Crossover guitar string height

[bdjansen]

Hi,

I just bought a Breedlove nylon string guitar at their yearly sale. I guess it’s known as a crossover guitar? It’s similar to the ones Taylor and others make with a radius fretboard and thinner neck.

I’m wondering what the action should be on this style guitar? I was hoping to get some measurements from people here that own them. I looked up setup guides on classical guitars and the target string height at the 12th fret was very high. Like 4mm. My Breedlove’s current setup came similar to steel string specs.

[Bax Burgess]

4mm is high, 2.5mm for the treble e and 3mm for the bass E are low

[charles Tauber]

It is personal preference. Generally as low as you want, or the instrument allows, that doesn’t buzz for your playing style.

[sirwhale]

I have personally used on crossover guitars and flamenco guitars:

3mm High E to 3.5mm Low E

[SirMrGuitarDude]

When I bought my Cordoba C9 this year I had to have 5 frets shaved down and the action lowered significantly. The tech I used told me it's pretty common for guitars straight from the supplier to be setup extra high to avoid any buzzes from potentially too high frets.

[Rudy4]

My crossover page:

http://web.archive.org/web/201603282...Crossover.html

My Cordoba Orchestra Fusion is set up the same at the nut as a steel guitar would be and about 1/16" higher clearance between the 12th fret and the bottoms of the strings as you would set up a steel string guitar.

[Westy]

My Cordoba Orchestra pro is 2.7 on the bass and 2.2 on the treble and I use HT carbons on it and don't get any buzz.

The Esteve Classical is 3.1 bass and 2.6 treble. I have hard tension on the Esteve and it's fine but will be switching to mediums in a week or so and hoping it doesn't buzz.

[Borderlands]

I started flatpicking a used 000-28C in late 60’s when they were affordable. Now I play a contemporary crossover, Taylor nylon series. I just wanted to add that if a crossover guitar is humidified correctly and set up well, I’ve found that 3mm action on Low E has been excellent for flatpicking. Nylon is so much fun and rewarding.