009
Wholenote
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Post by 009 on Mar 18, 2022 12:36:53 GMT -5
I completely disassembled my cracked neck Fender Hot Rod electric guitar, and so I thought I'd reassemble it last night. When I went to attach the trem claw, I noticed that the screws were not the same; one was a real trem claw screw (Fender) and the other was a neck screw --> different thread pitch, maybe slightly narrower. So while I'm waiting for my new screws to arrive, I thought I'd adjust the saddle on my new Ortega Requinto acoustic. In the past, if the saddle was just a cheap piece of plastic, I'd just adjust the string heights by simply creating string slots (like a nut); very convenient, and string heights easily checked as you work. After the slots are done, grind / smooth off that string-bearing edge and transfer/trace the height dimension to the new saddle. The action was so high on this guitar that I knew I'd have a hard time getting the adjustment lowered far enough for good string action. So I made a mock saddle out of some plastic I had, and got it as low as it can really be lowered, on the high e side, anyway. I can just slide in a feeler gauge of 0.004" between the e string and the wood bridge support section that lies in front of the strings without binding. At the 12th fret, my Yamaha has a Low E height of 5/64" and High e of 3/64" and I really like that (although I have medium tension strings on that guitar; this Ortega seems to have high tension strings). The best I can do on the Ortega is E = 6/64" and e = 5/64" See the photo. Besides just living with it (that's not me), the only thing left to do is get a narrow sanding block and lower the height of those parallel bridge saddle supports. The wood is probably just stained, but my wife has these different colored furniture touch-up pens; I'll use one of those after I get the wood recontoured and smoothed out. So, that's what's new this day of my retired life. Just talkin'....  |
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009
Wholenote
Take me to your leader!
Posts: 519
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Post by 009 on Mar 19, 2022 4:55:57 GMT -5
I was further checking the guitar out last night. I fretted the D string at the first fret and was somewhat startled with the fret buzz. It reminded me of the doorbell buzzer I installed a few months ago, finally having had enough of checking the front door every time a TV commercial came on with a doorbell sound effect. I’ve been tossing and turning in bed these last couple of hours. It occurred to me during this restless insomnia that I would be just getting too far out in the weeds trying to get this thing comfortably playable. Maybe some judicious fret adjustment would eliminate that buzz. But the high action reminds me of the action I had on my Baby Taylor; the only thing that allowed me to salvage that guitar was finally realizing that the neck was detachable and I could shim it. This Ortega Requinto would need a neck reset to achieve a similar degree of corrective success. I saved the guitar’s box; I’ll put the original bridge back on, pack it up and return it next week.
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009
Wholenote
Take me to your leader!
Posts: 519
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Post by 009 on Mar 19, 2022 13:33:31 GMT -5
I returned it today. A Taylor GS-Mini Mahogony followed me home.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Mar 19, 2022 14:23:23 GMT -5
Neck angles tend to be all over the map on nylon string guitars. There really isn't much agreement on where the action should be on a classical, and that is likely a big factor, with normal production variance thrown in on top of it.
3/64" and 5/64" is pretty darn low. That is about electric guitar height and would be low on a steel string, even more-so with nylon. You'd need a classical with an abnormally high neck projection to achieve that. Usually I set the high E at 3/32" and the low E at 1/8". This seems to work great for a lot of people. True classical players will want it higher, but they are a very slim proportion of nylon string guitar owning people. It might feel off if you're used to steel strings, but that is part of the game of switching to nylon. It should be pretty easy to play at that height once you adapt.
Probably a good thing you didn't shave the top of the bridge. Usually it isn't the mass of the bridge that is the limiting factor, it is the break angle as the string comes out of the hole where it is strung. It varies from bridge to bridge, but probably about half the time the string is already sounding buzzy from lack of break angle if it is just barely above the top of the bridge.
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009
Wholenote
Take me to your leader!
Posts: 519
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Post by 009 on Mar 19, 2022 17:19:23 GMT -5
Good point about the break angle; I hadn't thought about that. My goal was to get the action (the saddle height down), a simple (simpleton?), purely B&W objective. Discovering that fret buzz complicated what I felt was going to be a difficult task, anyway. If this guitar was some long-forgotten thing sitting in the back of my closet (long past its return time window), I'd probably do anything and everything to it, feeling that I had nothing to lose.
On a more subtle note, the scale lengths of my 1/2 scale Yamaha and this Ortea are about the same; I really like that Yamaha, and so wanted the Ortega to play basically the same. I like that Yamaha so much--all it lacked was the lower bout cutaway--that I fantasized that if I had a band saw I might trace out a lower bout cutaway curve on the face of the guitar, cut out that entire 3-!/2" section / create a cutaway, then flip the side of that cut out section over, glue it in place, and refinish the wood the best I could. Those Yamahas cost "only" $130.... They do not have any adjustable truss rod; I think I got fairly lucky, now having seen the Ortega; the Ortega did have a two-way adjustable truss rod.
I've been playing that Yamaha with its 20.6" scale exclusively for so long, that this Taylor with its relatively short (22-1/2" ?) scale seemed so long and awkward; I was barely able to do proper fretting. I doubt that the Taylor will replace the Yamaha as my #1, sitting constantly at my side, but I've always wanted one. Sometimes you have to scratch that itch.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Mar 21, 2022 11:28:31 GMT -5
"The only thing left to do is get a narrow sanding block and lower the height of those parallel bridge saddle supports."
That's what you do before you reset the neck--if you want to save $$$.
The only problem with that approach on any flattop is you lose volume and tone because the strings cannot apply the same lever moment to the top and get it bouncing.
The Taylor GS Mini mahogany is a fine little guitar, and it sounds much bigger than it should. The mag pickup option for it sounds particularly good through an amp. These are super easy to install and a great modification for the guitar.
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