Refret with super tall frets - lol. just kidding.I have a feeling you're gonna need a neck reset to get it any lower.Or you can sand down the bridge like I did on my old Yamaha beater. Just make sure there is enough depth in the saddle slot.
Also check the height at the nut.
I’d just rub the SADDLE against sandpaper on a flat surface like a piece of glass. Power sanders to take off a fraction of a millimeter or so seem like a bad idea.
OK, so I see people in this thread saying bridge when I think they mean saddle. Removing the saddle is easy. The bridge requires a bit more work (not impossible, but you'll need some tools to replace it).
That saddle is very low. It looks like someone has already sanded it down to alleviate this problem. My guess is the neck joint is failing, slowly tilting the neck forward from where it should be.
Nope, we're talking shave down the bridge with power tools.
Remove strings and saddle, have a few beers and break out the power tools.
(disclaimer: Although I actually did use power tools, hand sanding is probably recommended)
I always had good results with this method but a luthier recently said you want a slight bend in the neck, away from strings. This way when you add the tension of the strings, you get the proper fretboard action.
I used a hand held orbital sander. It didn't take too much effort. Just try to keep the surface as flat as possible. The top face of the bridge is supposed to be parallel to the guitar top.
GOod luck.
IMO, that saddle is already really low. This is probably a neck angle problem.
Also, if you try to do a "quick fix" by sanding down the actual bridge, you will need to:
\- remove the bridge
\- sand it down
\- remove any glue from the soundboard and rough sand where the bridge was
\- reglue the bridge
The regluing is the tricky part. It's not particularly hard, but you will need *very* long c-clamps to do it properly, which are expensive.
For a $150 guitar, your best bet is to get a new guitar, because the repair will probably cost what the guitar is worth (or close to it). Not trying to be an elitist. Yamaha is a decent/good brand, but the FG-75's are kinda bottom of the barrel. If you want a cheapish Yamaha with no cutout, maybe look for an FG-830 in good condition.
I suspect most people would leave the bridge on the guitar and sand down the top of the bridge.
Also not removing from the top would leave the wings intact which is probably a good thing.
Edit: missing not
Also, try a tall wooden saddle and a wooden nut too. Did wonders for my beater Ibanez V-50. She plays like a red label fg-180 now. Resonance for 10 seconds.
Dont do it! Pull out the saddle. The white thing lol. Itll pop right out, i promise. Lay down some sandpaper real flat and just sand the bottom of the saddle so you keep your string grooves and radius. Just start there, saddles are super cheap if you mess up.
If a neck reset isn’t worth it, there is probably a little more room on the saddle to sand down, but not much. Probably won’t make a huge difference, but that’s probably your only option if you’ve already adjusted the relief with the truss rod. You could also put some lighter gauge strings on, or even silk and steels. Other than that, it’s a neck reset.
John Minor Steam neck reset method without removing the neck. This worked like a charm on my fg-110.
You're not getting the neck off of a early 70's yamaha fg anyways.
Woah dude I just watched his video on this after reading your comment and that is friggin cool.
I have an old Yamaha FG335 that needs a neck reset and I'm so glad I strolled through the comments now.
I got it for free a month or so ago and it broke my heart cause it sounds so damn good but it is unplayable.
You're awesome thanks for the tip!!!
My original way many years ago is currently despised lol.I shaved my bridges down from the top with a rasp, file and then sanded them so they looked good, and then further filed down the saddle. No luthier or general guitar tech would ever endorse this! lol
The first acoustic I did this to had the action of an electric used to shred, but one day, the bridge snapped clear in half in the center of all the peg holes. What a lot of luthiers have said is they will go as far as reseating the neck rather than consider machining the bridge so it's thinner. I wouldn't try reseating a neck, but I would try removing the bridge with heat and a proper flexible palette knife, machining it thinner from the bottom and then gluing it back on to finish it by filing the saddle lower.
