high action question

As far as I know you can't lower the action by adjusting the truss rod. The truss rod is only for adding relief to the neck or straightening the neck. You usually adjust the bridge to lower the action. A lot of people carefully pull the bridge out and sand the bottom to make the bridge shorter. They sand some, replace the bridge and try it. If it's still to high they sand a little more. If you shorten the bridge too much the strings will buzz. I got my action lowered and my neck adjusted at a local guitar shop for $15. Well worth the money, even on a cheap guitar.

My information about the truss rod could be wrong, but I don't think it is. Regardless, you should probably just pay someone to do it for you.

Yournightmare is correct.

For me though, the cheapest guitar tech charges $50 for adjusting an acoustic saddle, plus another $50 to adjust the nut height if needed, plus more for the basic setup! I've learned to do all this myself.

Follow this tutorial for the saddle adjustment and you won't go wrong:
http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/LowerAction/loweraction01.html

Better yet, order a bone replacement saddle from guitarsaddles.com and then do the height adjustment. 8)

Set-up costs are usually quite a lot and while worthwhile on an expensive instrument, IMO it's better to tinker yourself (carefully!) on cheaper guitars. Gets you to learn about the workings of them too!

The truss rod adjusts the bend in the neck, but it has a lot of tension on it and it shouldn't be touched really unless there's a very obvious problem. If you do alter it, do so in tiny amounts and preferably with the help of a good write-up or better still with someone who knows what they're doing.

The saddle is the easiest thing IMO to tweak the action with. Sand off a small amount (I put mine into the vice and use a sanding block) being careful to keep the base sanded flat, rather than the rounded profile that sanding tends to produce unless care is taken. If you do overdo it, all is not lost. While I've not had the problem myself, a friend has said he has enjoyed success with using strips cut from an old store card or something inserted under the saddle.

Hope this helps. :)

Saddle, not bridge. That's what I get for answering questions at 3 in the morning.

thanks guys...i'll tweak it myself for the experience...like most things...i think we baffle ourselves with 'science'

good answers to all concerned

Does lowering the action result in a change in tone or sound of the guitar?

Does lowering the action result in a change in tone or sound of the guitar?

NO!! Not necessarily. It may and can effect the tuning but it is solved by setting the intonation, however on an acoustic it isn't so vital because most don't play that high up on the neck, on an acoustic.

the intonation

I've heared of intonation before, but I always never knew exactly what it was. Do you have time to explain what the term means?

Intonation is basically ensuring that when you play the open string, e.g,, the 1st string and get a bang on 'E' on the tuner, if you then go and fret it at 12 and pluck the string, you should get an exact 'E' as well. If you don't it means the intonation is out and needs altering. I don't think that is as easy to do on an acoustic though, although I may be wrong. It appears to be part of the plastic saddle which is one piece of plastic.

Hope this helps. :)

Intonation is basically ensuring that when you play the open string, e.g,, the 1st string and get a bang on 'E' on the tuner, if you then go and fret it at 12 and pluck the string, you should get an exact 'E' as well. If you don't it means the intonation is out and needs altering. I don't think that is as easy to do on an acoustic though, although I may be wrong. It appears to be part of the plastic saddle which is one piece of plastic.

Hope this helps. :)

I think your spot on Yashi :)

Tyler, if you look at an electric guitars saddle, you'll see that there is a seperate piece for each string and besides being able to adjust the saddle pieces up and down, you can adjust them 'in and out' or closer to the tail piece and farther away. Of course these are very small adjustments but that is what allows one to set the intonation.

On an acoustic there isn't any adjustment really for intonation since the saddle is one piece and usually plastic or bone.

thank guys. Well I'm glad I don't really have to worry about it. I've only pretty much layed my hands on acoustics as of yet.