Acoustic Guitar Strings Help?

Question

I'm trying to fix up a low quality guitar I have and there are two main problems but the first is of no real importance.
The big problem is that the strings on the guitar are way too far from the fret board, making it extremely difficult to press down and eventually somewhat painful. Is there a way to lower the strings? Liek maybe changing the nut and the bridge somehow? If so is it done professionally at music stores and around how much would it cost if they do?

Answer 1

There is one thing you have to do first ... take the guitar and put the butt end of it up to your face and sight down the neck toward the tuning gears. Check to make sure the neck isn't bowed up (high at both ends, low in the middle).

If it is and you have an adjustable neck, increase the tension on the truss rod. If you don't know how to do this, get some help from someone who does or take your guitar to a good music store to have them do it. If the neck isn't adjustable, you've got a major problem that may not be able to be adjusted out, but you're not going to be able to do that yourself anyway ... take it to a guitar shop.

If the neck is reasonable straight, you can either file the nut or replace it and you can reset the bridge if you have an adjustable one. If it's an nonadjustable fixed bridge, you can replace that too. Again, if you're not sure what to do, get help. You don't want to wreck the guitar by doing something you're not really sure of.

Answer 2

Yipes. I'll give you a rundown of what to check, but it's probably structural.

1) Tune the guitar. Press down a string at the 1st and last fret. Look at the gap between fret surface and strings. If the greatest distance between fret surface and strings is 1/32" or less then your neck os OK (but may need some slight truss rod adjustment);
2) Press down a string at the 2nd fret (between 2nd and 3rd fret). Look at the space between the string and the surface of the 1st fret. On the low E string there should be about 1 piece of paper gap. If there is more then the nut will probably need to be lowered. If the string just touches the fret or has a gap as suggested, your nut is OK;

3) Look at the height of your bridge saddle... the piece of bone or plastic mounted in the bridge. You may be able to pull out the saddle and take a little off the bottom as long as the strings won't contact the bridge. Be careful and keep the bottom of the saddle flat and square.

4) If all these check out well then your guitar needs a neck reset. This involves separating the back from the body and placing a new angle on the neck.

Should you have issues 1, 2, or 3 then a professional setup is all that is needed. Issue 4 is structural will take the efforts of an accomplished repairperson and cost several hundred dollars.

One other thing on cheap guitars is the LACK of a truss rod in the neck. If there is no truss rod then nothing will help your guitar.

Answer 3

Adjusting the truss rod can be a bit dificult. It is easier and cheaper should you mess up to adjust the bridge. just slide it out of the saddle then sand off the bottem of it just do it evenly and a little at a time so use the old string to check the height with each adjustment. this can be done to the nut as well but most strings are higher as you move down the neck so it is better to start adjusting from the body. And if you mess up a new peice is around $5.00

Answer 4

Try buying some ultra light strings before making changes.