Dropping gauge

RustPuppet

When I bought my new Tak acoustic in January I decided to string it with 13s to ensure some sweet tone, but those chunky little buggers are eating my fingers alive.

Is it safe to drop down to 12s without a full setup?

costafonix

yep

Bob-Dubery

Going lighter you're unlikely to damage anything, but if you've never had a proper set up done by a good tech then I'd consider it - it can make a difference.

You're taking tension off of the neck, so at the very least you're going to need to loosen the truss rod a little.

To do it properly the tech will want to do the set up with a new set of whatever you want to play with.

My advice: go speak to Mando or Jed at music connection and get prices from them. Those guys do good work.

What material is the current saddle made from? On lower end guitars, where the factory has to economise, putting in a properly cut saddle made from a good quality material can enhance the tone.

RustPuppet

I took it for a full setup in January after I bought it. It was originally strung with 12s but I had it set up for 13s. Mando at Music Connection did say he'd set it up so "those 13s will feel like 12s", whatever that means ?

AFAIK the saddle is double-bridge and bone.

Bob-Dubery

RustPuppet wrote AFAIK the saddle is double-bridge and bone.

Ah. If it's got the split saddle then it's towards the high end of the Tak food chain and the materials will be good.

RustPuppet

Cool, I reckon I'll try the 12s without the setup then.

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated!

Bob-Dubery

RustPuppet wrote Cool, I reckon I'll try the 12s without the setup then.

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated!

Just remember that some adjustment is almost certainly going to be needed. At a minimum you'll have to slacken the truss rod a little.

singemonkey

Maybe it just wasn't well set up. .13s shouldn't be a problem if the action is right unless you're bending whole tones.

RustPuppet

The action's fine, I just find my fingers get a way more rigorous workout with 13s.

I'm too scared to fiddle with the truss rod myself so to play it safe I think I'll keep the 13s until my next setup.