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Can lowering the action effect the volume of the guitar? I recently finished my first build, a stewmac 000 kit. I filed the nut slots a little deeper in order to lower the action and now it seems like it has less volume especially in the bass. Can the action effect the volume/tone or is it my imagination (i have a cold which could be effecting my hearing)?

Thanks,

Ben

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- Ben Pak
North Wales, Pa.

Normally higher action on the saddle may increase down force on the bridge and render more volume but I don't see that happening at the bridge....

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

I agree with what Peter meant to say...that lowering the action at the saddle may do that but not lowering the action at the nut. It's possible you have done a poor job cutting the nut - not leaving good angle or dampening the strings vibration.

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

I cut the slots following the angle of the headstock (15 degrees) I then rolled the slot down on the side that faces the headstock. Does this sound right?

Thanks -

Ben

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- Ben Pak
North Wales, Pa.

Ben,
Is it only on one string, or all of them? If you put a capo on and play, what happens to the tone? You should try to eliminate the nut as the source of the problem. There are nuts that will cause muffled tones when filing into a soft part of the bone. So replacing the nut is always an option.

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Something else to check is the angle of your nut slots.

Frank Ford has a great toot on Frets.com where he explains that the nut slots should be filed at approx. 1/2 the head stock angle. So with our head stocks being 15 degrees the nut slots should be filed at 7-8 degrees taking great care to not round the leading edge (highest edge) of the slot.

Also, in the Stew-Mac instructions Dan Earlywine shows you how to do the nut slots with an X-acto razor saw. Although I am sure that Dan pulls this off flawlessly I screwed it up terribly. So what are you using to file your nut slots - files or something else?

Most of the issues with my first, also a Stew-Mac kit and regardless if the buzz was coming from the bridge area or not turned out to be caused by my mistakes on the nut.

The problem seems to only be one or two strings and goes away with a capo.



I started off by using a razor saw with terrible results, so I bought a set of nut files which helped a lot. The guitar sounds much better than it did but it could use some improvement. I have not rounded the leading edge only the trailing edge. Could it be the angle is just to steep?

Thanks for all of your input -

Ben

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- Ben Pak
North Wales, Pa.

Good job Ben. The 7-8 degree back angle is what to shoot for and probably not as critical as one might think. I would think that to much angle would not be the problem that not enough back angle would be. In any even you want the string to launch into thin air squarely on the leading edge of the nut. A back angle that is to much would still let this happen and if you went beyond th 15 degrees your head stock would be gouged so I doubt that to much is the issue.

There is something wrong with those slot. Either make another nut or fill the slots with CA and bone dust or baking soda and re-cut the slots.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Yes, that makes sense. I want to thank everyone here for their help. You're a godsend.


Ben

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- Ben Pak
North Wales, Pa.