Did I Do Good?
 

Got a Martin D-28 Standard a couple days ago at GC (new). Awesome sound but it seemed harder to play the further up the neck I played, so I checked the neck relief and the action. The neck relief with a capo on the first fret and holing the strings down where they meet the body, and tapping the strings in the middle. It seemed a little high so I gave the truss rod about a quarter turn, retuned, and it looked perfect after that.

The action was still about 3 1/2 thirty seconds at the low E, and about 3 thirty seconds at the high E (my ruler only measures down to 32nd's).

I had a ridiculous amount of saddle height to work with so I decided to take 2 thirty seconds off of the saddle, which would lower the action 1 thirty second.

I marked the bottom of the saddle all the way around, laid a piece of sandpaper on a flat table top, and sanded a little at a time. I checked frequently to make sure it was sanding evenly and that the bottom of the saddle remained perfectly flat, had no rocking, and stood up perfectly straight.

Once I got to my mark I reinstalled the saddle and put the strings back on. I tuned it to pitch and measured the action. I is now 2 1/2 thirty seconds at the low E, and 2 thirty seconds at the high E. I then played every note on every string all the way up the neck with a heavy pick and there was no buzzing.

The guitar plays like butter now, even with the medium strings. It even plays easier that a Taylor 814ce that I had that had light strings on it.

So did I do that right?

Yup. Proof is in the pudding.

Next check the string height at the nut.

Thanks.

Yes, I checked the nut action and it looks fine.

This is the real 'secret sauce' to a great guitar setup, IMO. I haven't owned a guitar, including the likes of Froggy Bottom, Collings, Lowden, and Santa Cruz, that didn't benefit from some amount of lowering of the action at the nut. I play a lot in the first 5 frets, so that actually helps more than lowering the action at the saddle for me.

I got a set of Stewmac files and learned to do it myself since no one could consistently get it quite right, and I like to adjust it slowly over some time.

You did good, Bob. :)