Lowering the action of your guitar

The action of your guitar refers to the height of the strings off of the fretboard. If you have never had your guitar set up professionally this is an easy modification that you can do yourself to improve the playability of your guitar. The method that will be discussed here is for guitars with tune-o-matic style bridges.

There will be a large screw on each end of your bridge, to lower the action of your guitar, simply tighten the screws. Thats it. Some people say you should loosen the strings before doing this but if you are lowering the action it doesn't matter. To lower the action evenly on both sides you should use quarter turns of the screws, but you can also make one side slightly lower to the fretboard if that helps even out the thinner strings with the heavy ones.

Lowering the action of your guitar can have many benefits. It makes notes easier to fret and easier to play, which will increase how fast you can play and increase the ease at which you play. This is obviously a good thing, your guitar should work with you, not against you. Another benefit of modifying for lower action is that it makes the strings closer to the pickups, which makes your guitar louder and helps the pickups get a more accurate signal from the strings.

There is only one potential downside of lowering your guitar's action. If you lower it too much, some notes may produce buzzing from the strings being too close to the frets. If your guitar's neck wasn't made very well or has become warped slightly this will happen at a higher action than on well made instruments. If this happens your action is too low and you should raise it back up until every note is clear again. Lowering the action of a guitar is an easy modification that can improve your playing considerably.