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How to Fix the Action on an Electric Guitar

Who else wants to know how to fix the action on an electric guitar?

Learning how to fix the action on an electric guitar takes patience but can be easily learned.

Beginning guitarists often don’t know where to start when it comes to fixing the action on their electric guitar.

Once properly adjusted, they find that it can make a world of difference.

The most important thing to remember is to go slowly when making adjustments to your electric guitar and to be patient with the whole process.

Most adjustments can be undone if you go slowly and are careful not to break anything.

Eventually, you’ll easily be able to fix the action on your electric guitar but while you’re learning it’s best to go slowly.

Remember that most adjustments can be done by a professional.

If you feel that it’s outside of your comfort zone or just feel it’s not worth the hassle, a guitar tech or luthier can easily fix the action on your electric guitar.

Check with your local guitar shop for some recommendations.

They may even be able to do it in-house.

Check it out!

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Can All the Problems with the Action on My Guitar be Fixed?

Most problems that require you to fix the action on your guitar can be fixed with a few simple adjustments.

Major problems like bad frets or a twisted neck require a luthier and are major repairs.

In the case of a major problem that’s causing bad action on your guitar, it might not be worth fixing.

The price of repair may be much more than the electric guitar is worth and it would be better to buy a new one.

In most cases though, you simply need to make small adjustments to the truss rod and/or the bridge to fix the action on an electric guitar.

The adjustments can be done by anyone with a few simple tools, some of which may have been included when you bought your guitar.

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Why do I need to make adjustments slowly?

Careful adjustments mean you are much less likely to break anything on your guitar.

While almost nothing on an electric guitar is delicate enough to break easily, you can break things by using too much force or forcing things that aren’t meant to be forced.

This is especially true of the truss rod.

That’s why it’s important to make adjustments slowly and methodically and be very patient with yourself and the process.

If you’ve never done any kind of adjustment or repair on an electric guitar before it’s very important to take this seriously.

Even if you don’t break something, you could end up with a guitar that needs a professional adjustment to get it back to playing condition.

What Does the Process of Fixing the Action Entail?

Tuning your guitar to pitch is the first step in fixing the action.

You want the strings to be at the proper tension before you adjust anything.

Next, you want to check the action at different points along the fretboard.

Above the 12th fret, it’s usually down to the truss rod.

Once you know where the problem is it’s easier to know what needs to be adjusted.

If the problem is at the first few frets, you may need to replace the nut on the guitar since no amount of adjustment will fix a badly cut nut.

However, you start with adjusting the truss rod by checking the action at the 5th or 6th fret and deciding if it’s close enough to the fret.

Using your eye to measure the distance can be easily done although there are tools that allow you to check the distance in millimeters.

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4)What Exactly Happens When You Adjust the Truss Rod?

The amount of bow or bend in the neck of your electric guitar is adjusted using the truss rod.

Greatly Exaggerated Example of Bend and Bow on an Electric Guitar Neck

If there is too much bow in your neck, the fretboard ends up being farther away from the strings making it more difficult to fret chords and notes easily.

In the opposite case if you have too much bend the action will be too low and you’ll have fret buzz caused by the strings vibrating and hitting the frets.

A straight neck is usually preferred by shred guitarists, but most electric guitars are set up with a slight bow in the neck.

To check, place your finger or a capo on the first fret.

Look at the amount of space between the low E string and the 5th or 6th fret.

Too much space, too much bow.

Not enough space? That’s right, too much of a bend!

The manufacturer of your electric guitar sets the intended height at the factory.

This post on How to Check Action on Electric Guitar goes into more depth.

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5)How Does Adjusting the Bridge Fix the Action?

Adjusting the bridge means raising or lowering the action by raising or lowering the bridge.

On a guitar with a fixed bridge, you raise or lower the side of the bridge that’s closest to the strings with the action you need to fix.

This makes it less exact than a tremolo bridge.

A tremolo bridge is designed to allow you to raise or lower each individual string on its own.

This makes it much more exact, but also means it’s more complicated to adjust than a fixed bridge.

If the action is too high, then you need to lower the bridge to get the strings closer to the fretboard.

Too low? Or getting fret buzz? Raise the bridge to adjust the action.

Go slowly! Adjust the bridge and then retune your guitar and check the action.

It’s very important to retune your guitar after each adjustment so that the strings are at their proper tension.

When you adjust a tremolo bridge, you’re going to be adjusting the most touchy part of the guitar.

Since you have to adjust one string at a time it’s important to make small adjustments, retune, and see how the action feels.

See out post on How to Adjust Bridge on Electric Guitar for more information.

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FAQ

  • What causes guitar action changes?

Changing string gauges is often a reason the action on your guitar will change.

Other things like the environment, how humid it has been or changes in the weather, can cause the action to change.

Guitars are made of wood and wood responds by contracting and expanding which can change the distance between the fretboard and your strings.

Time can also be a factor since your strings are under tension and over time that can affect the action on your guitar.

Setting the action isn’t something you have to worry about too often.

You shouldn’t be concerned if the action changes due to drastic temperature differences say going from your warm bedroom to a very cold garage.

It’ll most likely go back to normal once it’s back in its usual place.