Guild Starfire II 1998 - action.

[guitarlover]

So I saw a "blonde" Starfire II online in Europe. The guitar seems to be near mint and I contacted the seller for some more information. He responded very quickly and did send some extra pictures.

The guitar still seems to be very clean but the action seems to be high : low E is almost 3 mm (= 0,118 inches). There seems to be room to set the bridge lower though. I will add some of the pics I received. Should I be worried or is this guitar ok ? Your advice is welcome. Thank you in advance.

 

[guitarlover]

 

[guitarlover]

 

[guitarlover]

 

[parker_knoll]

usually I wouldn't be worried for a guitar that recent. With a vintage guitar the necks can wander and need a reset at some point. It looks like there is room to go down. Maybe they use fat strings and like it like that. Did you ask specifically about it?

 

[guitarlover]

I asked about the action and the seller sent me these photos (with the remark that he is not a professional and that he cannot answer precisely about the neck angle). I saw the high action but indeed thought that this guitar was too young to have need for a neck reset already.

 

[parker_knoll]

I think it looks ok. Just drop the pickups and the bridge. But don't take my word for it

 

[Jeff Haddad]

It might just need a truss rod adjustment. Take it for a setup.

 

[Guildedagain]

High action and the TR can be two totally different things, and when you see how big a TR is in a guitar neck, it makes you wonder how somebody could break one. Trying to adjust action, undoubtedly.

Obviously the saddle can come down.

The odd thing about the saddle is - anyone who's adjusted on an acoustic and read up, done it right - is that the movement up or down only equals half over the fingerboard.

Raising or lowering a saddle by 1/16" gets you a net result of 1/32" change in string height.

I'm not sure I'm ever going to warm up to mm's for measuring action.

Are the pickups quite high enough? Good grief.

I'm not sure the owner knows how to set up a guitar, or whoever fiddled with it last.

 

[guitarlover]

Probably a slide guitar player... ;-)

Now as long as there is no structural problem, I am cool with that...

 

[guitarlover]

I asked the seller why the action is set so high and askes to confirm that there is no structural problem. No answer so far.