A polite seasonal request for all "action" discussions

[baimo]

I think low, med high are still relevant as it seems to me that guitars necks seem to sit a little differently on each guitar. If I say I like low action, I want (I assume most people that like low action feel the same) to have the strings as low to the fret board as possible without the strings hitting the wood and creating a buzz. I have seen people write that they like a little higher action and like the feeling of pressing those strings down farther.

I could be wrong in my thinking as I have never setup a guitar for myself. I have a local tech set it up with as low action as I can have for type of playing I do without any buzz. I do strum hard on some of my bigger guitars. My tech has been setting up my guitars for over 15 years. He knows what I like.

I did buy one of these metal string action gauges from stewart-macdonald for the people that are comfortable using them to do their own setups. But I have no idea what my numbers are in metric or imperial on the 4 different brands of guitars that I own. I think it measures using imperial only. If I said I like x amount of space before my low E string and the fret board on my D-18 that the same number would work on your guitar even if it is a D-18? I might be way off here in my thinking so I probably should not have posted at all. But I was in the mood to comment as I am not very technical.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

A polite seasonal request for all "action" discussions...

It would be really, really great, when contributing to discussions about action, if you could actually specify, in terms of thousandths of an inch, what the action is , rather than vaguely saying "low" ...."high"...." medium" .

Words, in this case, are meaningless .... numbers ..., measurements ... that's what matters.

All you need to do to obtain these measurements is to buy a set of feeler gauges (preferably imperial ... we don't need no steenking metric gauges) .... these gauges are really really cheap, and will enhance your ability to talk meaningfully about action ... like tenfold.

Can you be specific as to which season(s) this is applicable? Please, if you can, let us know down the day, hour, and minute this takes effect, and when it is rescinded (you can dispense with seconds, as that may vary depending on the rotational gravity of the Earth in relation to other heavenly bodies with all their own gravity to deal with as they interact).

I suggest using an atomic clock for greatest accuracy in your response.

As to guitar action, I use my fingers and eyes to discern when it is correct on my instruments, as it WILL be different on each one, to end up with a similar feel on them all. Measurement tools have their say with certain aspects of setting up my instruments to where I want them, but, in the end, high, low, medium rare, etc., are pretty relevant to most of us when discussing guitar action. I think we all (most of us, anyway) do understand what we mean when using these terms

This is an excellent and valuable topic on which to devote at least five pages. I know I'll eagerly await each response.

[Tico]

Originally Posted by ahorsewithnonam

Don’t have any measuring tools at age 62 and not about to go buy any. So, low, medium, and high for me.

Good idea ... but are those low/med/highs imperial or metric ?
... and if imperial are they fractions with common denominators, each resolved to lowest denominator, or decimals?
... if decimal, how many significant figures after the decimal point?

[baimo]

My thoughts only apply to the Christmas season. Come new years they go out the window. Time for a new year and new way of thinking, seasonable thinking for every discussion on action on this forum and the other one too.

[BFD]

Now everyone . . . the nice man just wants us ALL to do the thing his way ALL THE TIME. Is that too much to ask?

[H165]

us pesky Americans

This pesky American (we're only about 80% of the guitar-buying market) cannot comprehend why anyone would use a fraction of an inch or mm to measure action or anything else. Especially lame descriptions like "8 1/2 64ths" and "12 64ths".

Nobody actually interested in accurate measurements uses inch fractions or fractional mm. We generally use thousandths of an inch or thousandths of a mm. You move one mm and you've moved 39 thousandths. Nearly the same for 64ths. When you want .004-.008 relief, fractions are a joke. Same joke with nut action adjustments. What, you're gonna tell some guy you reduced his nut action by 13/40ths of a mm??

Mm and inch fractions are, at best, general descriptions giving the reader a range of what the action or other measurement might be.

I gotta drink less coffee and more scotch. : /

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by H165

Nobody actually interested in accurate measurements uses inch fractions or fractional mm. We generally use thousandths of an inch or thousandths of a mm.

"When all you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails."

How many thousandths of an inch or mm is the circumference of the Earth? How many thousandths of an inch or mm is the depth of a guitar?

Practicality suggests that one use units of measure that are commensurate with what is being measured.

One wouldn't measure the thickness of a guitar top in yards: one wouldn't measure the length of their driveway in thousandths of an inch or mm.

In my guitar making and repair work, I use inches, cm, eighths of an inch, sixteenths of an inch, thirty secondths of an inch, thousandths of an inch, mm and tenths of mm's. Different units of measure for measuring different things.

I gotta drink less coffee and more scotch. : /

Could be.

[Steadfastly]

I think this is a pretty low blow, that is at best of medium interest with a high chance of making no change in how we measure the low, medium or high action on our guitars.

[GaryH]

I think I'll just keep doing things the way I've been doing it for decades. It's served me well.

Originally Posted by murrmac123

It would be really, really great, when contributing to discussions about action, if you could actually specify, in terms of thousandths of an inch, what the action is , rather than vaguely saying "low" ...."high"...." medium" .

Words, in this case, are meaningless .... numbers ..., measurements ... that's what matters.

All you need to do to obtain these measurements is to buy a set of feeler gauges (preferably imperial ... we don't need no steenking metric gauges) .... these gauges are really really cheap, and will enhance your ability to talk meaningfully about action ... like tenfold.

[menhir]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

...I use my fingers and eyes to discern when it is correct on my instruments, as it WILL be different on each one, to end up with a similar feel on them all. Measurement tools have their say with certain aspects of setting up my instruments to where I want them, but, in the end, high, low, medium rare, etc., are pretty relevant to most of us when discussing guitar action. I think we all (most of us, anyway) do understand what we mean when using these terms

I feel the same way. I'm not against precisely defining weights and measures per se, but not to the exclusion of all other descriptions.
As I stated in another topic, "I only actually measure the string clearance to get me close, and the rest I do by feel...trial and error."

I have four guitars that are all different. I wouldn't expect the exact measurements I use for one of them should necessarily apply to all the rest.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

It would be really, really great, when contributing to discussions about action, if you could actually specify, in terms of thousandths of an inch, what the action is , rather than vaguely saying "low" ...."high"...." medium" .

Words, in this case, are meaningless .... numbers ..., measurements ... that's what matters.

All you need to do to obtain these measurements is to buy a set of feeler gauges (preferably imperial ... we don't need no steenking metric gauges) .... these gauges are really really cheap, and will enhance your ability to talk meaningfully about action ... like tenfold.

Let me guess, you just happen to have a few measuring devices to sell to us poor uneducated "seat of the pants" measuring guys,

[rmgjsps]

Silly Moustache: Always remember that "A pint's a pound the world around" except here in San Francisco where a pint will cost you at least six bucks! (don't know what that is in Sterling)

[Tony Done]

I measure and quote mine on a metric basis, using a 150 mm engineer's rule, interpolating to 1/10 mm. Any more accurate than I can estimate like that is likely to change on a daily basis. I use feeler gauges for some jobs, but not that.

[DenverSteve]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

.. All you need to do to obtain these measurements is to buy a set of feeler gauges.....
TECHNOFRET : High quality precision set-up tools for professionals.
.

So, you think we should buy feeler gauges because you sell them? I think that is a bit self-serving. No would be the short answer to remain polite.

Originally Posted by ahorsewithnonam

Don’t have any measuring tools at age 62 and not about to go buy any. So, low, medium, and high for me.

+1