040: How to adjust Intonation and Action on a Guitar

[ChillinOnADirtroad69]

How do you lower the action on an acoustic guitar? Anyone can reply to this because I just got a Fender F-25 and the strings are too high and I need help!

[Ironheade21]

@whatsmyname252 yeah the happens to me too someone please explain!!!!!

[MrTAK737]

Holy Shit IT's GEDDY LEE!!!!!!!

[whatsmyname252]

when i bend my strings b@! e  string on the thirtenth frett it wont ring it just stops playing which is very frustrating any sugestions anybody

[rocafella142]

When I cover your eyes with my pinky finger the rest of your face looks just like Jason Newsted.

[kyus74]

Its not really wise to be adjusting the action via the truss rod. The truss rod adjusts the amount of relief (bow) in the neck. Adjust the amount of relief in the neck first then set the action via the bridge and/or bridge saddles or even the nut if it was set too high.

[jehovahuponyou]

THIS GUY SHOULD BE THE CEO OF 'EXPERT VILLAGE'!

[raytuned88]

on the bridge those little round things are known as saddle wheels (or gears).keep in mind some but not all guitars have them. informative overall but neck adjustment & intotanation are technically two different things. although closely related in the scheme of things!! (p.s. i am newbie, absolute beginner but i do homework.

[DragonForce191]

i was putting new strings on my guitar and my problem was on certain strings as i go higher up the fret i no longer get note sounds i get a a complete fuzz im not sure i doubt its the rod because it was working fine just before i changed the strings what do u sugest?

[TursipielAlthins]

@DragonForce191 Most likely (just my guess) this is because the neck of your guitar is warped. The strings are hitting against frets higher than the ones you're trying to play on, and they're buzzing against them instead of playing notes. If it was working fine before you changed the strings, I would guess that something happened in the process. Did you take all the strings off at once or change them one at a time? Taking them all off at once can cause issues with changes in tension on the neck.

[shadowhacker190]

Dude you look like geddy lee XD

[retard2505]

i just did it its f*cking frustrating i had to move it a bunch

[BoIivarDan]

You're confusing people..

When you tighten a truss rod you are countering the tension of the strings.

So when you loosen the rod you're increasing the forward bow and when you tighten you're straightening out the neck.

[zezuntxiduntxi]

@BoIivarDan exactly

[tsa1987]

i think its called a saddle for the strings. the thing you had no idea of the name. correct me i im wrong...

[michaelatkinson1991]

Hey dude thanks for the tips but still would love to see exactly how you tune the action of an acoustic guitar...would really appreciate it if you would post a video on how to do that.

Mike

[justplanecrazy3d]

Good Vid, you look like Geddy Lee ..

[oxking321]

i have a floyd rose bridge and i raised the action till i had no more buzz and i did not touch the intonation screw or truss rod but now i have a buzz problem on the last 2 open strings what do i do now

[BooB89]

3:53 - I believe it's the other way around.

If you want to lower your string action, you have to tighten the trusrod (sp?). The trusrod is there to counter the string tension, on the other side of the fret board. When you loosen it, string tension will win, neck will arc more, and action heightens.

It's wise to adjust the neck VERY carefully, not more than 1/4 of a turn a day! (Yes it's very tedious). Also, if you have trouble turning the trusrod, relieve tension by bending the neck backwards.

[wpm2011]

My new guitar arrived today, and when I started playing it I noticed the horrible fret buzz. What should I do to fix it? Adjust the truss rod or raise the bridge? Also do I need to remove the strings to do either of these? I have a concert next week, so I dont have time to take it to a shop.

[FlipstaGIB]

Ive got the same problem

[BizznissPhil]

take off the strings..it's easier to actually adjust the height of the strings and maybe the intonation..idk though haven't really tried adjusting the truss rod on my guitar yet

[MassFragment]

5 stars, you win.

[roccoownzu2]

Those are called the saddle by the way

[roccoownzu2]

Lol I love how all you can think of at the beginning is "Remember me?" anyways I have the same model, special II, in ebony

[digs0795]

is action what causes the buzzing noice on certain frets? on my strat it makes a buzzing noise on the 7th fret of the low E. Btw nice vid

[hoopz2598]

Good video....do you know how to lower your bridge? Mine's way too high right now and I can't use my whammy bar. I tried tuning the strings down then it got back to normal, but then it got messed up again when i went back to standard.

[stev0697657656358987]

wiki is a beautiful place hahahaha thanx for the info dude

[arpoints]

thanks 4 the warning!

[JBIEL2006]

Many of us have bought acoustic guitars which were probably more affordable and, inherently, have poor intonation qualities. Obviously, we can't make saddle adjustments. Some of these acoustics also have horrible action after the 7th fret. Horrible I say! Can you make a video demonstrating how to lower that action? The truss rod should only be used to correct for neck curvature and never to set the action.

[doctornoise]

sometimes that curve is the reason the action is bad, however. Especially in the less affordable lines. It is certainly the last thing one should look at when adjusting however.  You can adjust the saddles though, but the only way to really "adjust" is to replace with a higher or lower piece. Same with the nut.

