddle is or how to intonate an acoustic.
Going to research it after jamming.

There's no buzz

 

[Forgetabull]

How straight does the neck look ? If the neck doesn't have an obvious front bow (bending towards the front of the guitar). Then we shouldn't have to worry about the truss or strings tension being to high (basically if your guitar was expecting 10s or 11s and you put on 13s etc).

The saddle is the thing the strings rest on at the back of the guitar, just in front of the pins.

You typically don't have to adjust the intonation on an acoustic as the saddle is basically fixed. You should see the compensation already done on the B string (where there's a dent/groove that faces the opposite direction of the rest of the strings). You can pull the saddle out and sand it down, sand the bottom not top.

You have to be a bit careful because you can't add back the material if you sand too much, you'd have to get a new saddle, so go slow and check it. If you are worried about the process, a good guitar shop should be able to do it for you.

Having said that, this can be a good time to get yourself a bone saddle and nut (assuming your guitar doesn't already have bone or graphite ones) as a spare or replacement, they'll help with sustain and tuning stability.

 

[Forgetabull]

That's the saddle.

 

[William B.]

Without strings on it looked straight but now checking it with them on (.52-.10's) the neck looks slightly slanted like in the direction of a folding chair or slight bow towards the ceiling. Seems like could be a bit too much tension. The saddle of mine is of a soft material not sure the type, it could be slightly sanded I guess, but maybe next time.
I can't get a good picture of the bow, maybe you know which way to turn the key and if I should?

 

[Forgetabull]

Here's a site that shows when you should adjust your truss rod:

Trussrod Adjustment | Guitarbitz

Truss rods can seem like a terrifying piece of metal that if you attempt to move will break your guitar beyond all repair! Maybe this rumour was started by techs to make sure people don't attempt their own setups but its really not that difficult if you make small adjustments.

www.guitarbitz.com

With what I see of your first picture, I don't think you need to adjust it. 10-52s should be fine for that guitar, I'm thinking you just need to sand that saddle down a bit (like at a guess start with .5mm or basically a pencil line).

 

[Forgetabull]

It's hard to get good photos of the saddle for comparisons but...

My old crappy dying plastic saddle next to a full height new saddle.

The slight difference in heights. Also I should have used a straight edge to sand the plastic nut.

You can see the slight height difference again.

 

[William B.]

I read the article and seems to be a Concave bow, it's not too bad, thinking about just leaving it alone.
The saddle and nut both seem to go diagonal in thickness, so the low E is raised more then the high E.
If I get another saddle I might sand it some but for now I don't want to break anything.
There's no buzzing and the height of the strings isn't too bothersome.
Thanks, I'll probably spend the extra effort on my electric when I change the strings, maybe later.

 

[Ed Seith]

If you hold down the first fret and the highest fret on the low E string, you should just about be able to slide the edge of a credit card in the gap at the 12th fret. Maybe a little more on an acoustic (a thin pick on a premium electric). Since you don't have three arms (that I'm aware of), a capo on the first fret or a friend can help.

If the space is too large, tighten the truss rod a 1/4 turn, wait a few hours and test again. Repeat if needed.