Guitar action is important to understand and know how to adjust. If you want your guitar to be as comfortable as possible to play, read through this guide to learn how to properly adjust your guitar’s action.
In this guide, you will learn what guitar action is, why it is important, how to measure it, and how to adjust it for acoustic or electric guitars.
Guitar action also plays an important part in your guitar’s intonation. Find out about intonation and how to adjust it in this guide.
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Guitar action or guitar action height is the height of the guitar strings over the fretboard. Guitar action plays a big role in how a guitar feels to play.
If the action is too high, the guitar will feel uncomfortable to play. If the action is too low, you will hear string buzzing.
If your guitar’s action is too high, your fingers need to push the strings down really far before they come into contact with the strings. This can make it awkward to play and slows you down.
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Before we look at how to adjust action, let’s look at how to properly measure it and what your action should be set to.
This Ultimate Guide on Truss Rods explains how to check if your truss rod is set properly and how to adjust it for the best results. Read the guide to learn everything you would want to know about truss rods.
Once your guitar’s truss rod is set up properly, you can then measure your action height and make adjustments. But make sure your truss rod is first set properly.
Acoustic Guitar Action 'as Low As Possible Without Buzzing'
You measure guitar action height with an action gauge or ruler. Rest the end of the ruler against the 12th fret on your guitar and hold it against the string. You need to measure the distance between the top of the fret and the bottom of the guitar string.
A ruler that starts the measurements from the very end allows you to press the ruler flush against the frets and get an accurate measurement.
A guitar action gauge is a custom ruler designed for measuring action on the guitar. They’re easy to use and give clear readings in inches or millimeters.
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The FretGuru 2 action gauge shown below is more expensive than the above version but also measures fret height, fret wear and nut height.
Note for step 2: if you’re unsure whether your neck is straight or you need to adjust your truss rod, read this Ultimate Guide to Truss Rods. Properly setting up your truss rod is crucial to get right before you adjust your guitar’s action.
In the above photo, you can see that an action gauge makes it pretty easy to measure action thanks to the separate blocks. Simply move the gauge left or right until one of the readings matches the height of the bottom of the string. If you use a standard ruler, take multiple measurements to make sure you read the ruler properly.
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Whether you need to measure all strings on your guitar or just the high and low E strings depends on the type of bridge your guitar uses.
If your guitar’s bridge doesn’t allow you to adjust the height for each string, you only need to measure the action on the high and low E strings.
Later in this guide, we will look at different types of bridges so you can figure out whether you need to measure all of your guitar’s strings or not.
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Low action isn’t a problem if you have a light playing style. If you are soft when picking the strings, the strings aren’t likely to buzz against the frets.
Imagine a jazz guitarist playing some fast and soft passages with gentle picking and a soft touch on the strings. Low action will probably suit the guitarist as it will make the guitar feel easier to play.
If you have an aggressive playing style, you may find that low action causes a lot of fret buzz. Raising the action can remove the buzzing and clean up your playing.
Raise Your Action: A Plea
Imagine a hard rock guitarist bashing some power chords on stage. The aggressive playing style causes the strings to vibrate wide and low action would cause serious buzzing issues. This guitarist would likely prefer a higher action so he can hit the strings as hard as he wants without the notes fretting out.
Most guitarists tend to prefer lower action compared to a higher action. You will likely want the action height to be as low as possible without creating any buzzing.
Electric guitars can achieve lower action than acoustic guitars. If you play an acoustic guitar and then pick up an electric guitar in a store, you will probably notice the lower action on the electric guitar.
How To Adjust The Action On An Acoustic Guitar
A typical action on an electric guitar is at around 4/64″ (1.6mm) on the high E string and 6/64″ (2.4mm) on the low E string.
Set your guitar to the above action height and see how it feels. If you want to try and go for a lower action height, try lowering it slightly and listen for any increase in buzzing.
If you don’t hear any noticeable increase in buzzing, you can lower action again if you want. Try to find the limit on how low you can set your action to, then decide what the ideal height is for you.
Ask The Expert: Why Is My Guitar Buzzing?
When a guitar isn’t plugged in, even the slightest fret buzzing is instantly noticeable. But when you plug the guitar in, you may notice that the amount of buzzing you hear decreases significantly.
Low action causes the string to vibrate against adjacent frets. But the pickups are far away from this buzzing, which is why it doesn’t pick it up very well.
While the ideal setup is to have zero buzzing, electric guitars can get away with some slight buzzing. So if you hear some slight buzzing while testing your unplugged electric guitar, plug it in and test it out again. You may find that the buzzing almost completely goes away.
Guitar Ruler String Action Ruler Gauge Tool For Electric Bass Acoustic Guitar Mandolin Banjo (ruler)
Unlike electric guitars, any buzzing due to low action is obvious on an acoustic guitar. This is why acoustic guitars usually have higher action than electric guitars.
A typical action on an acoustic guitar is at around 5/64″ (2.0mm) on the high E string and 7/64″ (2.8mm) on the low E string.
The slight increase in action height gives an acoustic guitar’s strings more room to vibrate. This gives you a clearer tone and allows you to strum chords without ending up in a buzzing mess.
Electric Guitar Action Height Demystified
The action you set on an acoustic guitar also depends on whether you use a capo often. A capo will lower the action across the fretboard and the further up the neck you place it, the lower the action will be.
So even if your guitar has high action, you may not notice it if you always use a capo and play mainly open chords. You may find that a slightly higher action works best when you regularly use a capo.
High action is recommended for slide playing because it gives you some extra room to move when pressing the slide on the strings.
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The worst sound when playing with a slide is the strings fretting out. You want to hear a smooth glide between notes and having low action can completely ruin it.
If you play fingerstyle on your acoustic guitar, you will be able to play with a lower action compared to a guitarist who strums chords.
It is easy to tell when the action is too low. You end up with fret buzzing. But how do you know if the action is too high?
Acoustic Steel String Guitar Action Gauge 1.3 To3.0mm Transmiited Light Useta003
There are two ways to tell if the action on your guitar is too high: intonation and feel. If your guitar’s intonation is out or the guitar feels awkward to play compared to other guitars, the action may be too high.
High action can throw off your guitar’s intonation because you need to push the string further to reach the fret. The distance you push the string causes the note to bend out-of-tune.
Check your guitar’s intonation by playing a 12th fret natural harmonic and compare the pitch against the fretted 12th fret note. If you hear a difference between the two notes, it means your intonation is out.
Setup & Adjustments
High action can also be a result of a poorly set truss rod. If the neck has too much relief, it will cause high action.
The key point to remember is that everybody has different preferences when it comes to action height. If you feel the action is too high on your guitar, try lowering it.
Some bridges allow you to adjust the action height for each individual string, while others only allow you to adjust the height across the entire bridge.
How To Lower The Action On An Acoustic Guitar (with Pictures)
Important: if you want to raise the action on your guitar, keep in mind that this will cause the strings to raise in pitch. So it’s a good idea to slightly de-tune the strings before you make adjustments to avoid breaking strings.
In the above photo, you can see that there are two screws you can adjust on the bridge posts. This gives you some control over the action on your
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