Stiff feel on acoustic-Why

[gordon]

I'm sure this is a question that's been asked before but I'm trying to figure this out.

I have a very well made hand-built acoustic guitar, the action is set low, 5/64, 3.5/64, little to no relief, light gauge strings.  You can get a note by barely touching it so I'm not referring to the fretting. It has an overall very stiff feel to the strings.  When I play for a while it really tires the hand.

BTW  I already tune down 1/2 step and it still feels stiff.  Any thoughts??

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Here's my try to solve this puzzle : how tall are the frets? Fret's tallness is really important on the feeling :with everything beeing equal, the smaller the frets, the harder it seems to be played, bent,tremolo'ed, etc...

[Tim Mace]

Is the relief OK and how often do you play ? It does sound like action at nut prob til' proven not nut.

[gordon]

Tim,

As mentioned earlier the relief is about the size of a "thin" hair to non-existent so it's not the relief.

I glad for all of the responses but again, it's not the nut.  The action at the nut is as perfect as it can be and the stiffness prevails whether played open or capoed which would eliminate the nut as the culprit.

I play for a few hours everyday.  Mostly finger style but with a pick on occasion.  I'm very aware of how the action "feels" on my guitars.

[gordon]

Pierre

They are .093-.095 so they are taller frets.  I wish it were that easy!

[Paul Verticchio]

Hello again Gordon.

 

I think what's throwing the discussion about the fret height off is that the HEIGHT of the fret is NOT .093-095.  That's the WIDTH of the fret.  I could find no source for frets taller than .056 which are hugely high frets.  A well dressed jumbo fret is (generally) between .045 and .050 in height.

 

One other suggestion for strings: you may wish to try a set of silk & steel strings.  They're the softest available.  The only down side is a relatively short "tone life span" and they generate less energy than other strings meaning a decrease in volume.  If your Charis is lightly braced and has a thinner soundboard, the effects will be minimized. 

 

You state that you have other Charis guitars and that they meet & exceed your expectations.  As with any guitar, this just might not be the right guitar for you.  There's no dishonor associated with that, it's just a fact of guitar life.

 

Again, best of luck with your resolution (-:

[gordon]

Paul,

Sorry for the confusion about the frets.  The crown height of the frets is .045 and the crown width of .095.

[Howard Klepper]

A stiff feel to the picking hand can come from a stiff neck and even more so from a stiff top.  You likely have the former (which I personally think is a good thing).  You may have the latter.  How tall is the saddle (saddle height above the bridge)?  I've found that a taller saddle can feel stiffer; having more static torque on the bridge is what I think does it.

 

There's a whole lot of other stuff that goes into a guitar's geometry that could make it feel wrong to a player. 

[gordon]

I'll have to measure it Howard but it's not overly high.  Bill's bridge is a bit thicker than some others so the saddle actually protrudes less than on my other guitars.  I was concerned about this initially thinking that there should be more saddle showing and maybe more neck angle but Bill made the point that if the ability to set the action where it should be is there and the height of the saddle off the top is right than there's noting to be concerned about.

[FRANK]

the longer the string length the more tension it takes to tune to pitch it could be this if you have a trapeze tail piece adding string length ...

[gordon]

Frank.  No tail piece.  It's a flattop acoustic.

[FRANK]

Dean Markley strings always feel stiff to me ?don't know why

[Howard Klepper]

String tension is not changed by afterlength.  Bending feel is, though.