[tylerlebens13]

i think you're psyching people out a litttle too much dr. adjusting the intonation on an acoustic is really difficult and has the potential to fuck up your instrument, but on electrics its pretty simple if you're at least slightly profficient at guitar

[creatievzyn]

If you do it, I'd like to see it on an acoustic, but judging by your expression and your saying that it could screw up the guitar, well, I don't really mind if you don't show us.

[AntonOortmann]

You mean the saddles on the bridge Dr. Noise?

[doctornoise]

that's it!

[CleverestWitch2188]

I have to admit, I was waiting for an Alan wrench or Alan screw joke.... then it didn't come. Kind of disappointed with you, Bill. =P

I'm pretty sure I would never ever try to do any of this. It's still neat to learn about though.

-Sara

[shawnogram]

Great tips. Thanks for the information.

[blithium]

I'd appreciate that on an acoustic geetar, please :)

Also "Alan screw". . .dirty mind! DIRTY DIRTY MIND! *slaps self*

[Marj12592]

This is so weird hearing intonation being talked about with a guitar. I'm in marching and concert band, and intonation is talked about alllll the time. haha

[thekidwithdog]

you want to use a pencil for checking intonation

[DannyReddy17]

Seriously if you don't know what your doing with truss rod DON'T mess with it on your own you can seriously f**k up your guitar. Best thing to do is if you have an old guitar your going to throw out for whatever reason practice on that.Another great vid

[tuffllee100]

Yeah,show us more of this,it's interesting! i would like you to show us on a Electric Guitar

[helenzebcharles]

Great video Bill. I can safely say I would be terrified to attempt any of this stuff. But it is really fascinating. Good to get an understanding of how the guitar works.

[mickeleh]

Cool learnings, Bill. Another example of why I love this channel so much. (and if you don't know what "so much" is, you can look it up on the internet.)

[fallofautumndistro]

When my guitar needs adjusting, I buy a new guitar.

[doctornoise]

generally speaking, many many new guitars don't come already adjusted. All of my guitars have needed adjusting to a degree.

[BoIivarDan]

@fallofautumndistro

I'm sorry but, you're an idiot.

[furbalisjamming]

@fallofautumndistro dude its like 20 $ to get it fixed xD

[spiderman34444]

@fallofautumndistro So if your 1000$ strat needs adjusting you just buy a new one? :o

[DoubleODude]

Good Info.

[tjbailey08]

Yay a video!!! I was getting worried...again...

[kaylenfalse]

I'll definitely get someone else to do it... I can't even change the strings. :P

Horror story: So I was feeling brave. I thought that seeing my teacher do it a couple times and with all the YT videos, I could do it. I was wrong. fail.

What would you need the action to be farther away for?

[doctornoise]

you would need the action further away in the case of your strings buzzing because they're too close to the fret board.

[kaylenfalse]

*my problems are solved*

[xperpetualmotion]

Yay, I'm glad you guys are starting to post videos again. This was really interesting, I didn't know there were so many parts to adjust.

[MikeMarino]

Yeah, intonation is important. Truss rods probably shouldn't be tampered with unless you really know what you are doing. I had my guitar for 6 years, but I'm probably not going to touch it myself, unless I get a good lesson and am confident, because I heard if you screw up adjusting the truss rod, you can potentially damage the neck. I think those screws at the bottom are fairly safe to adjust though. (you might make the intonation worse if you don't know what your doing, but prob wont damage)

[songsfrompaul]

My electric had a really bad case of intonation before I cleaned it up and did a total restring. It's sounding fine now =)

[thepeteris]

Do acoustics even have the same parts to take apart? Mine doesn't appear to. I have an electric with the exact same parts as yours, but the acoustic doesn't seem to be even close to the same. I really don't see much room for adjustment at all on the acoustic.

[doctornoise]

generally speaking you can find the truss rod for your acoustic by looking inside the hole up toward the neck. They're different, but the same rules sort of apply to both.

[paisleypower30]

You went over my head, but these are still interesting :)

[hannahjoyhopes]

wow. so much work to get it done! i'd rather see an acoustic, seeing as that's what I have, but since i know i won't be trying that anytime soon, i suppose it doesn't matter

[Insanity182]

I'd be too scared of doing anything, I'd have to take it to someone, lol.

But I'm glad it was your camera with the issues... I thought it was my eyes for a minute, lol. =P

[doctornoise]

yeaaaaa, I'd prefer everyone do it professionally..but THANK you for this comment. I really don't want anyone to break their shizzy.

[asimplecadence]

HELLOOO Bill!

How'd the move go?

[ourmixtape]

compeletely not according to plan at all. Grrrr! lol

[asimplecadence]

Oh no! I'm sorry! At least it got done, lol.

[ItTakesII]

Pretty interesting, I had no idea that one would take apart their guitar in order to tune it properly O_O I'd like to see it done indeed, preferably on an acoustic guitar, but seeing as I know I'm not going to try it, it doesn't really make a difference.

-Julian

[ourmixtape]

okay, thanks Julian :)

[ItTakesII]

Primero!

-Julian

[ItTakesII]

Okay, so, segundo! xD

[dreadknot4]

saddles