MIM Tele Action

I recently bought a used MIM tele. I took it in to get setup and the action ended up being a little higher than I would like. I asked him about it and he said that the action couldn't get much lower on this guitar. I was wondering what could be the reason for this. I don't have a ruler, but I seem to be at about 1/8" at the 14th fret.. I was under the impression that 1/16 was pretty normal.
Thanks

My Tele manual says that at the 17th fret the string should be 4/64" (1/16'') but that that is just a suggestion, the ultimate ht will be up to the user. Maybe the neck angle is off or the neck is bowed. I had to shim my MIM Tele to get the action low like I like it. Fender has the manual on line if you want all the specs.
Regards, Longneck

...or it clanks like every good tele should :mrgreen:

Thanks for the replies. Any ideas on how I could get it lower with any major buzzing.
I have to have my hands clamped down pretty good to get nice clean chords above the 10th fret.

You want the neck just about as straight as possible (very little relief). The Fender spec of .010" is a maximum, and is far too much. When that's straight, lower the action to where it belongs, and see how the buzzing is. If there's a lot of buzzing, you likely have high frets, so the way to fix the buzzing is fretwork.

If the saddles are bottomed out, then you'll need to put a shim in the heel of the neck pocket. Experiment with the thickness until you get the neck angle set so that the saddles are in a normal adjustment range.

I play slide in open G with the action at 6 or 7/64ths, so your action is pretty high!

I have a MIM esquire and had to get a pro setup to make it playable, it plays nicely now but is still higher than my strat and my CVC. I can't get a very accurate measurement but mine is approx 2.5mm at the 17th fret. I'm happy with it as it is now and it's a huge improvement on before and easy enough to fret.

I play with my fingers and have a very light touch so I like a very low action. I asked why it couldn't go as low as my CVC and the tech said something along the lines of mine being about as low as MIM's go and the relatively thick neck and vintage radius all have an effect on how low it can go. Mine is a classic 50's Esquire with a 7.25 radius so yours may be different.

I'm not sure whether 2.5mm at 17th fret is good or not compared to other MIM's but it's certainly playable now.

3mm is about 1/8" which is about the same as my MIJ if that's any help.

Thanks for that, it's nice to know it's at least in te same ball park. Out of interest, I'm measuring from the fretboard to the top of the string (not from the top of the fret) I assume that's the way to measure it?

Action measured from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string.

Action measured from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string.

Really? In that case my MIM is just about 1mm at the 17th fret, that seems a lot lower than it feels..

My Tele manual says that at the 17th fret the string should be 4/64" (1/16'') but that that is just a suggestion, the ultimate ht will be up to the user. Maybe the neck angle is off or the neck is bowed. I had to shim my MIM Tele to get the action low like I like it. Fender has the manual on line if you want all the specs.
Regards, Longneck

I believe that's with a capo at the 1st, but I could be wrong.

The capo at the first fret is used to adjust the relief. I haven't heard of using one for string height.

Erlewine advises setting string height with a capo at the first, at least for Strats - I double-checked his guide (the older edition I have). He does it using Fender specs, measuring at the 17th.

Cool, thanks for the info!

Mim teles (and strats) often have somewhat high - higher frets (19-21) from what I've noticed. If you have a 7 1/4 radius, it will also make it much harder to get a low action without losing the ability to bend. But anyways, getting your frets leveled is the baseline to getting the setup that you want. If you have fret height issues, they will limit how low you can go.

From a high level view, more relief gets rid of low fret buzz. Less relief "can" get rid of high fret buzz. If everything was fine and all of a sudden, the guitar buzzes, this is a good guide. With a guitar that has questionable fret consistancy, I'd go by the Fender guidelines as a starting point.

The capo at the first fret is used to adjust the relief. I haven't heard of using one for string height.

A possible reason:

On an initial set up it eleminates the nut slot depth from being a factor in the string height measurement, and getting a first adjustment to work from later.

The cheapo imitation Tele that I started working on this morning has the high E string .038 over the first fret. I'm sure that needs to be out of the picture before anything else gets moved around.

I was tought to set neck relief, string height and then nut slot depth in that order, so I've just always done it.

My first post!!

Thanks,
Greg

My first post!!

Thanks,
Greg Welcome!!!! :razz:

Really? In that case my MIM is just about 1mm at the 17th fret, that seems a lot lower than it feels..

Really.

Suppose you had frets that were .040" tall (standard) and you measured .120" from the fingerboard. That equals .080" from the top of the fret which is where I set my electrics.

Now suppose you switched to taller frets, say .050". What's your fret to string clearance now? .070". That's getting low.

Suppose you went all the way to .060" tall frets. What's your fret to string clearance now? .060". I think you're gonna have buzzing issues at that height.

Point of all this being that you don't play on the fingerboard-, you play on the frets. Strings don't buzz on the f/board, they buzz on the frets. Measure clearance from top of fret to bottom of string. I use feeler gauges:

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh62/NM_HighPlains/Lutherie/action.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh62/NM_HighPlains/Lutherie/nut_setting_height.jpg

A possible reason:

On an initial set up it eleminates the nut slot depth from being a factor in the string height measurement, and getting a first adjustment to work from later.

The cheapo imitation Tele that I started working on this morning has the high E string .038 over the first fret. I'm sure that needs to be out of the picture before anything else gets moved around.

I was tought to set neck relief, string height and then nut slot depth in that order, so I've just always done it.

My first post!!

Thanks,
Greg


I'd agree with that order and rationale. Welcome to the forum!

Really.

Suppose you had frets that were .040" tall (standard) and you measured .120" from the fingerboard. That equals .080" from the top of the fret which is where I set my electrics.

Now suppose you switched to taller frets, say .050". What's your fret to string clearance now? .070". That's getting low.

Suppose you went all the way to .060" tall frets. What's your fret to string clearance now? .060". I think you're gonna have buzzing issues at that height.

Point of all this being that you don't play on the fingerboard-, you play on the frets. Strings don't buzz on the f/board, they buzz on the frets. Measure clearance from top of fret to bottom of string. I use feeler gauges:



Thanks for that, really informative and I've learnt something new.

Here's a strange one, why does the type of bridge/saddles make a difference to the action?

I swapped the steel saddle bridge for a Fender vintage brass saddle bridge I had spare, effectively the same thing but in brass although the saddles themselves are a little fatter. The action is much lower with the brass saddles than it ever was with the steel, I like brass purely for looks (I tend to always swap steel for brass) and it does tame the Esquire a touch but I never imagined it would improve the action so much...