Standard Martin Action Specs

[Darryl Young]

I've read this but can't recall at the moment.......what are the standard Martin specs for action height at the 12 fret? 4/64 - 7/64? Just can't recall at the moment.

[tippie53]

The spec is 5/64 treble and 7/64 bass

[Darryl Young]

Thanks John. On a 3/32" saddle and using medium gauge strings with the standard Martin action height, do you use 0.125" compensation to the middle of the saddle at the high E string? I think I've read that you use 0.125" compensation at the high E.......just never knew if that was to the front of the saddle or the middle of the saddle.

John Arnold said that he uses 0.080" to the front of saddle on the high E string when using the standard Martin setup and medium gauge strings. So that's very similar to what you are using if you are doing if you are using 0.125 to the middle of the saddle.

If I can get by with it, I won't my action a tad lower since my girls will be playing this one. Would like to get to 4 & 6 on the action height if I don't get buzzing. Not sure if I should try to adjust the compensation for a lower action since A) Not sure how low I will be able to go B) Not sure how much to adjust the compensation if I can go lower. Right now the fretboard looks nice and straight mounted on the body so maybe I can drop the action a bit.

[tippie53]

.125 to the saddle center

[Tony_in_NYC]

Darryl,

I use the StewMac string action gauge, so I cant tell you in 64ths what my action is, but at the first fret I use .010" for the high E, and .020" for the low E.
At the 12th fret, I use .070" for the high E and .090" for the low E. I believe those are slightly less than the 4 and 6 you want to achieve. I have no buzzing unless I really beat on it. On the second guitar I crafted I went lower because my brother does not beat on his guitar and he asked me to get the action as low as possible. I think it is around 3/64ths and 5/64ths at the high and low E respectively.
If you dont have a hump where the fret board joins the body, you can get pretty low with no buzzes as long as you dont play hard, which I suspect your daughters will not. I play pretty softly most times because my kids are sleeping so I plan on lowering my action some more.
I recall reading about a "2-4" set up somewhere. 2 and 4 referring to 64ths, which I realize is incorrect since it would be 1/32nd and 1/16th, but thats how it was referred to in the article I read. That would be nice action.

[kencierp]

Many of us including Martin set the compensation for MG strings at .10" to the center of the saddle at the high "E" --- slot slope just under three degrees. Here's an excellent set-up guide which I pretty much ripped off and use on the KMG website:

http://www.guildguitars.net/resources/g ... _setup.php

[tippie53]

Martin is using .125 now ken . I did 3 resets on 60's D28's this week .and the center of the slots are 1/8" more than the treble side . Martin also is now using a .100 saddle.
Again it isn't that critical. I agree that .100 will get you there . The higher your action the more comp you will be needing .

[Tony_in_NYC]

And compensation will change not just because of string gauge, but because of the diameter of the wire used in the center of a wrapped string. But I wouldnt get too hung up on those little details. You could drive yourself nuts. Look at Roger Semilof. All that guy thinks about is guitars. He does have an interesting section in two of his books about strings, compensation and the effect of the core diameter on the overall string tension, compensation, sound, etc.