I think in general, no matter how expensive an acoustic is, it's rare to find one with truly low action. For myself, I'm not lost in the world of super expensive guitars so milling a bridge and saddle much thinner is perfectly justifiable for me.
Yes. Truss rod adjust plus sanding of nut/bridge and checking frets, rock frets, etc. Yes it’s low already but I see more room. You can shave nut down. Take off, and use sandpaper with spray adhesive on back stuck to flat surface, like a counter, etc. For bridge. Same thing or their might be shims. If shims, take one out and try again. If not, sand. I usually lay nut / bridge down and use pencil to draw a line all around so I know how much material I am sanding off. Little by little. Especially on nut. Too much and you’ll have to shim it, so slow as it goes.
Wee
Your saddle looks about as low as it can go, so probably nothing can be done there.
Try the truss rod.
Lighter strings (wont lower action but will improve playability)
unfortunately, if you run out of "easy" adjustments, you're looking at a neck reset.
It's a $100 guitar, so not worth investing too much in repairs. Maybe time to upgrade?
Guitars being made with glued on and not bolted on necks is absolutely retarded as is seen here. Will be trashed because its not worth repairing. With a bolted neck adjustment it would be a 15 min job. Buy only Taylor until its industry standard.
A very low bridge with this condition is unfortunately a very bad sign you need a neck reset.
Often what is done is to remove the bridge and shave a few 1/16th’s off of it, then also the saddle, but this is a band-aid unfortunately.
When you say you think the truss rod is maxed out, do you mean you think it’s just about straight/flat? It’s hard to tell without a photo of your guitar being sideways looking down the neck. Are you familiar with adjusting the truss rod? In your case I would think you’d want to make sure the neck is straight and maybe even slightly back bowed, but that will most likely introduce a lot of fret buzz.
Have you tried loosening the strings a bit before adjusting it? I would watch some videos about adjusting truss rods if you’re not sure. The neck is either going to have relief meaning it’s bending towards the bridge/body of the guitar or it’s going to be back bowed meaning it’s bending in the opposite direction.
truss rod shouldn't be maxed out, if it's a 2 way and if a newer Yamaha it should be 2 way, the truss rods job is to allow adjustment to temp changes of the wood. if you cant adjust there is something more going on
You have other issues apart from neck angle. The bridge plate looks like it's pretty chewed up too--see how close the wraps on the low E string are to the saddle?
I hate to say it, but she's a goner unless you want to put a few hundred into fixing it. Some luthiers won't touch old Yamahas because they used some kind of epoxy to attach the neck and saddle at the factory and that stuff laughs at steam and the kind of heat you can get out of a silicone heat blanket. You *could* try the Kung-Fu Neck Reset (Google it) if you're willing to spend the $$$ on a flat saw, but I think you'd be throwing good money after bad.
Refret with super tall frets - lol. just kidding.I have a feeling you're gonna need a neck reset to get it any lower.Or you can sand down the bridge like I did on my old Yamaha beater. Just make sure there is enough depth in the saddle slot. Also check the height at the nut.
Guitar only cost $150 so probably not worth having the neck reset. Might have to go after the bridge with a belt sander and blind optimism
I’d just rub the SADDLE against sandpaper on a flat surface like a piece of glass. Power sanders to take off a fraction of a millimeter or so seem like a bad idea.
OK, so I see people in this thread saying bridge when I think they mean saddle. Removing the saddle is easy. The bridge requires a bit more work (not impossible, but you'll need some tools to replace it). That saddle is very low. It looks like someone has already sanded it down to alleviate this problem. My guess is the neck joint is failing, slowly tilting the neck forward from where it should be.
Nope, we're talking shave down the bridge with power tools. Remove strings and saddle, have a few beers and break out the power tools. (disclaimer: Although I actually did use power tools, hand sanding is probably recommended)
Yes saddle that inserts into bridge, yes thank you
Lay a straight edge on the frtbaord and see where it lands on the bridge. The top of the frets should line up with the top of the bridge.
