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The action of a stringed instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
 is the distance between the fingerboard
Fingerboard

The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of wood that is adhesive to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run....
 and the string
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
, which determines how easy it is to sound note
Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself....
s when pressure is applied with the finger tips. Generally a low action is considered to be more playable, due to the lower amount of pressure needed to press the string to the fingerboard. However, if the action is set too low the instrument could suffer from an unwanted buzzing noise (on fretted instruments
Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western culture instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard....
, this is known as fret buzz
Fret buzz

Fret buzz is one of the many undesirable phenomena that can occur on a guitar or similar stringed instrument. Fret buzz occurs when the vibrating part of one or more strings physically strikes the frets that are higher than the fretted note ....
).






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The action of a stringed instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
 is the distance between the fingerboard
Fingerboard

The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of wood that is adhesive to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run....
 and the string
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
, which determines how easy it is to sound note
Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself....
s when pressure is applied with the finger tips. Generally a low action is considered to be more playable, due to the lower amount of pressure needed to press the string to the fingerboard. However, if the action is set too low the instrument could suffer from an unwanted buzzing noise (on fretted instruments
Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western culture instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard....
, this is known as fret buzz
Fret buzz

Fret buzz is one of the many undesirable phenomena that can occur on a guitar or similar stringed instrument. Fret buzz occurs when the vibrating part of one or more strings physically strikes the frets that are higher than the fretted note ....
). Conversely, if the action is too high, then the strings may become taut and difficult, if not impossible, to press down without breaking.

Guitars

On some instruments, such as certain guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
s, the action can be easily adjusted by tightening screw
Screw

A screw is a shaft with a helix groove or screw thread formed on its surface and provision at one end to turn the screw. Its main uses are as a threaded fastener used to hold objects together, and as a simple machine used to translate torque into linear force....
s at the bridge
Bridge (instrument)

A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air....
 which changes the height of the strings. On other instruments, changing the action can be potentially more complicated and involve removing entire pieces from the instrument to achieve desired action.

Tune-o-matic
Tune-o-matic

Tune-o-matic is a name of fixed bridge design for electric guitars. It was designed by Ted McCarty and introduced in the Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar in 1954....
 bridges

These bridges use small thumbwheels to raise or lower the bridge; sometimes these are accompanied or replaced by flat-head screw fitting.

The action on a guitar is also slightly affected by the adjustment of the truss rod
Truss rod

A truss rod is a guitar part used to stabilize and adjust the lengthwise forward curvature , of the neck. Usually it is a steel rod that runs inside the neck and has a bolt that can be used to adjust its tension....
. Tightening the truss rod gives the neck a backward bow and tends to lower the action, and loosening the rod gives the neck a forward bow, giving a higher action.

It is recommended that the action on an electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
 should be within 0.5mm of 1.8mm on the high E string and 2.4 on the low E string when in standard tuning
Standard tuning

In music, standard tuning refers to the typical tuning of a string instrument. This notion is contrary to that of scordatura, i.e. an alternate tuning designated to modify either the timbre or technical capabilities of the desired instrument....
.

(Note: it's better to have a slight forward bow to the guitar to allow the strings to vibrate well. Adjustment of the action should be done on the bridge of the guitar.)