Adjusting action on acoustic guitar

[stu_hig]

I have an Epipehone EJ-200 which sounds lovely but the action is too high for me. Am I right in thinking that I will have to shave the saddle to lower the action? If so how will I go about this? Any helpful websites to take me through it step by step? Will it affect the intonation or the tone?

Thanks in advance.

[Rotti]

You can take out the saddle and just rub the bottom of it on a peice of sandpaper until it't the right height. Go slow, the strings need a certain amount of break angle over the saddle to sound good. Chances are you can bring it down a fair bit though. And try to make the bottom flat, you don't want the saddle to sit angled back or forward in the bridge. Also look at the neck angle and see if a truss rod adjustment would help.

[jt93]

start with adjusting the neck.

when i adjust mine, i make about an 1/8th of a turn, and play it for a while. then let it set over nite. if it stil feels high the next day, give it another 1/8th.

[buddroyce]

Make sure the neck is straight first. Then yank out your saddle and run it across either a file or some course sandpaper. But if you're going to do all that work, why not change the saddle to something of better material (Bone or TUSQ). If you're going to work with your existing saddle, what I normally do before I start shaving the bottom of the saddle off is that I mark the sides of the saddle so I can see how far I've gone.

Needless to say, adjusting action on an acoustic is a pain compared to electrics.