Action Height.

Since I have small hands and the muscles in my left hand aren't that strong, I tend to like the actions on my guitars as low as I can get them without buzzing, I've got a Squire P-Bass which I tried to set up to Fender P-Bass specs with the action at the 12th fret at 3mm, I find that if I try to play a guitar with a high action my left hand hurts when fretting notes.

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post my question to.

But I'm just wondering if anyone can help me out on fixing the intonation on the guitar that I just built. I have finished building an RC-1 probably over a week ago. Now, I've been having problems on my string action. I basically followed the guides on the website on how to install the neck and all that stuff. At the moment, I've put the bridge saddles all the way down, but the string action is still way too high for my preference. I think 4mm at the 17th fret. Also, I have tried adjusting the truss rod to fix the relief. No buzzing on any frets as of now.

Any help would be appreciated as I have been dealing with the problem for more than a week now.

Thanks in advance,

- Mark M.

Hi Mark

Could you post a few pictures so we can check for you. We need to make sure the neck pocket and neck is properly aligned and that there is no neck bow for starters.

i am assuming that you have followed the intonation setup guide as well?


gavmeister

I'm having problems with uploading the photos that I took.

Any chance I could email it to you?

- Mark M

Hi Mark, you have to resize the photos to maximum 1500 x 1500 resolution or below 1MB in size. Try doing that and the images should upload

Here are some of the photos that I took, lemme know if you want me to send different angles.

- Mark M.

Attachment 10845Attachment 10846Attachment 10847

^ sorry just bumping, waiting for anyone who can give me an advice regarding the action height

Hi Mark,

While you wait for some advice from the experts (I am not an expert), it does look like the nut is very high.

If your open strings are in tune but you play an open G chord and it is out of tune, that means the nut is too high (usually).

The nut can be removed (just tap it out) and then you can file/sand down the bottom of the nut. Go easy and try the low E string at every step. You don't want to file it down too much and then have to shim.

When you get the E string in tune as an open string and fretted at the 3td fret to a G, then you have the correct nut height.

Hi Mark, Adam is on the money. Nut height looks too high. Tap it out gently with a fret hammer if you have one.
Sand the bottom of the nut flat on sandpaper on a flat surface.
Also have a look at your bridge height, how is the gap between strings and frets at 22nd fret ?

the build looks great by the way !

@adam - thank you sir, will definitely try sanding down the bottom of the nut and see if it makes a differece.

@wokkaboy - thanks! and the gap at 22nd fret is about 3.5mm on the low E string and 2mm on the high E string. Take note that the bridge saddles are already all the way down and the string action is still pretty high.

- Mark M