I wouldn't even want to go that low let alone lower. I use 9s and if it was that low it would sound like crap. At some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in and tone suffers.

The lower the strings the better the action, but the higher the strings, the better it sounds.

2mm off the fretboard at the 22nd or 24th is plenty low and pretty much standard for where I like my Jacksons. They can usually go lower, but as Matt said, starts sounding like shit.

I have to disagree. With a proper fret job, string gauge and truss rod adjustment it can sound great. My neck is perfectly straight and just had a fret dress and i have no buzz at all and my tone is killer. Im in C standard with B top.

C to B --- Buy a bass


I rock a scalloped board. My strings are going to be further from the board than the average user.
Action is measured from the frets.

See the thing is tone is subjective so we're both right and I'd venture that based upon your tuning you and I don't go for the same tones. Action is subjective too in that there is no one size fits all. What works great for one person may not work for someone else at all. I adjust my own necks and string height so once the frets are level I can get any action I want but for me, I need a wee bit of neck relief and a little bit of string height (4/64" on the low E and 3/64" on the high E) to make a guitar sound good and play well. String gauge and touch also affect action as well. Heavier strings can be set lower and the heavier one's touch the higher the action needs to me.

Based upon your initial post I get the sense you're proud that you can get your action where it is but like playing itself, action height is not a contest at least not in my book. Low action is also not a distinct characteristic of Jacksons either. The flatter the radius the lower the action can be set while still allowing decent string being but lots of guitars have 12"-16"compound radius necks. Heck, I think Carvin makes them with 20" radius.

Disagree all you want. The more string height the better they resonate. At less than 1mm off the frets, some positions will buzz just because of the physics involved. You can't pick with any real attack.

Try playing some chords not plugged in. You will hear strings buzzing.

And playing C standard with .71 mm action on a 25.5 scale?

I have to call bullshit. You just don't know what string buzz sounds like. lol

My Bengal SL2H has action a little on the low side. I need to raise it some.

I don't measure string height in millimeters so I didn't realize it was that low but yeah, that doesn't seem right.

Regardless, what's the point of this thread? Seriously. Bragging rights for the lowest action?

MM seems like it might be more accurate and easier to understand than all of those fractions and lowest common denominators.
4/64 2/32 1/16 grrr
if I wanted to do math, I would have paid attention in school to something more than the teacher I was banging.


well, i guess i didn't really pay attention in her class either. but you know what I mean.

Well, I'll say...

Getting action lower than 1.5mm @ 24th on a neck thru isn't really that difficult. The problem is getting to the point that the string buzz is consistent across the fretboard and how much of that buzz you're willing to tolerate.

I picked up a RR1 for Ron a while back. I ended up giving it a full setup because everything was wrong. Got the neck nice and straight, adjusted the nut height, reintonated and adjusted the bridge and springs... I did lower the action to under 1mm and the fretboard was still playing consistent... I could have gone lower, but once you start getting under 1.2-ish, just changing your pick angle can introduce unwanted buzzing. So I brought it back up to around that 1.2-ish area. He seemed surprised at how low the action was when he received it.

If you're playing with distortion or through modern high gain or heavily processed signal, it'll hide most of that buzz... so you can get down to that 1mm-ish area without really worrying about it. And it also really depends on your pick attack. The lower the action, the more gentle you have to play.

I like those necks that can get really low action like this. I always end up setting my action to 1.8-2mm-ish on the guitars I can get super low action on. The guitars that can get the lowest action seem to sound the best at my preferred string height.

BTW, if you're picky like that... PLEK is GOD.

I like my action set on a per-guitar basis. They're all going to be fairly similar, but...
I hated the super low action of Carvin (from the 80's), but I have some set to the same height and they feel good.
I love my GID Frankenstein (I've said that before). It has an angled action, but I don't like that same setup on another.

I used to love killer low action. So much so, that I would even be willing to live with some buzz. Lets face it when your playing with copious amounts of gain, a little buzz isn't noticeable at all. I have found as I get older (shit!) that I like my action to be higher. I like to really be able to grab the note by the balls. I find my guitars intonate better, sustains better and the the notes articulate better. With all of those benefits, I also find I use less gain as well. Sadly, this has taken me 25 years to figure out.:think:

I never "got" the whole concept of "digging in" on the neck. Yes, there's a physical reality of the string having much more room to resonate, but the concept of "fighting" for a note is something I cannot view as desirable. No part of it should seem like work or effort IMO.

If you bend a note and the adjacent strings slide over your fingernails, I'd say the action was too high. By the same token, if you can't even bend a note anywhere without it fretting out, it's too low.
Ideally, you should be able to roll adjacent strings under your bending-finger(s) when you need to without effort, but also be able to simply push them aside, muted, just by altering your fingertip angle.


However, if you're playing music that does not rely on bends, like some super-saturated Neo-Classical shreddery, then your action should be so low that you're fretting notes simply by looking at the strings. It's just far more natural to roll your fingers around the strings and hit all the right notes with the least amount of resistance.

One thing I keep promising myself is that one day I'll shim the EAD saddles of a Floyd so I've got the higher action for the beefy rhythm while the GBE are so low that you can do an entire solo with only fret-hand hammer-ons.

couldn't tell you the height of the action on any of my guitars. I have setup guitars with super-low action in the past, but don't particularly like it. I've never been able to play with a consistently light picking hand, so even though notes could be played all over the neck with absolutely no buzz, when it comes to actually making music, I want to be able to play how I play without worrying about it.

Note, I'm not talking about setting the neck up like a longbow or proving my manhood by 'wrestling' notes out of the guitar. They all play really easy, but you can't sound a note by just staring at the fretboard either.

So my action is set pretty low, and then brought back up to a playable height that sounds good.