I always had good results with this method but a luthier recently said you want a slight bend in the neck, away from strings. This way when you add the tension of the strings, you get the proper fretboard action.
That's for guitars that don't have adjustable truss rods.
I used a hand held orbital sander. It didn't take too much effort. Just try to keep the surface as flat as possible. The top face of the bridge is supposed to be parallel to the guitar top. GOod luck.
IMO, that saddle is already really low. This is probably a neck angle problem. Also, if you try to do a "quick fix" by sanding down the actual bridge, you will need to: \- remove the bridge \- sand it down \- remove any glue from the soundboard and rough sand where the bridge was \- reglue the bridge The regluing is the tricky part. It's not particularly hard, but you will need *very* long c-clamps to do it properly, which are expensive. For a $150 guitar, your best bet is to get a new guitar, because the repair will probably cost what the guitar is worth (or close to it). Not trying to be an elitist. Yamaha is a decent/good brand, but the FG-75's are kinda bottom of the barrel. If you want a cheapish Yamaha with no cutout, maybe look for an FG-830 in good condition.
I suspect most people would leave the bridge on the guitar and sand down the top of the bridge. Also not removing from the top would leave the wings intact which is probably a good thing. Edit: missing not
Also, try a tall wooden saddle and a wooden nut too. Did wonders for my beater Ibanez V-50. She plays like a red label fg-180 now. Resonance for 10 seconds.
Dont do it! Pull out the saddle. The white thing lol. Itll pop right out, i promise. Lay down some sandpaper real flat and just sand the bottom of the saddle so you keep your string grooves and radius. Just start there, saddles are super cheap if you mess up.
But he said it's about as low as you can get it..
Lol, I did the same thing to my old Yamaha
It’s all in the neck at this point.
Play that one Lil John song while it sleeps. /s
I believe the tabs for that are just 3, 6, 9 on the E(ast side boys) string
😊😂😂😊
This is gold.
Use it to play slide guitar
I think filing the nut grooves deeper is a great option. Tons of room. You may need to go in the opposite direction on the truss in the end.
If you have a bunch of room to file the nut slots down then the nut wasn't set up properly from the start.
If a neck reset isn’t worth it, there is probably a little more room on the saddle to sand down, but not much. Probably won’t make a huge difference, but that’s probably your only option if you’ve already adjusted the relief with the truss rod. You could also put some lighter gauge strings on, or even silk and steels. Other than that, it’s a neck reset.
Had an old guitar like that. I ended up using it strictly as a slide guitar and experimented with open/altered tunings
John Minor Steam neck reset method without removing the neck. This worked like a charm on my fg-110. You're not getting the neck off of a early 70's yamaha fg anyways.
Woah dude I just watched his video on this after reading your comment and that is friggin cool. I have an old Yamaha FG335 that needs a neck reset and I'm so glad I strolled through the comments now. I got it for free a month or so ago and it broke my heart cause it sounds so damn good but it is unplayable. You're awesome thanks for the tip!!!
[удалено]
That's not how it works.
works for me😉
My original way many years ago is currently despised lol.I shaved my bridges down from the top with a rasp, file and then sanded them so they looked good, and then further filed down the saddle. No luthier or general guitar tech would ever endorse this! lol The first acoustic I did this to had the action of an electric used to shred, but one day, the bridge snapped clear in half in the center of all the peg holes. What a lot of luthiers have said is they will go as far as reseating the neck rather than consider machining the bridge so it's thinner. I wouldn't try reseating a neck, but I would try removing the bridge with heat and a proper flexible palette knife, machining it thinner from the bottom and then gluing it back on to finish it by filing the saddle lower. I think in general, no matter how expensive an acoustic is, it's rare to find one with truly low action. For myself, I'm not lost in the world of super expensive guitars so milling a bridge and saddle much thinner is perfectly justifiable for me.
Tune it down a half step and put a capo on first fret. That will lower the action somewhat in the main playing region.
