help with raising action

[Trapped In A Corner]

hi my fellow metalheads, hopefully some of you guys can help me out a bit. I got jackson warrior usa series(beautiful guitar) and i need some help raising the action up from the 1st fret to about the 5th fret. It's a floyd rose.

As of now i think what i'm going to have to do is mess with the truss rod. From what i remember i have to turn it counter clock-wise to raise the action but i'm not exactly sure, that's why i'm here. I would take it in to the shop but i'm broke.

 

[Conti]

.....the truss rod changes your neck,not your action

 

[TheDarkProject]

You probably have a couple of screws either side of the Floyd Rose which you turn to adjust the action. You might want to check that this doesn't make playing past the 12th fret more difficult though. And you'll probably have to adjust your intonation afterwards.

 

[Trapped In A Corner]

thanks darkproject, i raised the action a bit and i didn't get any fret buzzing on the firsts few frets, but now my action past the 9th fret is pretty nasty. It's way too high!

How do i lower the action around the 9th fret and beyond without it affecting frets 1-7?

 

[sumairetsu]

.....the truss rod changes your neck,not your action

Adjusting the truss rod will affect your action, though not quite as much as raising/lowering it at the bridge.

 

[colonel kurtz]

yea, you're gonna need a truss rod adjustment

what's going on is that the neck is bowed outwards a teeeeeeny bit...

looking at it from the top, it should look like this: _________________

but it's probably really like this: \______________/

the above example is exagerrated to hell of course, but you get the picture

you'll need to take a little bit of tension out of the truss rod, which will allow the neck to expand outwards slightly, and take the bend out of it - then you should be able to set a fairly uniform action along the entire length of the fretboard

 

[11thDay]

If you want to raise the action on the lower frets without disturbing the upper fret action, you may need to shim the nut. Hold down the 6th string at the 3rd fret and reach over with your right hand and tap the string above the 1st fret. You should hear a slight "click" as the string hits the fret. That will indicate proper nut height. If you are not getting that click, then yes, your lower fret action is probably to low and shimming the nut will help.

Be very careful with truss rod adjustments if you don't know what you are doing! No more than a quarter turn, then let the guitar sit for a day or two before adjusting again. Looking down the neck from the headstock: clockwise=tighten=will increase neck tension against the string tension, pulling the neck back to reduce forward bow. Counterclockwise=loosen=will allow the string to pull the neck causing bow (relief). Your guitar needs a slight bit of relief. A good way to check relief is to use a one of the strings as a straightedge by fretting the 6th string at the highest fret (probably 24th) with your left hand, reaching over and fretting the 6th string/1st fret with your right hand, and lightly tapping the 6th string/7th fret with your right thumb. You should see a slight space between the string and the fret.

Action is a by-product of bridge height, nut height, truss rod tension, bridge angle, and even the neck heel joint. All these things need to work together to get the action you are looking for. If you adjust one, sometimes you have to tweak the others too.

That is a nice guitar you have. You might want to save up $25 and take it to a pro.

.j.

Oh yeah, do these adjustments with a new set of strings. You'd be surprised at some of the weird things old strings can do to a guitar's playability.