Setting action on electric guitar

Cool info thanks for that.

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Thereā€™s no shame in taking your guitar to a qualified tech. In fact thatā€™s exactly what I would do in this case and have done in the past.

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Itā€™s worth looking at Crimson Guitarā€™s youtube site, where Ben Crowe shows everything from building guitars to setting intonation, relief etc.
Setting the correct relief really needs a straight edge at the very least - and a notched straight edge for preference.

The neck needs to be flat under tension or have a slight bow in the centre, then move on to action and intonation.

I am going to do this soon on my new guitar - I havenā€™t got a proper straight edge yet, but will find a way round it.

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Andy, as I understand it you can measure the height of the E strings above the fret at the midpoint. Earlier in this topic I posted up recommendations from Fender on that height to set your relief, which was dependent on neck radius.

The guy I bought the guitar from had taken it to a tech just before I bought it off him. Maybe he asked for a really low action but the high e really buzzed (playing anything requiring open e was just annoying) which the tech should have solved. The buzz has completely gone since I raised the string height.

For me the guitar was unplayable as I couldnā€™t bend on it so it was sitting in the case whilst I played the pacifica. I figured I couldnā€™t make it any worse as it was already unplayable & I worried if I took it to a tech I might not get back what I wanted. Figured I had nothing to lose. Right now the strat plays the same as my Pacifica so Iā€™m happy & I learnt some stuff :grinning:

Maybe in the future when I find a tech I know I can trust Iā€™ll see if they can make it any better.

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If you like how it plays you did good. It really isnā€™t that complicated. Nice work!

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Just come up on my YT feed:

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