Help! Adjusting the action on a slightly rubbish guitar

Chicanana

Chicanana

n00b
Hello! First post so feel free to move it if in the wrong place.

My young nephew has a cheap 'Starsound' (?) strat-like guitar that he bought with birthday money a couple of years ago. He's been having guitar lessons over the last year and seems to be doing well. His guitar teacher recently told his dad that the guitar's neck is bowing and that the action is too high (which it is, having seen it today). The guitar teacher recommended getting a new guitar as getting it set up properly would cost more than the guitar is worth. This makes sense but he won't be getting a new guitar until later in the year for his birthday.

My thoughts are that we could try to do any adjustments ourselves to relieve any strain on the guitar and hopefully make it marginally better to play. How would I go about adjusting the action? I'm not (personally) worried about breaking it because it's a bit pants anyway and he can be clumsy with guitars so will probably break it himself :wink:

Also, would recommendations would people have for a good starter electric of better quality? I was thinking something like a Squier Strat but would like to be able to suggest a few that he could try.

Just a couple of notes so you don't think I'm being a cow bag: if I broke it I would lend him mine (cheap Encore Strat) until he got his new one! Also I am going to suggest that they go to music shops rather than buy off eBay because of our general lack of expertise in this. We're UK based.

Thanks!
 
I'm not a guitar tech or builder (we have some here who might be around later), but I would think the first thing you are going to want to do is take some of the bow out of the neck. You want it to be as close to flat as you can get it, with maybe a little bit of back bow. You would do this by manipulating the truss rod. I don't know which way the neck is going, relative to flat, but you can easily find instructions online as to which direction you want to turn it to get the neck back close to flat. Go slowly, as really cranking on the rod can break it or really mess up the neck. Sometimes truss mod adjustments take a while to settle in (or so the internet lore goes, I always see things change pretty much instantly). If the rod can't take out the bow, the neck is probably trash for a cheap guitar. Once that is done, string it up and tweak the rod a bit to give a little relief to the neck (slight back bow, strat settings and how to measure it can easily be googled). Once the action is close to where it should be, then you can adjust the string height and truss rod to get a low action with little fret buzzing. Then make sure the intonation is still good.
 
Oh, and welcome to the forum. It is always nice to see new people sign up!
 
I like to work from the pickups end of the neck first and work back towards the headstock.

1.) Adjust the string heights with the bridge until it frets out when trying to play a note somewhere around the 18th fret. Then bring it back up until the notes just rings clear.

2.) Adjust the truss rod to take the bow out of the neck (righty tighty). Go in 1/8 turn increments. Make sure the strings are slack before making the adjustment. Retune. Check the bow by pressing the G string down at the first fret and at the 18th fret. There should be a little relief between the string and the top of the frets at approximately the 9th fret. About the thickness of a business card should be good.

3. Adjust the nut slot heights if necessary.

That's it, Fort Pitt. :thu:

And welcome!
 
^^ And telecaster911 is exactly one of those guitar builder/experts I mentioned previously.
 
Chicanana said:
Hello! First post so feel free to move it if in the wrong place.

My young nephew has a cheap 'Starsound' (?) strat-like guitar that he bought with birthday money a couple of years ago. He's been having guitar lessons over the last year and seems to be doing well. His guitar teacher recently told his dad that the guitar's neck is bowing and that the action is too high (which it is, having seen it today). The guitar teacher recommended getting a new guitar as getting it set up properly would cost more than the guitar is worth. This makes sense but he won't be getting a new guitar until later in the year for his birthday.

My thoughts are that we could try to do any adjustments ourselves to relieve any strain on the guitar and hopefully make it marginally better to play. How would I go about adjusting the action? I'm not (personally) worried about breaking it because it's a bit pants anyway and he can be clumsy with guitars so will probably break it himself :wink:

Also, would recommendations would people have for a good starter electric of better quality? I was thinking something like a Squier Strat but would like to be able to suggest a few that he could try.

