Can I change the action on an acoustic guitar?

breadbin wrote: »

i don't know if its possible or not on an acoustic but the strings are about 4 or 5 mm above the frets which i find awful hard to play sometimes. its a tanglewood if that makes any difference and not too old either. i tried sanding down the underside of the bridge but made no difference:(

edit: ok. shoulda googled it first;) think i'll leave it to a professional

Hi Breadbin,

You can indeed, there are a couple of ways of doing it. Inside the neck of the guitar is a truss rod which you can adjust the neck, you can put a hum in the neck or a bow depending on which way it needs to move. I would not attempt this yourself, it is a tricky adjustment if you dont know how to do it. Bring it into your local music shop or you can see the thread on this fourm which gives you the details on repair places.

The other option is to take the bridge out and sand it down, this is the easiest option. Sand the bottom (flat part) down and not the top as it means you will have to follow the arc (its easier to do it on the bottom). Take a couple of mm's off and restring and do this until your happy. Dont sand to much of you will get fret buzz.

Hope this helps,

J
BSOM