Making my A25 more fingerstyle friendly

Avalon techincal questions

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Making my A25 more fingerstyle friendly

Postby dence77 » 20 Oct 2005, 11:12

Hi all,
I have a wonderful A25C which I bought in March this year. I use it in two very different situations - in church for strumming that can be quite heavy at times and at home where I play mainly fingerstyle. I have got so into fingerstyle playing (inspired greatly by Mark Hanson, accentonmusic.com) that I am considering having the action lowered on my Avalon and maybe even using a slightly lighter guage of strings.
Forgive my ignorance, but if I have a pickup under the bridge (which I do) will I find a 'shim' there as well? The action on the guitar is not bad but playing fingerstyle beyond the seventh fret can be a bit too much like hard work. I am willing to sacrifice volume for improved playability. If I lower the action and find that heavy strumming causes a lot of buzz I may invest in a Gold or Silver series to use in church and keep my beloved Legacy at home for fingerstyle use.
Anyone got any experience or advise regarding this issue? When I read about the action of a Collings or Olson being something akin to an electric guitar I am thinking my fingerstyle playing could sound much better if I got my Avalon set up in a manner that is more sympathetic to my fingers.
All help is greatly appreciated.
dence77
 
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Postby JB » 20 Oct 2005, 12:28

The shims will most likely not be there, they are normally removed for pick-up installation but it is possible to lower the saddles.

The guitar normally leaves the factory at 2.4mm bass E and 1.8mm high E thats measured from the top of the fret to the botton of the string. A good guitar tech can normally bring this down a bit more, in fact we had someone on tuesday buy from the factory and we had to bring the height way way down to suit his playing style ( Django ) and it still had good volume and clarity.

If you're local and able to travel to the factory we'd be very happy to check the set-up for you (Mon-Thurs)

Cheers
JB
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JB
 
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