Action; Too High Or Medium High? Options

[sammetal92]

I know I've been posting a lot of forum topics to ask questions and get help, but please bear with me

This time, I wanted to talk about the action. I know you need to turn the pivot stud clockwise or counter-clockwise to decrease or increase the string height above the 12th fret respectively.

The thing is, whoever I've talked to told me never ever to turn the screws with the strings in tune, no matter if you have an OFR or a licensed one. The studs grind against the knife edges which is not the kind on movement they have been designed for, they're only designed to act as a pivot for the bride to tilt either up or down.

The truss rod; I doubt it needs adjustment, the neck is pretty straight. And even if it did, it mostly affects the frets below 12.

Question is: is there a "proper" way to adjust the action? Because so far, to me, the process of detuning the strings and then lowering or raising the bridge seems the only "proper" way, because taking the bridge off, and then adjusting the studs is more of a guessing game, because if you don't get it right, you need to pop it off again and get it where you want it and also keep it balanced.

So what do I need to do to get this action as good and even along the neck as possible? Also, do tell if you know of a way to not go through the hassle of balancing the spring and string tension to get the bridge straight after adjusting the action. Would blocking the bridge would work in this case? (Pictures below)









EDIT: Sorry about that, my tuning was off when I took that picture, had to adjust the fine tuners. The action is NOT uneven on the different strings as it looks in the pictures. But you get my point.

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This post has been edited by sammetal92: Jun 23 2013, 09:43 AM

[sammetal92]

It's best for the floyd to take the tension off the strings before you screw down the posts to lower the action, HOWEVER, in the real world of busy folks working on their own guitars, it's usually more like loosen the strings at best and give it a turn and tighten them back up, if that. The posts can tolerate being screwed down/up with full tension but if you do it over and over and over and over you will cause the knife edge to eat in to the posts which can cause issues.

It's it's a new guitar, your probably fine If it's a older guitar with lots of time on the floyd, the gentler you treat it the better.

The radius fret board issue is one I"m glad got brought up! I tend to play guitars with pretty flat necks (e.g. shredder guitars) so radius necks feel a bit odd for me at first til my hands get used to it. My minarik les paul was radiused and it took me a few minutes to switch from the ibanez to it for full comfyness. The STRICTLY 7 cobra ( 8string) that I"m testing is the flattest neck I"ve ever played and it's so wide it's really tough to reach everything. My ibanez 7 string is pretty flat and it's easy to play as a six string. That one extra string from 7 to 8 seems to make it a different animal.

Todd

It hasn't been in the shop for much, they got the guitar in April, although I tried contacting ESP Tech info with the serial number and all to get a manufacturing year, but they didn't send any reply, its been two weeks now.

Guess I'll try lowering it a wee bit when I decide to change the strings thanks again Todd

Hey again. The set up guide I posted in your last post works great on all my guitars. They way I learned to do a set up was by taking it to a pro I paid him 40 bucks and asked if I could watch and he was cool enough to let me and explained the process to me. Maybe you should give that a shot and get a hands on lesson because having the guitar in front of you while its being explained can make it really clear.

I'll have a look at that again, and thanks I'll probably do that, watch as the tech works on the guitar

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