Action at the 12th fret

[robn]

I’m interested in finding out what string height people set on their resonator guitars (measured from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the strings). I’m doing the final set up on my guitar and was wondering just how low to go. At present I have an action of 2.8mm on both bass and treble sides (just over 3/32nd inch) – solid for slide but a wee bit high for playing in standard tuning with 15-56 Newtone strings.

I’m happy with my nut height and set up but I may have too much relief in the neck. Using a straight edge between the first fret and the 13th fret, the relief at the 7th fret must be about 0.5mm. So I’m going to reduce that before taking anything off the bottom of the saddle, as that may improve playing comfort in standard tuning with the action at its present height. I was thinking of going to a virtually straight neck with a 3/32nd action at the 12th fret on both the bass and treble side. The guitar will be used for standard tuning and slide in open G and D.

Any tips?

[LouisianaGrey]

I usually go for about 3mm bass side, 2.5 treble as a good compromise between slide and picking, because (for the stuff I play, at least) the ease of picking is more dependent on the nut height, which I try to keep about the same as a regular guitar. Like you, I use Newtones. It seems to me that at the action height you've got you should be able to have the neck straight without any problems and that should make it a bit easier to fret in the middle of the neck.

[robn]

Thanks Pete,

I've discovered tonight that my straight edge isn't very straight So I'll have to let the neck settle a while and try again. Once I took out the relief I found that I couldn't dig in with the slide so I think that the neck angle is not spot on (it is a budget Korean guitar after all!). A bit of a compromise is needed - I play more slide than standard tuning so I'll keep the action up a bit and continue to capo in standard.

Incidentally, I've switched the Quarterman for a National Resophonic cone, following the instructions on your website. Except I had to use a small slot-head bolt to attach the cone to the biscuit as I needed to mount my Fishman passive transducer. I used the same saddle (reduced in height from the bottom) and also reduced the diameter of the biscuit.

The National cone has made a considerable tonal difference. The sound is mellower on the highs (less banjo), has more sustain, and the individual note clarity is far superior on the lows. I'm looking forward to the cone opening up over the next few months. I've found my heavy brass slide works best on the new cone, whereas I got way too much noise off it from the Quarterman so used glass instead.

I'll try and post a sound clip this weekend as a comparison to the one I recorded with the Quaterman cone installed. I think that the National Resophonic cone is more "expressive" than the Quarterman was in my wood bodied biscuit bridge guitar (the Quarterman had a lot of treble bark) - but I love the Quarterman tone in my spiderbridge square neck.

If anyone wants the 9.5 inch Quarterman I have taken out, just drop me a line in personal messages and I'll post it.

Robn

[robn]

I finnished the set up yesterday - having installed the new National Resophonic cone

I made a rough second bridge saddle, which I used sacrificially to get the template right for my primary saddle. The guitar plays nicely now for both slide and standard tuning.

I have posted a sound clip (Resound Blues Nati...) on MySpace of the guitar with the National Resophonic cone now fitted www.myspace.com/robnblues
I've played the same tunes as the clip marked "Resound Blues Demo" so you can get an idea of the difference the National cone makes compared to the Quarterman cone that was previously installed. I recorded both clips as close to the same way as I could (SM57 into laptop sound card with no effects or eq). The guitar biscuit and saddle are the same ones (just reshaped). In the first clip I used a glass slide and in the National clip I used a brass slide (listening to the clips you would think that the opposite slide was used in each case ).

I think that the National cone has more note clarity and is a richer sound. The quarterman has more attack and a banjo flavour. When I was looking to upgrade I coudn't find this sound comparison anywhere on the net so I thought that some of you may find it useful.

Robn