Action on acoustic guitars

[sliding-tom]

Hi, I have a Gibson AJ RI that I purchased s/h with an aftermarket Highlander piezo installed. The action is not really bad but I think it could be a lil' better (maybe whoever installed the transducer didn't compensate for the added height supplied by the piezo element). Is this something I could do myself?
My background: I've been doing all kinds of setup work and minor/medium repairs on all my electrics for years now, including fret leveling and filing, making nuts, repairing/replacing electronics and putting together a Strat style guitar, which is one of my favourite axes (out of some 25 guitars). Any help and tips would be appreciated. Thanks.:)

[Schroeder]

Hey Tom! This is probably something you can take care of yourself if you have a bit of experience working on instruments. I am not specifically familiar with the Highlander piezos, but all their products we have installed sound awesome! As long as it is just a standard piezo and your saddle is flat on the bottom you should be able to just file or sand down your saddle until it works for you. Some fancier piezos out now are actually a round rod-like pickup that requires the bottom of your saddle to be concave, which is a HUGE pain.
If you have not checked the neck relief of your instrument I would recommend checking that first, since during this time of year with the dryness of winter, this causes necks to bow more which will sometimes considerably raise your action and make it uncomfortable - in a lot of cases sometimes that's all you need with an acoustic guitar.
However, if this is not the case, use a ruler to measure your action. We measure guitar action in 64ths of an inch at the twelfth fret while holding the string down at the first fret to eliminate any discrepancies from nut height. From bass to treble, we usually shoot for about 5/64"-4/64". We've found this to be okay for most acoustics, however every instrument will be different with your size of string and fret health. Much lower and buzzing and loss of projection may be an issue. To know how much you need to take off the saddle, if you are say 1/64" too high, you would take 1/32" off the saddle since you are measuring almost exactly halfway down the string. It can be a bit tricky at first, and it's easiest with a belt sander or something powered of that nature. We usually recommend having a professional do this as it is easy to take too much off, and if you have a pickup installed, if you do not shave the bottom properly, it can GREATLY affect the string to string balance of the pickup. Good Luck!

[sliding-tom]

Thanks for your advice and thumbs up! The neck bow has already been checked by me and is perfectly O.K., so I will shave down te bottom of the bridge saddle a bit (if it's flat, that is) next time I'll change strings.
There's some very good advice on the 'net on this site and I'll be following close:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/LowerAction/loweraction01.html

[maxtheaxe]

Hey Tom,
It does sound as though the bottom of the saddle wasn't shaved enough to accomodate the undersaddle piezo.

I have a very simple and direct solution; while I had also heard great things about the Highlander, and checked them out, I ruled them out when I was researching pickups for my Larrivee L03 Hog. It was a while back & I forget the specific reason, but it might have had to do with the very trouble you're experiencing. My solution was simply to go with a transducer that did not require mods of ANY KIND to the guitar or its components.

There are some good soundboard transducers out there; I looked very closely at B-Band, and very nearly got one until I decided that I also did not want to deal with an active system that required an onboard battery, onboard or outboard pre-amp, etc. What I found instead was the K&K Pure Western soundboard transducer. This is a piezo system, but since it attaches to the bridge plate, it does not suffer from the "quack" generated by the direct pressure of the saddle on the piezo material, which generates its own voltage before you even strike a note, hence quack. It is, at its most basic, a passive system, although it generates enough output that it almost doesn't need a preamp in some applications. They also have active systems with blender preamps, multiple transducers, etc, if you really need to go that way, but I like the simple solution personally.

This is the most accurate, warm, natural sounding acoustic pickup I've ever heard, including the Highlander, Fishman Prefix, B-Band, etc., and the really great thing is that its simple, requiring only a fairly tricky installation, which entails glueing the three piezo pads to the bridge plate and installing the end-pin jack. Its really not that hard, just requires care.

My L03 booms through the PA with a nice tight low end, lots of sparkle and a warm, natural mid, with no hint of quack, very little feedback trouble, no battery, no pre-amp (other than the mic preamp on the board), just an AWSOME sounding acoustic PU.

The price is also quite reasonable; I spent about $400 on the Fishman Prefix system that I installed on my Taylor 412K several years ago, and IMO it doesn't sound anywhere near as nice as the K&K Pure Western, which cost me $89.

[sliding-tom]

Thanks max! Sounds good. I've heard good things about this pickup lately.

[PeeWee]

Another fan of the K&K Pure Western system here - best bang for the buck and the best sounding acoustic pickup out there IMHO. Can't miss with this one, Tom.

[maxtheaxe]

I'm facing a situation similar to yours, Tom, with my Taylor 412K; having installed the Fishman Prefix/Blender, I'll have to install a new saddle in order to put in the K&K Pure Western, since the existing one was shaved to accomodate the under-saddle piezo strip.

Regardless, this is something that I intend to do ASAP. Having the K&K on my Larrivee has just flat spoiled me, and I have found now that I hate having to deal with the preamp, blending the signal between the piezo and the condenser, all that effort just to get a usable tone from the Taylor that nevertheless doesn't sound quite the way the guitar does by itself.

As soon as I get down to it, plan to get rid of all the Fishman stuff and just go with the passive K&K. I'll look at it as an opportunity to get a really nice bone saddle.

As a side note, the installation procedure for the K&K involves making a jig that utilizes the bridge pin holes as guides. Not sure how I'm going to do this with the Taylor, since its a pinless bridge! Stay tuned...