So, you want your action “as low as possible without buzzing”?
This unfortunately is a phrase that makes guitar techs the world over grit their teeth, and for good reason – there’s no such thing, or rather – if I set the action to have absolutely no fretbuzz, you’d likely complain that it was too high.
I get a lot of enquiries from people with acoustic guitars wanting to know if there’s any way that the action can be lowered to make the guitar easier to play. The short answer is YES. The long answer is also YES.
I get phone calls and email from people all the time who have a guitar with a broken string. Usually, it’s a guitar that’s been in storage for a while and the person who owns it doesn’t know anything about guitars. They don’t know what’s caused it or how to fix it, and would like to know how much it costs to put right. This article will tell you what you need to know!
Fender Stratocaster – £750
For sale is my Washburn N4 Padauk Nuno Bettencourt model guitar. I purchased this from FunkyMunkyMusic in Kansas, USA, new in 2009. They had commissioned the Washburn custom shop in Chicago to make a run of 12 N4’s with the original Floyd Rose trem instead of the Schaller unit. The guitar was originally fitted with chrome hardware but I asked FunkyMunky to change it to black, thus making it one of a kind I guess. Before they shipped it, Nuno himself did a store signing in Kansas, so the guitar bears his signature on the back of the headstock. I have also fitted a tremstopper device, but this can be removed if you like.
Having moved house recently, i’ve decided to trim down my guitar collection, and rather unusually, this has begun with the purchase of a new guitar. I figured if I get one new awesome guitar that covers all bases that I need better than my existing guitars, i can sell them and not be missing anything. Continue reading
Okay, so you’ve seen a guitar on eBay that you want. Sure, there are good pictures and the listing looks legit, but how do you know that the guitar is structurally and electronically sound? The best way to be sure before you pay is to collect in person and check it out before you hand over the cash. Continue reading
I see this question asked a lot online, and I can imagine the scenario. You’ve bought a guitar with a floating tremolo system and you can’t keep it in tune for the life of you. You’ve locked the top nut and everything looks right, but yet when you use the bar even a bit, things start to drift. Floyds can be a pain at the best of times, but a guitar that won’t stay in tune can be virtually unplayable, especially in a live music scenario. As with many things tech, it’s hard to tell the problem without actually seeing the guitar, but here are some of the common reasons and places that you can start. Continue reading
When you’re looking to buy a new guitar you’ll notice that an awful lot of the guitars on the market today have a floating tremolo system, often called a Floyd Rose (after the name of the first bloke to make them). Whether it’s actually a Floyd Rose trem, or many of the other variants available on the market, you are presented with a certain set of consideration to think about before you know if you really need one or not. Continue reading
Ah, the age old question. You want a guitar but you don’t know what to buy. With so much choice these days, you can be forgiven for not really knowing where to start. I thought I’d write a blog to try and answer this as best I can. I’ve been buying, selling and playing guitar (bass and 6 string) for long enough to have a decent idea of what to do. Continue reading
