Action higher after changing strings?

Switch625 · October 2018

I picked up a budget Squier acoustic on Sunday evening from ebay, Played around with it for an hour and was happy other than the fact it needed new strings. Yesterday evening I put on a set of 13's which is all I had but since then the action just seems a lot higher than when I first got it.

I'm guessing the original strings might have been a lower gauge and the neck is being pulled by the extra tension? Today I've looked up truss rod adjustments as I've never done any set up work before, and I've turned the rod a couple of quarter-turns anti-clockwise but it hasn't made much of a difference. From the second/third fret the string height just goes up and up.

What should I do to get it back to how it was? I'm pretty disappointed now with how high the action is as it makes it difficult to play. It played fine with the original strings!

I don't know how to embed an image but here's a pic - http://tinypic.com/r/1235euv/9

ICBM · October 2018

It's most likely the new strings - the standard string gauge on most acoustics is 12s, and there's a fairly big difference with 13s.

But to straighten the neck you need to turn the truss rod nut clockwise not anti-clockwise - you need to be tightening it.

Check the straightness of the neck by holding the guitar in the normal playing position and fretting the G string at the first fret with your left hand and the 15th with your right. Look at the gap between the string and the 7th fret - it should definitely be less than the string diameter, and preferably just less than about half that.

And don’t be afraid of adjusting it by a lot more than a couple of quarter turns, if necessary - one or two *full turns* of the nut is not that unusual.

Switch625 · October 2018

Thanks. Out of interest if I took these strings off and went down to 12’s would the action be back to how it was or would the truss rod still need to be adjusted now that the neck has been put under more strain?

grappagreen · October 2018

You would have to loosen the truss right to accommodate the lower tension on the neck again.

ICBM · October 2018

switch625 said:

Thanks. Out of interest if I took these strings off and went down to 12’s would the action be back to how it was or would the truss rod still need to be adjusted now that the neck has been put under more strain?

No way to know without trying it, although it’s more likely to go back as it was.

You can test it very easily without changing them - just tune it down to D. If the neck goes back to how it was then it will with 12s.

Switch625 · October 2018

Thanks guys. I brought the guitar into work today as that was the ultimate goal - to leave a cheap acoustic in the office to play at lunch should I fancy it.

I also brought the allen key in that fits the truss rod. My colleague is into guitar and bass and he's adjusted his own before and didn't have a problem doing mine. Admittedly I squirmed a bit when I saw how much effort he was putting in to tighten it... I was afraid something was going to snap! But he's got the action down low and it plays beautifully like it should.

I wouldn't have had the balls to put that much effort into turning the key out of fear of breaking someting, but it's all good now.Thanks for all your help

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Action higher after changing strings?

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