String Height

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EnGl

EnGl

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I'm curious what is your experience with various string heights.

Of course string height affect playability but what else ?


I know there are many articles about that in the net but I want hear you opinion.
 
High string action yields bigger tone & more sustain, but it's more difficult to play, so that's the trade off.
 
I notice the same thing.. medium to higher action gives a fuller , fatter sound. Very low action most of the time gives a thinner more metallic type of sound and the notes die out sooner, hard to describe but I find that low action is a sacrifice in tone somewhat. Now this all depends on the guitar also because if the fretwork is outstanding you can have pretty low action and still have a full sound. I prefer somewhere in the middle on most guitars.
 
The higher the bridge the better your tone will be. I hate super low action. I end up raising the bridge on just about every guitar I ever bought. I like to bend underneath the adjacent strings and I like being able to dig in a bit for a lack of a better term. Pinch harmonics become easier to achieve too. Typically when getting a pro set up without any input from the player will be super low or as low as you can go without buzzing, to me the guitar sounds blahish / lifeless tone wise.
 
It takes some tweaking, but I find that there's usually a point where increased string height doesn't give you any more sustain. I usually park them right there, but I'm no shredder. Back when I pretended to be one, I had to have the strings a bit lower.
 
Play your electric unplugged and you will hear a vast differance in tone and sustain between low/high action. That actually forced me to learn to play with higher action.
VH and Gibbons are referenced a lot in this forum when talking tone and they both play with fairly high action.
 
I have my action set a little high. I like to be able to bang on it without buzzing. I also play slide so I can't have it too low.

I think I'm used to higher action because I played scalloped necks for years. :yes:
 
i play mostly les pauls with 10-52 blue steel sets on them.
low e at 12th fret is 5/64"
hi e at 12 fret is 4/64, or 5/64...depending on the guitar.

with a straight neck, or a neck with VERY slight releif, those settings will get you in the medium action ballpark, good sustain, little buzz, and nice playability that sings.

pickups, generally, i adjust my pickups like this.

bridge pickup adjustable "E" string poles are pretty close to flush on the pickup set at 1/16". each individual pole piece will be at 1/16" too. sometimes on a boomy pickup, or a bassy guitar, i'll back the bass side down a hair.

the neck pickup can be slightly tricky as i like a metal sound from the bridge, but a more vintage, woody sound in my neck pickup position. USUALLY 3/32" on each polepiece on the neck pickup will get you close...but then i like to back the bass side down from there to around 5/32 on the E and A strings and wherever the D string falls, i leave it. this enables the bass strings in the neck pickup to be clearer and not as muddy and saturated, and the D and G strings tend to be more vocal to my ears.

my pickups of choice are duncan custom in the bridge for les pauls and either an alnico 2 pro or '59 in the neck.
i do have other pickups in other guitars, and these are the settings that seem to work best for me in most high/mid gain situations in a live setting.
 
Wow thank you guys !
You really urge me to experiment with string height ...

This can help me to find my sweet spot ;)
 
I'm using 9s tuned to Eb and so I can raise the action up a ways without it being difficult to play. I'm still unsure whether thicker strings yield a bigger tone, but higher action (to a point) definitely seems to. Higher action / thinner strings definitely works better for me than thick strings and low action.
 
For me it really depends on each guitar. With a great neck and fretwork I can get the action lower without sacrficing sustain and tone. On a guitar that is a little off in its neck or frets I go higher with my action to achieve the same sweet spot. I play heavy handed and use my right hand to mute strings I want silent. Playing cleaner really is in your right hand. The Suhr I own now is about the best I have played to date. My last Suhr was not as good.
 
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