Hello all,
I just picked up an acoustic Windaroo 12 string from a pawn shop for $80. I've never really played a 12 string as a regular thing, and I don't know much about them. It sounds nice, but the action is ridiculously high (or so I think; I don't know what it typically is for 12 strings if it is different from 6 strings).
I'm completely new at guitar maintenance.
So I took some measurements and am here for a lesson. From what I can tell the saddle and nut are both too high; the truss rod seems properly set based on the amount of bend I measured against some numbers I got off the Internet. I see there are ways to lower the saddle by pulling it out and filing off the bottom of it; I was thinking of giving that a try along with some low-tension strings. The saddle doesn't stick up too much the way it is, but I suppose even a small amount can make a difference.
As for the nut, I have no idea what to do. I have seen some advice that involves ripping it out and sanding the bottom off and other advice for just filing out the string slots (which don't actually exist on the nut on this guitar) using a special tool.
And that is about it. I would really appreciate any advice I can get on how to proceed with getting the action on this guitar to a better level.
Thank you for reading this; and thank you for any replies.
Jon
Try a 'search' on the back pages of this repair fourm. Lot's of info givin over the years on setting up acoustic guitars.
Best of Luck!
Thank you.
I tried a search, but the form keeps ignoring '12'. I'm still looking around the Internet. I think I need to restring the instrument and take detailed measurements for all the courses and several parts along the fretboard.
Then I can compare these to my other guitars and the recommended numbers from different websites (which are mostly for 6-strings).
There is some stuff over here: http://fretmd.com/acoustic-guitar-saddle-setup/ . I can hopefully use that information along with their formula for setting saddle height to help with getting the first parts of the problem adjusted for.
I looked at the special nut files; their cost puts them off the table for fixing an $80 guitar, so I might need to find something else.
Jon
Found this by typing "twelve" instead of "12" in the search engine:
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46292&p=420580&hilit=twelve#p420580
Might help with your other searches as well, you never know.
Peace
Thank you for the reply.
I did find that post earlier, but it doesn't seem to have the information I am looking for. Based on some Internet searching, I have found that the gap at the 12th fret and low E should be about 0.07" (1.78mm) and 0.05" (1.22mm) at the high E. This guitar measures 0.13" (3.24mm) and 0.11" (2.76mm), respectively.
According to the formula here, I should be taking off about 0.12" of the saddle—or the whole thing, as that might be less.
I suspect something else needs to be done here. My measurements at the first fret are 0.05" (1.22mm) for the low E course and 0.025" (0.63mm) for the high E. I suspect this is not proper; none of my six strings have such high measurements anywhere.
I guess this fix might require a combination of saddle and nut adjustments. I am just not sure how much of each to do.
The guitar has hardly any belly, and as I mentioned earlier the bend in the neck seems minimal.
What should I fix first?
Thanks,
Jon
I would start with sanding down the Saddle. Worst case if You take too much off, You can shim it back up or replace it.
Best of luck
How much relief toward the first fret (where I play most of my chords) can I expect to get by sanding down the saddle?
I sanded down the saddle.
I got the action at the twelfth fret down to 0.106" (2.69mm) for the low E.
The action at the first fret didn't change an appreciable amount; the intonation is still off too. I think I'm going to have a go at filing the nut slots out. Is there any special standard I need to follow with a twelve-string in filing down the paired slots?
Thank,
Jon
