Advice please - 2 guitars, almost identical - One is way hard to play

P

pauly

Fractal Fanatic
Hi,

As the subject suggests - I have 2 guitars (Acoustic) with the same strings, same scale, similar action... everything seems the same, but one is hard to play. By that, I mean it hurts my fingers as if the strings are harder to push down... They have the same scale ... I just don't get it. The other one is 'slinky'... Nice and easy ...but the one I want to play hurts my fingers!
It's a beautiful guitar...but a prick to play.
Any suggestions?

Thanks
Pauly
 
If the action is the same between both guitars, where are you measuring it? If you're measuring at the 12th fret and they're the same, consider whether the guitar is harder to play around the 4th - 9th frets. If so, one guitar may need a truss rod adjustment.
 
Maybe try checking the action at the nut (even if the action at the 12th fret is fine). If the action at the nut is higher on that guitar, it would make it more difficult to play, particularly around the first few frets.
 
The nut height can play a lot into it. Especially on acoustics, as many are playing the open chords on the first handful of frets.

Also, on many acoustic guitars, under the saddle, you might find spacers that you can remove or swap-out.. Sometimes those plastic/bone saddles are stuck-in tight, so they might need some careful finagling to get them out. But, be careful if you do as you can damage those thin acoustic saddles pretty easily. But, once those saddles are out you can do all kinds of things with them from shaving down the height to shimming them up.

My hands-down absolute favorite guitar which I own, is a US Ovation Balladeer LX.. Played HORRIBLY when I got it new ..just disappointing. Removed the saddle, shaved it down a tiny-bit to adjust the height on the GBE strings lower - removed a spacer.. Now the thing has one of the lowest actions on any guitar I own - no ringing - sustains for days...just a dream to play.

So you can do a lot with a little - but you gotta kinda know what you are doing, or you can make things worse.

Before doing any removing or shaving, you should run a straight-edge over your frets to see if you have any high-ones that will interfere with a lower, more playable action. Screwing around with nut and bridge-height with frets set at different altitudes may cause more issues than it solves. So start there. With the frets.

If you are unsure of your abilities - at all - and you really want to keep that guitar - you might want to take it to a guy who knows what they are doing, as they can get the absolute best out of that instrument for you without causing damage.

Best of luck with it.
 
As the other lads have said, sounds like nut height. I've been on a crusade lately to get all my guitar nuts to proper height. Once it's done right it makes a world of difference. Easily the worst nuts i've encountered so far have been Floyd nuts, i dont know why but they're all way too high from the factory, but in my opinion are the easiest to adjust. If if you go too far you can shim them back up easily enough.
 
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