Martin D-28 string action. What should I do? (video and pics)

[mongomarino]

Hello!

My name is Tomás, and I´m from Argentina. After a huge economic effort I bought a beautiful Martin D-28 in New York. When I arrived to Argentina, I noticed that the action was a little bit high, making it difficult to play.
I´m always using a guitar-capo on the first fret to lower the action and play easily and comfortably, but it is not a good solution.


Should I do a Truss Rod adjustment? Should I lower the saddle? What should I do? I would rather not bring the guitar to a local luthier and that he breaks it or doesn't fix it right, unknowingly.

I have an Hygrometer in my bedroom (where I keep my guitars) and goes from 45% to 60%.

I´ll post you guys a couple of photos so you can help me out here.

I thank you all in advance and please excuse me for my poor english








And a Video:

[HHP]

I would think a good set up is in order. Looks like a pretty high saddle. Nut work could be in order but hard to tell by the photos. Do you have access to a competent repair shop?

[6L6]

I agree a good setup is needed. The right person can make it a breeze to play!

[mongomarino]

Here are more pics:







I´ve read that Martin glue the saddles to the bridge, making it hard to remove (and to modify, or repair). Is that true? I want to give the luthier as much advices I can!

[HHP]

Saddles are not glued in on a D-28, it will drop out. Might also check out some stringing methods, you have quite a turban on that E string post.

[Earl49]

Hola Tomas. Your English is fine (better than my Spanish). We understood you perfectly.

45% RH is fine, 60% is a bit high but should still be OK. Is the top swollen? Convex curvature below the bridge when looking across the top at the widest point? That contributes to high action too.

Photo #3 shows a fair amount of relief (neck curvature or bow) in the neck. A truss rod adjustment would fix that easily. The nut and saddle also look to be rather high at both the first and twelfth frets. I agree with the other posts that a good set up by a competent guitar tech is in order. Hope you have someone trustworthy not too far from you. If not and you are a handy fellow, there are plenty of tutorials on set-up at www.frets.com and other web sites.

Have whoever is doing the set-up start with a fresh nut and saddle - save the original parts unaltered. Worst case, you just swap those back in and you are right back where you started, no harm done.

Taylor has some tech sheets on wet and dry guitars, and truss rod adjustments that you might find useful.
https://www.taylorguitars.com/sites/...aWetGuitar.pdf

[RodB]

Whilst you could try setting up the guitar yourself, I would also recommend getting it done professionally, as it appears (as already mentioned above) that it may not be a simple adjustment. If the guitar did not represent such an investment for you I would have encouraged you to have a go yourself.

However, I would advise that you do not just drop the guitar off asking for a 'set-up', but take time to show what you are concerned about, based on what has been said in this thread, and discuss with the person how you play (demo?) etc. Ask him exactly what he will do. There might be the opportunity to see how he approaches it. Maybe he would be prepared to first adjust the truss- rod whilst you are there. If you don't feel confident you can then go somewhere else.

Good luck with this. BTW we spend some time in your beautiful country when I was working there, and have fond memories of that time.

[murrmac123]

You can go back and edit your post so that the video works .. just leave the eleven characters 6Xjdf_RrakU between the Youtube tags, and remove all the "http" stuff.