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My father bought me a acoustic from a charity shop a few weeks ago. Haven't picked a guitar up in circa 10 years and the strings are too heavy for me. Feel like 13’s or 14’s.
Got a set of old Ernie ball 10’s upstairs - any particular reason I can’t use these?
The action is very high too so I’ve started filing down the bridge and given the truss rod a few turns too
Will be fine, but that is light for an acoustic so it might sound a bit thin.
I'd wait and see what the action is like with the new strings before filing the bridge or adjusting the rod, the difference in tension between 10s and 13s will be massive and will affect the action just by changing the strings.
Yeah you're fine with those.
Any details about the guitar, please?
Age?
Make?
Any 'bellying' to the top of the body between the bridge and the bottom of the guitar?
Is the bridge completely stable?
Opened the pack and there was one missing - I must have pinched one years ago. ARSE!!
Ordered a pack of 11's off Amazon now
It's only a cheap thing for messing about with outside in the summer. A Hudson HD1BK that my dad got for a tenner.
I've filed/sanded about 2mm off the bridge but the strings are still sitting about 7-8mm above the 12th fret but only about 1-2mm above the first
Bridge is fine, no signs of bellying but will have to check
When I first started playing one of the most common guitar faults was a warped neck. However, as you have a truss rod, the neck is probably fine. You probably won't need t go below the 12th fret on an acoustic so I would try giving the rod a few turns with the strings slackened. Electric strings will do fine.
7 or 8mm doesn't sound good. You can check if the neck itself is straightish by holding down the bottom string at the first and last frets, and using the string as a straight edge to view any bend in the neck. You would expect a 1mmish gap between the string and the fingerboard at the 12th fret.
If the neck is reasonably straight, then the problem is either bellying as Cyclops suggested or a problem with the neck joint, which is far less likely.
This is partly correct: You only need to loosen guitar strings before adjusting the truss rod if you want to tighten the truss rod. This creates extra tension on the strings, which can cause problems. If you want to loosen your truss rod, you don’t need to loosen the strings.
Tune it to pitch first. Then measure and assess what the problem is likely to be. If you suspect the problem is a forward or back bowed neck, then slacken strings and adjust the rod. Changing the gauge of the strings will affect the relief of the neck
There are a number of other possible causes of a high action that need to be checked before touching the truss rod - Just my opinion. I find messing with truss rods makes me really nervous and I would only adjust by a maximum of a quarter of a turn at a time before rechecking.
Hi yerself
Dunno about an easy way, but check out this video using a "Bridge Doctor" which is available in the UK for about £25.
If you haven't found this guy before, I recommend viewing his videos - learnt so much from them. There are other videos there which feature how to install Bridge Doctors.
I was going to suggest that WJ might try a neck reset using the Kung-Fu method, but thought that might be a bridge too far (pun intended!)
(Note to WJ: No, I won't )