Guitar action

Buco · June 7

@voutoreenie definitely try 10s sometime. Some guitars truly sound a lot nicer with them. My Ivanovski is one of those. Every time I try 11s, the tone becomes more fundamental, it loses the overtones. Because extra tension chokes the top. Which is thin on my guitar and it just can't vibrate freely with 11s. Then every time I go back to 10s, it's like hearing angelic voices when those overtones come back.

Get some wood veneer. It's easy to cut with scissors and use what you need as shims.

ethanwm · June 8

People have strong shim opinions, but I second @Buco — I have some 1 mm ish veneer (IRW and Pao Ferro) that I cut with scissors and put under my bridge to experiment with action changes.

Went from 2.5mm to 3.0mm ish, and it sounds WAY louder and much better across strings. I may get another bridge but I haven't decided quite yet. Obviously, I like volume for jams, but louder means more possibility of dynamic differences too. Worth the slight hit in playability, but hey, that forces good technique.

I put it on the solid part of bridge foot, not across the entire bridge/guitar contact point, btw. YMMY of course, but at least to my ears, shimming seems much less finicky than previous forum threads/posts have noted — and a great way to test some of this stuff essentially for the cost of a $10 piece of veneer and some time.

I made a 2.0mm veneer by putting two together with a drop of titebond just so they don't fly away in case I feel like going even higher. Not that I think I need to, but like many things, you learn a lot by taking it too far then dialing things back in. You can also get IRW headstock blanks at 2.0mm for around $10.

pdg · June 8

Based on your reported current action, though, I'd try a 0.5mm shim of any sort (hardwood veneer preferred) first, to get you in a comfortable range (adds 0.25mm to the action), rather than a 1.0mm shim.

Here's one possibility (0.6mm):

https://volpewoodworks.com/products/east-indian-rosewood-raw-wood-veneer-sheets-5-x-26-inches-1-42nd-thick

voutoreenie · June 8

So I do actually have some rosewood shims...ngl tho, they just don't do as much for me as plastic, seemed to make the guitar's tone sound a bit "muffled" so I switched back.

Gouch · June 8

A metric tapered-wedge welding gap gauge is the killer action gauge tool IMO. It’s *much* easier to accurately read than a vertical ruler. Slide it over the 12th fret and when the bottom of the string hits the mark, your measurement is dead-on to .1mm. (There’s a bunch of these on Amazon from different sellers. The $35 ones are typically very good. I’ve bought close to 10 and gifted at least 5. I have an expensive Starrett and these are just as good, for guitar purposes).

Ex:

https://www.amazon.com/Thickness-Welding-Feeler-Measurement-0-4-6mm/dp/B0DKKM7WXF/ref=sr_1_9?crid=1GSPRXUM3SKLK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.now4UER918ZxfxZnjcZIOQ0hzO6vazKWcjDHLgoSwjrRHv9-4bFfpL8F4kS1IVVm-tpvt13cMYUQD1QtZ1brHboypHodYmmRQDE7dqVkYNFGOuK4avKyYai1NVETQJgr-XLIVx-6cbjDnikMBlRAc1gABUkddHvXwHYiyCoUPXvsvhlKmf4SnL2e1Uza8c7TYPJrpWKBtSKImDGYkVubXfKvAuHUmGhWVHjvteRsC_J9H2cISA3-pnoPGGmXgbV3xCkPWVX5A-l3j6A6HjZzMXKqEA9XozEbggmr2xNC8As.4sTuoSjXVGYzAtXmbRWyHvDrxFdfFflhZLX5NJ4ekXk&dib_tag=se&keywords=Metric+gap+wedge&qid=1749440091&sprefix=metric+gap+wedge%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-9