Greetings all,
I purchased a new Taylor 414 a couple of months ago which sounds great. The action however seems to be a bit on the high side; 7/64 on both bass and treble sides. I'm not sure if the neck has moved. Firstly, do other Taylors have an action similar to this out of the box. Secondly, what would be considered as a satisfactory action for this guitar.
I've read that the neck can be reset easily, should I send it back to Taylor, I believe this is a warranty repair.
This is my first post, so many thanks in anticipation of your replies.
Technically, it is not the neck that moves on an acoustic guitar that needs a reset, it's the sound box (the body) that distorts over time from string tension and/or temperature and humidity changes. Any acoustic guitar that is built light enough to sound great will eventually need a neck reset as the strings pull on the body of the guitar and most notably on the top as the area around the bridge develops a slight belly. "Never trust a guitar without a belly," as they say! Of course, humidity will cause the top to sink or rise but if you keep your guitar in the 40's and 50's as a relative humidity percentage range where you store your guitar (case, music room ..etc.) that movement should be minimal. If your humidity is above 60%, your top is swelling and that may be causing the high action. That's not a warranty issue, that's a guitar care issue.
Any authorized Taylor service center can do a quick neck angle adjustment for you. It takes all of 20-30 minutes or so. That's the correct way to set up your string height if you need to take take more than just a smidgen off of your saddle to lower your action to your preferences. I've seen Taylor techs do a neck angle adjustment at a Road Show in about 10 minutes.
As noted here previously, the truss rod adjustment is for setting relief, not string height! In doing a complete set up, neck relief is the second thing checked/adjusted after first setting the neck angle. These are followed by checking/adjusting nut height and then saddle height. If you do these four steps out of order the process becomes hit-or-miss in terms of getting a desired and repeatable result. One of the reasons I love Taylors is the NT neck. No need to worry about a neck reset that requires steaming apart a glued joint and then woodworking with a chisel before regluing the neck. It will save you many hundreds of your dollars and quite a bit of time! A shim and an hour or less of labor (or perhaps covered under warranty) and you are good to go until the next time. It also makes buying a used Taylor with an NT neck less of a gamble than buying a used guitar with a dovetail or other type of glued neck joint. By calling Taylor I was able to find approved Taylor service locations not listed on their website and two were quite near to me... as I sure would hate to ship a guitar for such a quck adjustment.
Your ideal string height depends on your technique, string choice, neck relief preference, preferred tunings and probably some other factors. For example, a hard driving flatpicker might think your action is too low but a fingerstylist with a light attack might find it much too high. I like to be just under the Taylor factory string height of 6/64" (E) and 4/64" (e) and with sligthly less neck relief for a flatter neck. That is just me, however, and I don't use a flat pick or fingerpicks. Anyway, if a neck angle adjustment ("neck reset") is the required fix for your high action, don't sweat it. Taylor made that adjustment cheap and easy for you!!!
