kraut Posted August 11, 2006 Report Share Posted August 11, 2006 Hi, I'm just in the planning/concept stage of my build and I've been giving some thought to what you can do to prevent or reduce fret buzz and have quite low action. Do things like the type of fret or the neck radius have any affect? Is there a dimension for the action at a given fret that is the theoretical or realistic lowest possible action? To me the more I look at my guitar (cheapish Ibanez) it seems like there would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted August 11, 2006 Report Share Posted August 11, 2006 If I am not mistaken, the generally accepted action or string height ranges from 1 to 2/32" above the frets, depending on string gauge used. Other influencing factors are the trueness of the neck (surprising how many good necks may have a tiny bit more action towards either the bass or the treble side) and how good a job you can do on fret levelling and truss-rod tension. Also don't forget how well the nut is cut - this is critical to achieving good action. A lot of luthiers build in a little bit of action into a neck to make chord fretting less buzzy, so the fret-string height in the middle of the 'board is a little more than at either end. It's also good practice to build in a little extra height to compensate for a new nut wearing in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted August 11, 2006 Report Share Posted August 11, 2006 Lowest I've gotten, is a hair under 1/32" for the high E, a hair under 3/64" for the low E, at the 12th fret. Those were on 15" to 16" radius boards. On a 12" radius board, make that a hair over 1/32" and 3/64" On 7.25 " radius boards (or whatever the hell it's suppose to be), jack it up about 1/64" more. If you don't yet have the ability to get a nice low action on your cheap Ibeenhad (I mean Ibanez), you probably won't get it on a custom build (yet), either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spazzyone Posted August 11, 2006 Report Share Posted August 11, 2006 yes the radius matters alot do a search for compound radius and youll understand better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exhaust_49 Posted August 11, 2006 Report Share Posted August 11, 2006 I play with a dead straight truss and raise the action. No buzzes and I like how it works my fingers. Raising the bridge also makes the guitar sound better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraut Posted August 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2006 Lowest I've gotten, is a hair under 1/32" for the high E, a hair under 3/64" for the low E, at the 12th fret. Those were on 15" to 16" radius boards. On a 12" radius board, make that a hair over 1/32" and 3/64" On 7.25 " radius boards (or whatever the hell it's suppose to be), jack it up about 1/64" more. OK, I wish you guys would hurry up and start using the metric system I'll just do some conversions and measure up what I currently have on my guitar so I can see where I stand. Thanks for all the help guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted August 12, 2006 Report Share Posted August 12, 2006 There's just something a little "girly" about the metric system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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