When is action too high?

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XPAULPITT

New member
I just wanna get some opinions on action. I always see people talking about how low their action is and alot of them seem ridiculous. I cant see how some of these people can play anything without major buzz. They seem to act like extremely low action is some kind of contest or status symbol and I think alot of people actually lie about how low their action is. I like my action at where alot of people would consider very high. I like it at 4/64 high e and 6/64 low e @ 12th fret. I pick pretty hard and use lighter strings and am by no means a shredder. I could probably get it lower without problems but I like it there and have no problem keeping it consistent on all of my guitars.
 
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Re: When is action too high?

It's all a matter of personal taste I would think. I always set mine as low as possible so it's easier on my tired old hands. The guitars of mine with the lower action get played more.
 
Re: When is action too high?

Thats part of the reason that I like it where I set it up, so that all my guitars feel pretty much the same. I know that I would also gravitate toward the lowest action and end up playing that guitar the most.
 
Re: When is action too high?

jacksontrader said:
It's all a matter of personal taste I would think. I always set mine as low as possible so it's easier on my tired old hands. The guitars of mine with the lower action get played more.
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2nd to that.
My action is low because it gets easier to run across the fret.

But the lower it goes, it promotes fret buzz.
The higher it goes, it gets easier to pick but hard to press ...

well .. hmm ...
 
Re: When is action too high?

It's not too high until you can fit your cellphone under the strings. I keep mine similar to yours. Every time I get mine repaired my tech lowers my saddles and I get a lecture about acoustic buzz vs amplified buzz. Then as soon as I plug it in all I hear is the acoustic buzz coming through my signal and I crank my strings back up. From warren Haynes: I keep my strings higher than I should for picking, lower than I should for slide.
 
Re: When is action too high?

It's mainly an issue of personal taste. However, I think that most would agree that it's too high when it becomes an overwhelming impedance to your playing, and/or or when you can't intonate the strings properly.

On another note, "action" is really a term describing the general feel of the instrument to your fingers. It isn't any one measurable parameter, so it isn't "high" or "low." It would be "easy," "difficult," "slow," "fast," "smooth," etc. High and low refer to "string height," which is a specific and measurable parameter. Many things affect action, only one of which is string height.
 
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Re: When is action too high?

I've got a strat or two with 7 1/4" radius freatboards and 12's......hard to get low action with that combo.
 
Re: When is action too high?

People say I have high action when they play my guitars, I just play whatever is comfortable to me. There was this one kid that just flat out SUCKED and started blaming the action on the guitar I MADE for MYSELF. I enjoy finding and knowing other musicians, but just a good chunk of guitar players...
 
Re: When is action too high?

To get the best sound, strings need to fully clear the frets when they vibrate; fret buzz is a tone killer. I keep my actions high so I can get a good grip on the strings with my fingertips as I play blues and do a lot of deep, sustained bends. As you get used to it you can get some pretty good speed; high action and speed are not mutually exclusive. I fail to see anything appealing about low actions, although the very idea seems intoxicating to many. I think I've raised the strings on every new and used guitar I've bought over the years. I can't even play on low actions.
 
Re: When is action too high?

I find low string height tough to play on. It's very hard to do a clean bend without "popping" the string below. And I like to hit hard chords a-la Pete Townshend a lot of the time when I play rhythm, and that can be problematic with skinny strings and low string height. However, if you are a fast single-note player with a light touch who doesn't bend very deeply, low strings can be an awesome thing. I keep one or two guitars set up that way for when I want to play that sort of a lead. I don't play those guitars live, though. They aren't versatile enough, at least not in my hands.
 
Re: When is action too high?

ive got no idea how low my axes are. I just keep lowering them till they buzz if i dig in too much. After that, i set the relief, then the nut. Never measured them tho.
 
Re: When is action too high?

ItsaBass said:
I find low string height tough to play on. It's very hard to do a clean bend without "popping" the string below...However, if you are a fast single-note player with a light touch who doesn't bend very deeply, low strings can be an awesome thing.
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+1. Drives me crazy when I try to bend and the string slips from my finger. But yeah, some guys can do amazing things with low actions. It's just a matter of your playing style.
 
Re: When is action too high?

These things are always a matter of personal taste however the answer here is your action is too high when you can't play the guitar in tune...

Now, getting a guitars action nice and low isn't easy so I can sort of understand folks being happy that they got their action nice and low but only if they've been able to get it low w/o it buzzing or fretting out.

That said I keep my action rather high compared to what most folks find normal...I play slide and slide on a low action simply doesn't work so I have it high enough to play slide on but still low enough that I can play normally.
 
Re: When is action too high?

I think it is all a matter of personal taste. If you are primarily an electric guitar player then lower action will probably work for you, but if you play a lot of acoustic guitar then you may want to raise it up some.

In my case I was playing a lot of acoustic guitar. I started having issues keeping my electrics in tune so I was discussing this with a friend and he suggested raising the action a bit and try a heavier set of strings. Iuse13'son my acoustics and 11'son my electric. BUT......... Each guitar has a sweet spot if you will and some can play very low while others perform better higher, so as much as i feel this is a personal thing you really have to find where the guitar wants tone played.
 
Re: When is action too high?

I like my action as low as possible without fretbuzz. I have tiny fingers so higher action becomes extremely obstructive to my playing.

Aside from that I generally feel that playing guitar should be effortless...it should play like butter, and that doesn't seem to be the case when you are consciously forcing the strings down to the frets because the action is so high.
 
Re: When is action too high?

ItsaBass said:
It's mainly an issue of personal taste. However, I think that most would agree that it's too high when it becomes an overwhelming impedance to your playing, and/or or when you can't intonate the strings properly.

I think this is the only measure after which it becomes a matter of what feels good to you. I have a Strat that has the lowest action I've ever come across with absolutely no buzz but I can't play it because I can't get any finger flesh under the strings for bending. I leave it like this because my son loves to play it.
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Re: When is action too high?

It's too high, when you don't like the way it plays. I used to keep my electrics with the same action as my acoustics, but decided it was too super high. I like mine about 0.88 mm above the 12 fret. I just slip a green Tortex pick underneath and when it's snug, it's good. It's not an exact science, but it's guitar player science, so it kind of works.
 
Re: When is action too high?

tonello said:
It's too high, when you don't like the way it plays. I used to keep my electrics with the same action as my acoustics, but decided it was too super high. I like mine about 0.88 mm above the 12 fret. I just slip a green Tortex pick underneath and when it's snug, it's good. It's not an exact science, but it's guitar player science, so it kind of works.
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To me this just sounds extremely low. You must have a feather light picking style. But you are right, it's whatever works for you individually.
 
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