How High Do You Set Your Action and Do You Have ANY String Buzz
- Thread starter Deadpan
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bgstudio
Groupie
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I have settled on 1.8mm for the low string and about 1.5mm on the high string for most of my guitars. It is low enough for fast rhythm playing and it allows the strings to ring out with full resonance and minimal buzzing when playing clean tones. On certain guitars like Les Pauls and Teles that I like to use for cleans and blues tones, I can get away with a little more height and still be comfortable, since I am looking for big crunchy tones and a lot of sustain. The factory spec of 5/64ths for the low E on the LPs work fine for me.
Full high gain only, I can get away with lower action like 1.2mm on the low E and around 1mm on the high E but I will get a fair amount of string noise acoustically and will hear the buzzing through the amp on cleans somewhat. But as long as the fret work is level and the neck relief is well adjusted, I won't get dead notes or fret outs when bending and the sustain is still good enough for most applications.
Full high gain only, I can get away with lower action like 1.2mm on the low E and around 1mm on the high E but I will get a fair amount of string noise acoustically and will hear the buzzing through the amp on cleans somewhat. But as long as the fret work is level and the neck relief is well adjusted, I won't get dead notes or fret outs when bending and the sustain is still good enough for most applications.
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the-trooper
Shredder
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1.3 - 1.4mm.
Lower does feel nicer, but at the same time feels like I'm loosing control over the instrument. Especially for really fast stuff, like sweeps, almost as if strings don't move away from frets fast enough.
Lower does feel nicer, but at the same time feels like I'm loosing control over the instrument. Especially for really fast stuff, like sweeps, almost as if strings don't move away from frets fast enough.
madmarcus1960
Groupie
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5/64ths low E, 4/64ths high E, slight relief at 8th fret. If my guitars can't play set like this, they have an issue that I'll need to address. Most I can fix.
I may run my pickups lower than factory spec. I go by ear on the low E side. Probably 1/8" on low E and 1/16th" on the high E, bridge might be higher on both depending upon how hot it is. I mostly use lower output PuPs.
I may run my pickups lower than factory spec. I go by ear on the low E side. Probably 1/8" on low E and 1/16th" on the high E, bridge might be higher on both depending upon how hot it is. I mostly use lower output PuPs.
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laxu
Rock Star
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Mine is very unscientific. I just adjust it until it feels "right" and this varies by guitar and even the kind of stuff I play on it. I do double check with measurements, radius gauges and so on that e.g some string isn't too low/high.
The absolute lowest action can be achieved with my Heatley Tradition (LP style made to perfection) and my Kiesel Aries AM7 (20" fretboard radius). But even then I usually set my action so that bends feel comfortable and there's no fretbuzz with the way I normally play.
The action my Fender Jazzmaster is a bit higher because I use 11s on it and the design of that guitar means there's very little break angle from trem to bridge. I'd have to shim the neck if I wanted low action on it.
I'd categorize the overall action on my guitars as "medium."
The absolute lowest action can be achieved with my Heatley Tradition (LP style made to perfection) and my Kiesel Aries AM7 (20" fretboard radius). But even then I usually set my action so that bends feel comfortable and there's no fretbuzz with the way I normally play.
The action my Fender Jazzmaster is a bit higher because I use 11s on it and the design of that guitar means there's very little break angle from trem to bridge. I'd have to shim the neck if I wanted low action on it.
I'd categorize the overall action on my guitars as "medium."
TSJMajesty
Rock Star
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I set mine really low, but I don't measure it. Sliding the point of a JP Jazz III chokes it out. On both E's.
But I never had a guitar with action this low until I got a Majesty, and there are reasons to use low action, reasons to set it higher, and tradeoffs.
I wanted the strings more out of my way for doing fast riffs, but in order to take advantage of that, I had to really work on keeping my fingers very close to the fretboard, and it took a lot of those spider exercises to improve it.
But then there's string bends, which for me, low action works against. The adjacent string wants to slip down under my finger, so again, I had to work at that, and it still happens.
And the worst thing, as has been mentioned wrt sweeps, but it can happen any time you change to a different string, is there's less room for the string to move away from the board. So you have to be in the habit of resting the tip of any finger against the next string when switching to another string, you have to rest your picking palm across the strings you just played, and move it across the strings, as you do a sweep, and you have to get your fretting fingers trained to only rise up just enough to stop the string from vibrating (which is the hardest of the 3), and use combinations of those 3 techniques, depending on the riff.
I literally practice an arpeggiated Maj 7 chord across the top 4 strings, and try to only lift my fingers just enough to choke the string, as an exercise.
Imo, it's really only useful (really low action), if you truly need it. Because, yeah, it results in a faster-playing guitar, but it then becomes harder, especially if your technique isn't trained for it, to keep other strings silent.
And then there's fret buzz in general. If I can't play a clean, arpeggiated passage such as this intro, without picking too hard and getting fret buzz, then the offending string gets raised until it stops. A little fret buzz gets masked with distortion for sure, but even the slightest fret buzz will come through when playing clean.
But again, for anything like this, I worked on my picking technique to be able to play it very lightly. You just can't have super-low action, pick something like this hard, and not get string buzz.
But I never had a guitar with action this low until I got a Majesty, and there are reasons to use low action, reasons to set it higher, and tradeoffs.
I wanted the strings more out of my way for doing fast riffs, but in order to take advantage of that, I had to really work on keeping my fingers very close to the fretboard, and it took a lot of those spider exercises to improve it.
But then there's string bends, which for me, low action works against. The adjacent string wants to slip down under my finger, so again, I had to work at that, and it still happens.
And the worst thing, as has been mentioned wrt sweeps, but it can happen any time you change to a different string, is there's less room for the string to move away from the board. So you have to be in the habit of resting the tip of any finger against the next string when switching to another string, you have to rest your picking palm across the strings you just played, and move it across the strings, as you do a sweep, and you have to get your fretting fingers trained to only rise up just enough to stop the string from vibrating (which is the hardest of the 3), and use combinations of those 3 techniques, depending on the riff.
I literally practice an arpeggiated Maj 7 chord across the top 4 strings, and try to only lift my fingers just enough to choke the string, as an exercise.
Imo, it's really only useful (really low action), if you truly need it. Because, yeah, it results in a faster-playing guitar, but it then becomes harder, especially if your technique isn't trained for it, to keep other strings silent.
And then there's fret buzz in general. If I can't play a clean, arpeggiated passage such as this intro, without picking too hard and getting fret buzz, then the offending string gets raised until it stops. A little fret buzz gets masked with distortion for sure, but even the slightest fret buzz will come through when playing clean.
But again, for anything like this, I worked on my picking technique to be able to play it very lightly. You just can't have super-low action, pick something like this hard, and not get string buzz.
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