How To Adjust the Action on Your Acoustic Guitar

This is how you adjust the action on your acoustic guitar, including lowering the action and raising the action.

In this episode of “Gibson’s Guide to Guitar Setup and Maintenance,” Gibson Master Luthier, Jim DeCola, shows us how to adjust the action on your acoustic guitar without turning it into a pile of expensive kindling. Jim also shows off his ingenious, DIY bridge adjuster.

If you want to lower the action of your acoustic guitar safely, follow Jim’s step-by-step guide on adjusting the action. If you want to raise the action on your acoustic guitar, Jim also shows you the safe way to higher the action, in a way that ensures your guitar sounds as good as it should!

Master Luthier Jim DeCola shares an ingenious piece of DIY technology he created to more easily and accurately adjust the bridge piece of acoustic guitars. It’s a tool anyone at home can make with a piece of smooth glass, some sandpaper, a little glue, and a small piece of wood. Does it work? Consider, Jim’s a guy who sweats 32/1,000ths of an inch, so yeah, it works. And after you watch this video, you’ll be able to adjust your action up or down with relative ease. Jim also covers what to do in a gigging situation where your acoustic guitar action is thrown off, but you don’t have the time, or the benefit of a workbench, or your own guitar tech. And if you’ve ever wondered, “What would Jim do?” if a sudden change in humidity threw off your action, you’re about to find out.

Chapters
0:00 Lowering action on acoustic guitar
7:38 Raising action on acoustic guitar
10:05 How climate affects guitar action

#gibson #gibsontv #guitarmaintenance

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[gibsonguitar]

Let us know in the comments below what other topics you would like Jim to cover!

[chadrochelle]

I can't believe I've been afraid to mess up my guitar for YEARS. I watched this video and adjusted my action in 10 minutes after picking up a few supplies. My Hummingbird plays like a different guitar. I can't thank you enough 🙏

[davidd]

For the metric folks...he talks a lot in 64ths of an inch...that's very close to 0.4mm. So 4/64 will be close to 4 x 0.4 = 1.6mm. Hope that helps.

[russelbrown]

Thank you so much Jim! My fingers especially thank you. Thanks to your video the repair went just about perfectly.

[justinkingery]

Dang. That glass and fence idea is wonderful. Cheers.

[mikeg.]

I did this exact same thing and it worked perfectly. Great info for people who might think it's difficult👍

[PILATUS]

i wanted to see rod adjustment this guy took it a whole new level

[giacomopandiani]

Never thought about having a spare saddle with higher action!!! Thank you!!!

[nycshelbygt]

Carry a normal action saddle and a high action saddle in your kit just in case, if you are a traveling musician that flies to gigs or goes between different climates regularly. If you carry spare sets of strings, spare saddles will complement your acoustic guitar kit.

[WysteriaGuitar]

You sir are a natural teacher. Nice video thanks!

[kristinhess]

This gentleman is idolic. I just learned more in the first two minutes of this video than I have thus far in a lifetime about adjusting my guitar. Leave it to Gibson to work with such caliber of genius. THANK YOU!!!!

[VoidFame]

Hey all. Just tried this out today and it worked well. I used a square dowel and fixed it with epoxy to a piece of glass. I used double sided duct tape to fix the 100 grit sand paper. All bought from Home Depot.

Worked fine, was tedious. I did have an issue of uneven wear. I inspected it by placing the saddle on the glass to see how it was tilting, and I simply turned which side was hugging the dowel to correct the issue. My acoustic has great action now (although I went a little too far cause my D string at the 12th fret buzzes, thankfully not too much for me to care).

That being said, definitely be aware of how much you take off. I thought I was being conservative but I should have been more conservative and tested it as I went along.

[stephensmith]

I've used the smooth/roughness of my concrete porch, when I don't have a fine sandpaper. Works great!

[TheSoulsandRevive]

Very informative! Any idea on when the "Acoustic making' process series will run on 'Gibson TV? Looking forward to that. Cheers.

[philcory]

Jim is Great 😎 Please do more real world "get you through the gig" fixes. All of my Gibson Guitars sound beautiful and gained good praise as soon as I gigged them. Non of my others ever did this. Keep it up 😎

[BradySzabo]

I liked the trick about using a piece of wood for a fence. I have to do this with my Hummingbird. I'd like to get it down to 2 mil.

[headstockharem]

Great info!
How about fixing a bridge that is pulling away from the top?

[SausageWardog]

I always thought the truss rod would adjust your action, this seems really simple and obvious now I've watched it.

[nickswango]

It would be nice to know what grit the sandpaper used was. I'd assume a pretty heavy grit as quickly as he sanded down that saddle.

[jameswhite]

Man, I love your videos. I like to make a suggestion that you use metric as well.