High e String 12th Fret Measurement

[Mr. Jelly]

For acoustic guitar I find .06 or 2/32 inch at the 12th fret of the high e string is to low. Especially for flat picking. What do you run yours at? And what style of playing do you do?

[JayBee1404]

5/64” High ‘e’, a hair over 3/32” Low ‘E’ with 0.005”-0.008” neck relief. I fingerpick (thumb-pick and nickel fingerpicks), strum (BlueChip 35 pick) and flatpick (very badly!).

[rmp]

TOO LOW is a real thing on acoustics. No doubt about it. The string needs to travel and that top needs to get driven... real low action and very light gauge strings stops that cold.

For me,, it's usually somewhere 'tween 4/64s, 5/64s low E, ~ 3/64s 4/64 high E that works for me all day.

Granted none of the acoustics I have are quite exactly the same, but they are all in this range. So much so that I don't really feel the difference going from one to the next.

I do a lot of finger picking, and I hang around in alternate tunings quite often. 80% of what I do is bare flesh, or a thumb pick, with no finger picks.

I have a few Pro Pick thumb picks that I like quite a lot, and a bunch of Fred Kelly speed and "slick" picks

For picks, I use Deandrea .073 or fender large, both are large tear drop.

flat pick on acoustic is a thing, but it depends on the specific tune and what works best.

[Mike McLenison]

Neck straight as an arrow (no relief) and 1/16"= both E strings at 12th fret. Zero fret buzz. Martin HD-35. 13's tuned down a whole step. I fingerpick and flatpick with 3mm Dunlop Stubby's.

[EZYPIKINS]

I'm mainly a fingerpicker. But I'll bang on 'em with a pick, now and then. When I pick it's more a strum than a flat pick. Keep relief around .005"-.007" depending on humidity. 12th fret action string 1 .042" string 6 .052". Volume is balanced well with my voice. I sing pretty loud. Tune standard, standard down full step, open G, open D, open Gsus for The Rain Song. usually play 2-4 hours a day.

[LakewoodM32Fan]

Mostly use a pick, strumming. Pick at medium intensity with the occasional flourish into hard and soft strumming, per the demands of the particular song I'm playing.

Low E at 3/32, and high E at 2/32 on all my guitars (some are just a hairline above, some are a bit more but still closer to those numbers than the next highest 1/32nd increment.

Zero buzz. Because neck relief is set properly, and that doesn't mean "no neck relief" or "perfectly straight". There should be a small amount of relief, most makers spec it out on their sites. I use Santa Cruz Guitar's method for checking relief and action. Assuming you have proper neck angle, there is no reason that with the proper setting of relief, nut height and slot depth, saddle height, you can't be at 3/32 low E 2/32 high E and have no fret buzz.

[Rev Roy]

My sweet spot is 3/32” low E, 2/32” high e with +/- .006” relief. I play exclusively with a pick and can be pretty heavy handed when I’m strumming.

[Mirosh]

3/32" (2.4 mm) for low E; 5/64" (2.0mm) for high E. Relief 0.010".