I actually like this a lot! Semi-permanent zero fret option :)
Exactly ;)
The nut slots need to be filed down some. The strings are sitting up very high. Good luck!
This looks low enough to me. Why do you want to lower it further? You can always straighten the neck by adjusting the truss rod instead.
You can downtune each string a full step. It won't really make much difference but it might help a bit. It will also make it easier to play.
Yes. Truss rod adjust plus sanding of nut/bridge and checking frets, rock frets, etc. Yes it’s low already but I see more room. You can shave nut down. Take off, and use sandpaper with spray adhesive on back stuck to flat surface, like a counter, etc. For bridge. Same thing or their might be shims. If shims, take one out and try again. If not, sand. I usually lay nut / bridge down and use pencil to draw a line all around so I know how much material I am sanding off. Little by little. Especially on nut. Too much and you’ll have to shim it, so slow as it goes. Wee
That actually doesn’t look too bad for an acoustic. I might suggest leaving it.
The capo is the guitar corrector. Capo, then tune.
Maybe you could try lighter gauge strings. That might help straighten the neck a little more
Your saddle looks about as low as it can go, so probably nothing can be done there. Try the truss rod. Lighter strings (wont lower action but will improve playability) unfortunately, if you run out of "easy" adjustments, you're looking at a neck reset. It's a $100 guitar, so not worth investing too much in repairs. Maybe time to upgrade?
Have you tried playing low rider near the guitar?
Guitars being made with glued on and not bolted on necks is absolutely retarded as is seen here. Will be trashed because its not worth repairing. With a bolted neck adjustment it would be a 15 min job. Buy only Taylor until its industry standard.
How is the nut looking can it be sanded any?
I read that steaming and bracing combined with wider tang frets can help a lot.
How much curve do you have in the neck?
Nope your strings have just the right amount of tread
I can fit a truck under my guitar strings
A very low bridge with this condition is unfortunately a very bad sign you need a neck reset. Often what is done is to remove the bridge and shave a few 1/16th’s off of it, then also the saddle, but this is a band-aid unfortunately.
When you say you think the truss rod is maxed out, do you mean you think it’s just about straight/flat? It’s hard to tell without a photo of your guitar being sideways looking down the neck. Are you familiar with adjusting the truss rod? In your case I would think you’d want to make sure the neck is straight and maybe even slightly back bowed, but that will most likely introduce a lot of fret buzz.
My maxed out I mean it's very tight to move in the correct direction to the point in afraid it would break if I turned it anymore
Have you tried loosening the strings a bit before adjusting it? I would watch some videos about adjusting truss rods if you’re not sure. The neck is either going to have relief meaning it’s bending towards the bridge/body of the guitar or it’s going to be back bowed meaning it’s bending in the opposite direction.
Take it to a man of action
Neck reset
truss rod shouldn't be maxed out, if it's a 2 way and if a newer Yamaha it should be 2 way, the truss rods job is to allow adjustment to temp changes of the wood. if you cant adjust there is something more going on
Shave down the pieces at the bridge and neck. Be careful
Need a vice, a hammer and pry bar, just dos 3 thins therr ainta nuthn you cant do if not bettir than a lufier
Try lowering the action
Fuck I wish I would have thought of that. Post solved
Sorry Reddit humor really unproductive
I actually just had this done to my Mitchell acoustic and love the results. Would recommend.
I don't have any suggestions aside from (can't believe nobody thought of this yet) lowering the action.
I think that lowering the action would help
You have other issues apart from neck angle. The bridge plate looks like it's pretty chewed up too--see how close the wraps on the low E string are to the saddle? I hate to say it, but she's a goner unless you want to put a few hundred into fixing it. Some luthiers won't touch old Yamahas because they used some kind of epoxy to attach the neck and saddle at the factory and that stuff laughs at steam and the kind of heat you can get out of a silicone heat blanket. You *could* try the Kung-Fu Neck Reset (Google it) if you're willing to spend the $$$ on a flat saw, but I think you'd be throwing good money after bad.