• From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2006-12-28
  • Posts: 851

Topic: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

Greetings,

     My efforts have been focused lately on getting my guitar setup spot-on. I have lowered my action at the bridge and adjusted my truss rod to get very low action on my strings.

The problem now is that when I play hard I get a lot of fret buzz. I cannot seem to find a happy compromise between:

1. Having low string action/height + Fret buzz when playing hard.
and
2. Having medium string action/height + sore left hand from holding barre chords on high strings.

Is there something I'm missing?
When I go to these guitar shops and try the guitars there they are all set up perfectly and play wonderfully without any fret buzz and they have low low LOW action. It looks like my choices are only to either, Get stronger....or shell out 2000 dollars for one of the high-quality guitars.

But I firmly believe that there's some way to get my 80 dollar Yamaha to have string action like the 2000 dollar guitars do.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Dm

"Talent instantly recognizes genius,
but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

-Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

Detman101's Website

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

What you may be missing is that barre chord songs should be pitched around the middle of the guitar and when you're making them you should find a way to 'bounce' from change to change. The idea should be not to hold a static barre chord with a single vice like hold.

A good barre chord funker is 'Sexbomb' you can vamp it as a simple D to A funky shuffle but a quick dose of E makes it zing (clean sound, roll off the treble).

I'm also working on 'All Day And All OF The Night' but have found the Chordie versions to be over-simplified. It's F-shape barre up and down the neck F>G G>F A#. The trick is in strumming at the right point in the move and loosening the barre when you can. Will post more when I have the chorus figured (been watching alot of black and white Kinks videos on You Tube, it's hard though - camera is nearly always on Ray).

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2006-12-28
  • Posts: 851

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

cytania wrote:

What you may be missing is that barre chord songs should be pitched around the middle of the guitar and when you're making them you should find a way to 'bounce' from change to change. The idea should be not to hold a static barre chord with a single vice like hold.

A good barre chord funker is 'Sexbomb' you can vamp it as a simple D to A funky shuffle but a quick dose of E makes it zing (clean sound, roll off the treble).

I'm also working on 'All Day And All OF The Night' but have found the Chordie versions to be over-simplified. It's F-shape barre up and down the neck F>G G>F A#. The trick is in strumming at the right point in the move and loosening the barre when you can. Will post more when I have the chorus figured (been watching alot of black and white Kinks videos on You Tube, it's hard though - camera is nearly always on Ray).

Holy....cow....

I just read what you wrote and I'm sitting here with my mouth open. =o
I don't quite understand all of it....but I understand the part about the barre chord songs being pitched around the middle of the guitar. I play in "Drop-D Modal" so I use 1-finger barre chords all over the place, not just the middle of the guitar neck.
(geez, it's really showing that I need to get lessons sad )
Do you know who sings this song "Sexbomb"? I would like to listen to it while reading the tabs for the song, if possible.


Thank you,
Dm

"Talent instantly recognizes genius,
but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

-Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

Detman101's Website

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

It was a hit for 'Mousse T and Tom Jones' a few years ago, at  least in the UK. Good fun bit of disco. The strums go with the words well .

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2006-12-28
  • Posts: 851

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

cytania wrote:

It was a hit for 'Mousse T and Tom Jones' a few years ago, at  least in the UK. Good fun bit of disco. The strums go with the words well .

Thank you. I will have to look them up.

Does anyone have any info or advice on my original post?

smile
Dm

"Talent instantly recognizes genius,
but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

-Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

Detman101's Website

  • From: Pico Rivera, Calif. U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2006-10-26
  • Posts: 785

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

Detman101 wrote:

Greetings,

     My efforts have been focused lately on getting my guitar setup spot-on. I have lowered my action at the bridge and adjusted my truss rod to get very low action on my strings.

The problem now is that when I play hard I get a lot of fret buzz. I cannot seem to find a happy compromise between:

1. Having low string action/height + Fret buzz when playing hard.
and
2. Having medium string action/height + sore left hand from holding barre chords on high strings.

Is there something I'm missing?
When I go to these guitar shops and try the guitars there they are all set up perfectly and play wonderfully without any fret buzz and they have low low LOW action. It looks like my choices are only to either, Get stronger....or shell out 2000 dollars for one of the high-quality guitars.

But I firmly believe that there's some way to get my 80 dollar Yamaha to have string action like the 2000 dollar guitars do.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Dm

You mentioned that when you go to a music store the guitars are set up, is yours? The fret buzz on your low action could be fixed. There are a few things that can be done, check the radius of the fret board and make sure the saddle (bridge) radius is the same. Check the guitar neck to see if it is straight. Lastly check to see if you have any frets that have high spots or are not set correctly. You also mentioned that you have a low end Yahama ($80.00) they are mass produced to flood the market.

Bootlegger.

  • Altex
  • Altex
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: Goonellabah, NSW, Australia
  • Registered: 2006-12-13
  • Posts: 211

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

I've been reading some of your posts Detman and I think you should learn to play in standard tuning before you start playing in drop d. If you want tobe a better guitarist it will really help.

[url=http://www.myspace.com/rdxfunk]www.myspace.com/rdxfunk[/url]

Altex's Website

  • From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2006-12-28
  • Posts: 851

Re: Electric Guitar - Lowering Action

Um, You can close this topic if you wish.

I got a new guitar and shaved down the bottom of the nut on the new guitar to lower the action.
It's buttery perfect.

Dm

"Talent instantly recognizes genius,
but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

-Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

Detman101's Website