Subject: Early romantic guitar: string height

From: Martyn Hodgson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2013 15:05:31 +0100 (BST)

I'd be grateful if players of the early six string guitar (say, 1800 -
   1830) could let me know what string height they find best on the
   instrument. To be specific: by string height I mean the distance
   required to depress the string to the fingerboard (not to the top of
   the fret - the usual 'action' measurement) at the 12th fret,  for both
   the first and sixth string.

   I've fairly recently dug out my Grobert copy for a few shows and, as I
   start to pluck harder, I find I'm getting some string rattles (possibly
   on adjacent frets) in the lower positions (ie on frets 1 to 5) on the
   first and second strings.  Whether or not the belly has sunk I don't
   know (it doesn't seem to have done) but the depressing distance (as
   described above) of the first string at the 12th fret is only 3.0mm
   which seems low by modern guitar standards. The frets are about 0.9mm
   high so the 12th fret 'action', if you prefer that measure, is only
   some 2.1mm.  Clearly this all makes for ease of playing in the higher
   positions - but at the expense of some string rattles.

   So in making the necessary adjustments it would be interesting to know
   what others use on similar instruments. My first thoughts are to
   heighten the bridge saddle to increase the depression distance of the
   first string at the 12th fret to between 3.5 and 4.0mm (ie an 'action'
   of between 2.6 and 3.1mm).

   MH

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