Acoustic Guitar Setup in CT

rikus

Hi Everybody,

As part of my New Year’s resolution to get back into and make more time for my guitar playing I need my acoustic set up properly.

The guitar in question is a Cort SF5X which was bought in back in Highschool days. It was never properly set up when bought and now needs some TLC...

The action is pretty high, but the clearance at the first fret is pretty low (it currently has 12’s on). Now from what I've read online it's not *too* complicated to lower the saddle, but I'm afraid that lowering it may lead to fret buzz and that would lead to truss rod adjustments etc etc etc.

Is it worth it to try and DIY or should I take it to have properly set up?

If I want to have it set up do I take it to a store like Marshall or do I go to a proper luthier (from the thread on SA Luthiers and from other recommendations on the forum I've heard good things of Foster van der Merwe, and he's close by)?

AlanRatcliffe

Foster's great if you need to take it to a luthier.

Saddle action I'd say do it yourself - if you run into problems with the nut, take it to Foster to shim the nut or replace. You'd be surprised how low a nut can be before causing problems (basically the same height as the frets).

rikus

Great success (apart from snapping a string when I tightened the strings up again)!

Thanks for the advice Alan.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote You'd be surprised how low a nut can be before causing problems (basically the same height as the frets).

You ended up being spot on! Isn't an issue.

When I took out the nut I found the reason for the high action was some sort of shim that was between the pickup and the saddle. I took that out, put the saddle back in, measured again and ended up taking 1/32" of the low E and slightly more on the high E.

I'm very happy with the results, playability is soooo better. Also, the guitar rings out (for a lack of a better description) noticeably better. The angle between the saddle and the bridge now looks like pictures online (it was pretty steep previously). During my bit of research I read that a wrong angle can affect the compression (I think) and affect the sound? Is it all in my head or would it really make such a noticeable difference?

AlanRatcliffe

Actually a higher bridge action will usually give you a better and clearer tone (up to a point - approx. 6mm above the surface of the bridge), all else being correct. However, manufacturers often make those shims out of cheap, soft ABS plastic and that can dull the tone of the guitar substantially (which actually works for the under saddle pickups). So I think you are probably hearing the difference because of that - I've heard it myself many times with Corts (who often slap plastic shims in as standard).

Bob-Dubery

rikus wrote I'm very happy with the results, playability is soooo better. Also, the guitar rings out (for a lack of a better description) noticeably better. The angle between the saddle and the bridge now looks like pictures online (it was pretty steep previously). During my bit of research I read that a wrong angle can affect the compression (I think) and affect the sound? Is it all in my head or would it really make such a noticeable difference?

It's too low a bridge and thus too shallow an angle of the strings across the saddle that usually results in an inferior tone.

I'd guess that in your case the shim was made out of some cheap material that adversely effected the transfer of energy from the saddle to the bridge.

rikus

That would make a lot more sense, as the shim that I took out really looks like a random little plastic offcut... it is too short and about 80% of the width of saddle, so I can imagine a lot of the strings energy got wasted.

Eitherway, it got strung up with new strings last night and it plays and sounds better than ever! ?