Crayon Sky Music

Should I lower the action on my telecaster?

I have a Fender ’72 telecaster deluxe (reissue) that I bought second hand about 6 months ago. It plays great, except the action is quite high and hurts my fingers to play. I’m an intermediate standard guitarist, but I like guitars with low action.

Don’t start making adjustments until you know what needs fixing. The truss rod is only part of the equation. The truss rod adjusts “neck relief” or the bow of the neck. Ideally, the neck should be very close to straight, with a teeny forward bow. You can check this with a straightedge….eyeballing down the neck isn’t accurate enough. Alternately, you can put a capo on the first fret and press any string on one of the highest frets. This turns your string into a straightedge. At the midpoint on the neck, there should be a small gap between your string and the top of a fret…..the gap should be about the thickness of your high E string…..009 or so. As you know, this is adjusted by turning the truss rod. Be gentle. Do it in 1/4 turn increments and let the neck adjust.

Once the neck relief is adjusted, you can raise or lower the string height at the bridge. You can also check the top nut to be sure it is as low as possible. Think of it as a zero fret. The strings should pass over it at the same height as any other fret. When you’re all done, don’t forget to adjust the intonation. Chances are that all the adjustments will have thrown it off. Check the open strings against the 12th fret harmonic on a tuner. Move the bridge forward or back until the notes are the same. A lot of info here: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/action.htm

’52 Fender Telecaster Reissue