Saddle

[Ze.]

Saddle and setup .

I have to ask an individual question and i know some will get sick of this setup question but i been getting advice lately on hight of saddle and i have gained a wealth of information from my advisor but i'm at the stage now where i am actually getting to know what i don't like .The thing is the advice i'm getting is to have the saddle and thus string hight at the absolute lowest it will go but after having the shop lower my action in all but fingerpicking and even then some in the bass i been getting fret buzz in any attempt at strumming at all so that i have taken it back to the shop and paid again to have it raised.
Now i have other guitars and two i just bought off the advisor with action unbelievably low.So now iv'e ordered and fitted the two low action guitars purchased with compensated saddles but prefering hight i have just put them in as purchased with full hight.With the advice i been getting i feel i have done something wrong by doing this and it wont be long before i take them out and start taking the hight down .I wont be touching the nut and these two guitars don't have any truss rod .I'm not keen on putting such guitars into shops at a cost of £££ so do any players of note play with saddle at full hight or is it a given that some at least should be taken off the bottom and if so can you help with what my aims are.In the end i might have at least one of my guitars set low as advised but i'm looking to get to know my preferences what am i likely to encountre with an action of full hight .

My advisor is right it is something as a player i must learn and also trus rod adjustments on my other more expensive guitars but the fear factor has me shy away from any of this bussiness with the trus rod .

What tools and measuring instruments am i going to need or would be better having.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Ze.

Saddle and setup .

I have to ask an individual question and i know some will get sick of this setup question but i been getting advice lately on hight of saddle and i have gained a wealth of information from my advisor but i'm at the stage now where i am actually getting to know what i don't like .The thing is the advice i'm getting is to have the saddle and thus string hight at the absolute lowest it will go but after having the shop lower my action in all but fingerpicking and even then some in the bass i been getting fret buzz in any attempt at strumming at all so that i have taken it back to the shop and paid again to have it raised.
Now i have other guitars and two i just bought off the advisor with action unbelievably low.So now iv'e ordered and fitted the two low action guitars purchased with compensated saddles but prefering hight i have just put them in as purchased with full hight.With the advice i been getting i feel i have done something wrong by doing this and it wont be long before i take them out and start taking the hight down .I wont be touching the nut and these two guitars don't have any truss rod .I'm not keen on putting such guitars into shops at a cost of £££ so do any players of note play with saddle at full hight or is it a given that some at least should be taken off the bottom and if so can you help with what my aims are.In the end i might have at least one of my guitars set low as advised but i'm looking to get to know my preferences what am i likely to encountre with an action of full hight .

My advisor is right it is something as a player i must learn and also trus rod adjustments on my other more expensive guitars but the fear factor has me shy away from any of this bussiness with the trus rod .

What tools and measuring instruments am i going to need or would be better having.

It is possible to have the strings too low and if they are buzzing when you play then I’d say it’s too low.
A normal setting is a clearance above the 12 fret of .090” on the low E, .070” on the high E. Some like a little lower some a little higher. Emphasis on “a little”
The torsion rod is not there to set string height. It is to add a little relief in the neck that can help with buzzing especially if the neck tends to have a back bow.

I hope that helps!
Mark

[Ze.]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

A normal setting is a clearance above the 12 fret of .090” on the low E, .070” on the high E.
Some like a little lower some a little higher. Emphasis on “a little”

I hope that helps!
Mark

Thats exactly what i was looking for a point of refference thankyou Mark

Ps i just checked out your guitars and Penelope pic 18/20 is quite something to see can't imagine what it's like to hold but that lustre in the timber makes you think it was made out of old Treebeard himself if you could make a wine or spirit with a texture looking like that the world would be pleasently drunk on your creation ...it's a timber to lust after and i wish i could say i will own one one day ,maybe if id'e got to guitars sooner i could of taken out a policey to own one when i retired.

edit just realized Treebeard is the wrong type of tree but it sounded good lol

[Peegoo]

Are you keeping your guitars humidified?

A guitar that is set up and then starts buzzing is sometimes a symptom of a guitar becoming excessively dry.

[mirwa]

All guitars behave differently.

A person may find they like the action on one guitar and try to match it on another, only to find it buzzes when they play.

Buzzing between one guitar and another of similiar Setup, can be high or low frets, but more times than not I find it’s due to the way we change our playing style, the thickness of the neck, the radius of the fretboard, the dynamic range of the guitar makes us play them differently.

When you take an action down to the point of low, verging on buzzing, its little things that make it fretout.

Steve

[Ned Milburn]

With fretwork done properly, truss adjusted properly, and nut cut properly, you should be able to setup the action (via the saddle) to pretty close to the same on each guitar (but I don't disagree with Steve regarding different guitar different feel different vibration possibly necessity of different action).

That said, "full height" for a saddle is rather ambiguous. When craftsmen like me make a custom saddle, it is made to fit. So "full height" should represent "finished height" - not "partway through but not-finished height".

So, adjust your saddles to the height that makes your guitar comfortable for you, with the compromise of buzzing & playability that is acceptable for YOU. I have a client/friend whose action is 1.2mm high E 1.4mm low E. I would not like that action, because every note would buzz. But he plays fingerstyle with a light touch, so it works well for him.

BTW, are your guitars classical guitars...?? It is rare for a steel string guitar NOT to have a truss rod, even if it is non-adjustable the truss rod is usually present.