There is a HUGE amount of info from S. Cal amp & guitar tech

[stubhead]

Dear. If I don't get to play one instrument or another at least a couple of hours a day, my brain gets weird. Der. A course my TV's been in the closet for about three years now, there's a lot more time if you don't have to spend hours changing channels, hoping to find something good on TV. (Hint....)

It seems as though a very favorite topic of conversation is (ooh I'm so busy~ busybusybusy) But the average American adult watches five hours of TV a day, AKA 80% of their elective free time. I don't understand.

 

[swarfrat]

Agreed - I went the better part of a decade without even owning one. Now - I have to watch a token amount or my wife feels ignored. How sitting next to each other staring passively into a glass plate with moving lights counts as quality time, I dunno, but it does to her. Why don't you come talk to me in the shop while I work on something?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I met Satriani in Seattle during a clinic a few years back, and his action was as low as a hair, but he plays with a very light touch too, so I imagine that has a lot to do with it.

I've been playing on 10's with reasonably low action of 1/16th" or lower, but I also play with a fairly light touch on the left hand, player harder with the right hand during rythym parts and very lightly during solos.

 

[Cagey]

If you use a lot of compression and distortion, you can get away with super-low action. Just playing the thing clean, though, it will sound dead. When I do fret work, I work it until there's less than .001" variation end-to-end so it can be set up with frog's hair action, but I never do. I always put in enough relief and set the action high enough that the thing sounds right acoustically. Gives you the best tone, because the strings don't hit the frets when they're vibrating. They're free to ring.