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Old 11-06-2021, 09:54 AM
achdu achdu is offline
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Default Resonator guitar string height at 12th fret

If a resonator guitar is set up for playing slide only, and the neck angle is OK, roughly what should the string height at the 12th fret in mm be?

I have 2 resonators. One bought recently used, which has a high action, around 4.5 mm, and sounds wonderful (difficult to fret, but not impossible), and 1 new. The new one is 3.5 mm at the 12th fret.

I'm used to playing the old guitar with the high action, so am struggling on the lower part of the neck playing slide, with the new one. Doing a little research, the new one is set up perfectly and the action on the old is too high, and possibly needs a neck reset.
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Last edited by achdu; 11-06-2021 at 01:42 PM.
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Old 11-08-2021, 07:06 PM
Robin, Wales Robin, Wales is offline
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3mm bass to 2.5mm treble is fine for bottle neck slide. However, you will want a little more room at the nut than a standard acoustic set up because a lot of slide work takes place at the 3rd and 5th frets. It is surprising what a difference putting a very thin shim under the nut makes - it has far more impact than a higher saddle. Fitting a 0.015 first string helps as does slotting the nut and saddle to run the 1st string as close as possible to the fretboard edge whilst still being cleanly fretable. And add a little more relief.
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Old 11-09-2021, 01:34 PM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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Ditto what Robin in Wales said. Excellent advice. Bottleneck guitar is all about feel and skill, what he suggests is the baseline setup, including the slightly high nut. Just shim it so you can put it back to normal if you want to play some fingerstyle or whatever. But - Derek Trucks famously plays insane bottleneck on his SG with a totally normal low action setup, so it sure can be done.
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Old 11-09-2021, 02:23 PM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Long ago, I stopped using extra heavy strings and high action.
I now have my National Estralita set up exactly like everything else - i.e about .100" bass to .080" treble.
Point is if you are are playing "bottle neck" style you'll still be fretting a lot so the action should be for this.

Using a bottleneck is about applying minimal pressure on the slide and the power/volume with the picking hand.



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