Society & Culture & Entertainment Performing Arts

Why Do We Need to Fix the Guitar Action?

The moment you start playing a musical instrument and create your own music, there is a sense of belonging that you attach with it.
More importantly, you feel accountable for any damages that you might cause to it, in the process of handling it.
Soon a time comes when you are no longer satisfied to be just playing it.
You would want to find out ways and means to make it better.
With time, you might feel the need to fix the guitar action in order to make it more easily playable.
Some fixing tips can go a long way in bettering the functioning of your instrument.
The action on your guitar is actually the height of the strings with respect to the fretboard.
When you adjust the height, you are actually fixing the action to suit your playing styles.
In order to do so, you need to remove the strings one by one.
Next you should remove the guitar saddle and place a thin plastic sheet in the place where the saddle fits.
This will raise the level of the strings above the fretboard.
However, you may not get it right at the first attempt.
If you raise the level of the strings too much, it will make fretting difficult.
You need to proceed by the trial and error method till it suits your comfort level.
Once you get it right, the strings of the guitar should stop producing that unwarranted buzz.
If it is an electric guitar, then adjusting the action could be a little more complicated than in the acoustic.
It needs to be done with greater dexterity.
The instrument has a nut below each string on the bridge known as the hex nut.
You need to adjust the nut to lower or raise the height of the strings.
If you raise it too much, it might interfere with the intonation of the instrument, if it becomes too low the strings might buzz.
A lot of brand new guitars that are available in the market come with very high actions, which requires you to fix the guitar action even before you actually start playing it.
While raising the height of the strings might be simple, lowering the same might prove cumbersome.

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