Here is what I am meaning by bridge; the White part that is so very very close to the bone here... But, Saddle, is the proper term.
TBH, I'm not sure which way the neck is off. I am assuming that the head is too high, since I would think that would be what time would cause. If that is the case, then yes, every millimeter the bridge/saddle is raised will raise the action. It is already a touch higher at the 17th fret than it is at the 1st fret. That is always the way it has been -- meaning it has always seemed higher on the higher frets -- I have no idea if it has raised even more over time, tho.
The quack only happens when plugged in. The guitar sounds fine in pure acoustic mode. I guess it could be louder? IDK. It always seems loud enough.
I started this discussion (about the quack) on AGF, actually. I had a whole thread on the quacking of the Fishman pickup. Some guys jumped in the thread, and said: "Something's wrong, i use Fishman under-the-saddle and everything is great" and some say: "Welcome to the struggle, everyone wants their guitar but louder, and you never get it."
It could be the fret position. But, I'm hunching it is actually the saddle material. I just don't think it is generating the vibration the Fishman expects because its not bone. At this point it is just a hunch. But $450 for the neck reset, plus whatever for the bone saddle material (I'm guessing about $100) is a lot to pay on a hunch.
The Fishman + Aura Spectrum DI Preamp sounds great. Technically, I am not hearing "my guitar" but rather a digitally modeled guitar. Fishman Aura picks up the vibrations from the pickup, and converts it digitally into what the X guitar should sound like. I say "X" because you can go online and download any one of a hundred models. Want your guild to sound like an Olson? Just download the Olson model. Of course, there are some limitations. If you are playing some $99 acoustic and you plug in the Olson model, it's not going to sound quite right. But if your guitar isn't far off, the Aura closes the gap pretty convincingly.
I downloaded the Guild F50R and the Guild G37 (both recorded by the Shure SM57 mic, the models are very precise!) And, they sound pretty darn close to what I hear when I play in pure acoustic mode in my living room.
So, if I need it loud, with the Aura, I get a Guild Acoustic as loud as I want. If I just am playing for the enjoyment of me and my dog in the living room, the Guild is plenty good for that.
The Tonedexter is the same idea as the Fishman Aura, except you play samples of
your guitar through a high quality mic (a Shure SM57 will do) and it models your sound from that. So you end up with the same idea, but it is exactly
your guitar's sound but louder.
I guess it isn't exactly the same. It would probably be like the sound of a HI FI stero recording compared to a CD recording. Or, maybe like the difference between a digital guitar pedal and a tub guitar pedal. IDK. I don't use pedals, so I am only guessing. It is a digital representation of the sound. So it isn't exactly right. But I'm guessing maybe 2 people in 100 could tell the difference. I'm not one of the 2 TBH. My ear's not that good.
IDK. Seems like I am close enough to a solution to call it finished...
I will try to get some sound samples up. I did some songs about 17 years ago, but I didn't mic the guitar then. IIRC, I actually just put a soundhole pickup in and plugged into a borrowed interface. Things have changed a lot in the home digital world since then. I need to update it. It would be cool to compare the new sound with the old, but I don't think that's possible, unfortunately.