Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [action]

The calibrated distance between the open strings of a chordophone and the surface of the fingerboard or frets.

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What is the downside of ultra-low action?

I understand that low action on a guitar makes it easier to play. (See answers to this question for more on action and truss rods). I've never understood why all guitars aren't set-up with action as low as possible. What is the downside?
Michael Easter
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Lowering the action on a bass guitar

I have obtained a rather cheap P-bass imitation bass and, while it plays well in the lower register, about the 9th fret the action starts to rise and after the 12th fret it's in to the "wow, this actually getting harder to fret" territory. How do I…
Ian C.
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On instruments that use frets, where's the best spot to press a string on, in order to minimize hand fatigue and potential for injuries?

I know this question sounds completely subjective at first sight, it even triggered the automatic "The question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed" alarm, but please read further. Action is the distance between the fret and…
NPN328
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Can a stiff piano action be lightened?

I have a grand piano with an extremely heavy/stiff action. Is it possible to lighten the action without completely rebuilding it? Is this something a professional piano tuner would do or would I have to find someone else with this specific…
S. Burt
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Is a slight amount of fret buzz acceptable when lowering the action on a guitar

I recently took my Ibanez RG into the shop for new strings (same gauge as original) and asked them to lower the action. It came back with a significant amount of fret buzz (pretty much all over the neck, regardless of pick attack). When I asked the…
King_Nothing
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Insane amounts of fret buzzing on my lower strings

This may have been addressed before, but I can't really find a thread that targets this problem. Whenever I play on my low B, E, or A string between open and fifth fret inclusive, it always buzzes when I play without an amp. My action is pretty…
Kevin Hikaru Evans
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How to decide what kind of truss rod wrench to buy?

I have a walden guitar which has a truss rod. It's action was high and I gave it to a music shop to adjust. They adjusted the neck but now the frets are buzzing a bit. Also I think that the action could have been adjusted by reducing the saddle…
Can't Tell
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Upright Piano action problems

So I've been playing the piano for about 13 years now and I've noticed the action of my piano getting worse and worse. There are actually several problems: On some keys the amount of force needed to move the keys (& hammers) is relatively high at…
Keiwan
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Switching my strings from 10's to 9's - am I in for more fret buzz?

So, I'm playing an Agile 200 Les Paul copy (tune o matic bridge). I've had 10's on it and sadly it has some fret buzz. I recently got it set up to eliminate the buzz and the tech got it pretty close. "As close as you're gonna get... all electric…
proudgary
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Moving short violin bridge towards fingerboard

My violin bridge is slightly too short; if I place it between the f-hole notches as it should be, action becomes too low. I normally use heavy gauge strings to partially compensate for lost tension. However, if I move the bridge slightly closer to…
WantsToLearn
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Piano action too stiff after tuning, what's happened?

My new second hand schimmel 112 upright had its first tune three weeks ago. We bought it 8 weeks ago, let it rest and acclimatise then had it tuned with a mini service. The piano is 25yo and its last tune before we got it was 3 yrs beforehand, but…
suisse eco
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Truss rod adjustment had no noticable effect

Today I adjusted the truss rod on my guitar, because the action was quite high and I found it difficult to play. I progressed slowly, and did 1/8 turns, but after each turn I had not noticed anything different, so I did it 6 times, until the last…
StefanH
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When adjusting the neck of an acoustic guitar, what bending might be normal?

Recently I bought a second guitar, before I had for almost 8 years just one guitar and did not noticed that its action was quite high. When I took the guitars of others I often wondered that they where much more comfortable to play, but I thought it…
StefanH
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Acoustic Guitar | How to adjust the gap between the strings and the fret board

I have a 2 year old acoustic guitar . Over the period of time there's a huge gap that has appeared between the higher frets and the strings. What has caused this gap? and How do i fix this.
Gaurav
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Floyd Rose string tension and action question

I've been playing for quite some time, but have always owned and played non-trem guitars. These days, I'm in a kind of band where some whammy is of great use, so I picked up a Jackson Warrior with a Floyd Rose Special on it. I suppose this is a 2…
Greenstreet
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