Just a couple of notes so you don't think I'm being a cow bag: if I broke it I would lend him mine (cheap Encore Strat) until he got his new one! Also I am going to suggest that they go to music shops rather than buy off eBay because of our general lack of expertise in this. We're UK based.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Welcome! :Wave:
 
Welcome to the forum!

Great advice already doled out.

One thing that may be a consideration after all of the great advice given so far is the nut itself. It's very common for "cheap" guitars to have a nut that aside from being junk, is just too tall. Often, carefully removing the nut and filing down the bottom to take some of that excess height away is a quick and easy way to get big results. Ideally, a new nut of some quality is the first order of "upgrades" on any inexpensive guitar, but doing this simple trick along with some graphite powder in the slots to minimize binding is a good/free way to make a big difference in playability.
 
I would suggest a used Squier Strat. You can find them all the time for under $100 and most of the time just need a good set up and they play fine.
 
There's a lot of partially correct info here.

1. First thing first, check the relief in the neck. Obviously it has tons right now. Do this by fretting first fret G or D string and 18th. You can then see if there is gap under the string in the middle frets (there will be, or should be). Also, check it holding at the 12th fret too. Sometimes the geometry of the neck or how the fretboard was leveled will skew the findings.

2. You do NOT want back bow in a neck. I like .005-.008 relief for my initial setup, my personal guitars tend to be closer to .010 (high E string thickness).

3. Check the action before doing anything else. If you want, get yourself a cheap set of feeler gauges like so: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Neck-OE...&qid=1427675050&sr=8-8&keywords=feeler+gauges . I like action at the 12th fret to be around .060" across the 12th fret. Go measure some of your favorite guitars to get idea's for numbers. (btw you can find this style feeler gauge at any autoparts store).

4. Adjust bridge as desired.

If you adjust the action first then adjust the neck, you'll end up adjusting the action again.
 
Yeah, I screwed up in my description. I said back bow, but I meant a slight bow, aka relief. Damn good thing I don't build guitars, fix guitars, or write technical manuals. :) FWIW, Chicanana, Dougk is another one of our members who is a professional guitar builder, so you should definitely take his advice over whatever crap I was spewing in my post. You best bet is to go with the advice from telecaster911 and Dougk
 
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Fellow UK member here. Read through and follow what Telecaster911 and DougK have posted and then what OGG posted.

If you are looking for a decent budget/ starter guitar, I'd seriously look for a Yamaha Pacifica 112. Decent body, hardware, and neck, giggable out the box, and easily improved in the future for example by dropping in a better set of pickups in due course.
 
The guitar-specific advice is relevant, but your post has such an obvious common-sense question looming that I'm wondering if this is a prank.

"This makes sense but he won't be getting a new guitar until later in the year for his birthday." How much are you spending on lessons? This is classic baby/bathwater. If he's good enough for a new guitar now, insisting on waiting makes no sense. You're wasting the lesson money/time and potentially frustrating the child with a poor instrument.

Go buy a Squier. Give it to him. Explain that he doesn't get a new one if he breaks it, and if he cannot be mature enough to look after his guitar's safety, then ok, that experiment is over.
 
Some of my favorite guitars are the slightly rubbish ones.
But that said get the kid a decent Affinity Tele or Strat then start working on the "Starsound".
Odds are pretty good you wont be that successful on your first try.
But nowadays with forums like this and YouTube you can learn a lot faster than I did back in the 70s.
 
Hello again everyone!

Thanks for the replies, lots to think about and try to do. And thanks Irishstu for the link, that has helped my understanding for sure. I'll watch a few videos too then get him over for me to try it out - that way if it goes wrong he can take mine home for the time being!

It'll be his parents getting him the new guitar I think - I'm asking about recommendations because I was thinking along the lines of a Squier Strat (as that was my first electric) to suggest to them but I'm not overly confident (yet) in my guitar knowledge so wanted to see what other people would suggest. Definitely not me insisting on waiting, I told his dad a while ago he could do with something a bit better, seeing how into playing he is.

Thanks again, I'll let you know how it goes!
 
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