Avalon AS201 relief and action adjustment

[tatumboy]

Hi, I have just bought a AS201 and love the sound, especially for the money! This is my first acoustic guitar, although I am familiar with setting up electric guitars.

I was wondering if anyone could help me sort out a few problems I have with the way the guitar is set-up. Out of interest what is the relief when the low E string is fretted at the 1st and 14th fret supposed to be? As mine appears to be quite high at 1mm, in addition to this the truss rod appears to be as tight as it can go, so I dont think I can lower this, can I?

Secondly the action of the low E at the 12 fret is 3.5/4mm and the high E 3mm, this also seems a bit high. There is no shim or anything underneath the saddle, so is my only option of lowering the action to reduce the height of the saddle or perhaps a set of lighter strings?

Thanks for your time in reading this, any help will be appreciated!

[JB]

It does seem to be higher than spec at the 12th fret, our normal is about 2.4mm bass and 1.8mm for the treble so you should have some room to move down abit.

No shims means you will have to sand the bottom of the saddle.
For every 1mm you want to reduce the height at the 12th fret you need to take 2mm off the saddle.

When sanding the base of the saddle it's important to maintain a flat, even surface ... sand / glass paper on a flat surface does the trick.

[tatumboy]

thanks for the reply JB!

Should there be any course for concern about not being able to adjust the truss rod any further?

Also if i was going to try and get the action down 2.4mm, I fear I would be running out of saddle!

[JB]

That is a distinct possibility depending on how much relief is available, I can't be certain without checking the guitar personally if you know what I mean.

Sometimes a truss-rod can get jammed if any glued squeezed out unto the adjusting nut, it can lock fairly tight if that happens .. but, if the truss-rod has adjusted / moved some ... then glue is not the problem.

The neck angle and bridge height are critical in any guitar for the best action during construction and it is possible that this guitar was on the limit during construction leaving not much room for adjustment.

One remedy if there is no adjustment left and the saddles are already quite low is to shave the bridge allowing the the saddle to go lower ... the frets might well need some stoning too.

Please understand I can't say for certain what the best course of action would be without seeing the guitar !