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I have a 2 year old OM and love it .. Addy over Rosewood. The only strings the guitar likes are SC low tension. I have tried others and the action would raise and off I went to my Luthier for adjustment. Done this twice now. The first time he cut a new bone nut and put that in. I would like to be able to try other strings but don’t want it to dramatically effect the action. Most recently I tried some Martin custom Tommy Emanuel and the action raised once again.
Wonder if anybody has had this experience? My luthier says the SC is a delicate instrument and subject to more “change” than your standard guitar.
thanks in advance
Mrbirdog
“Long may you play”
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You shouldn’t need a new nut – that’s a kinda bass-ackward way to adjust action. And if your SC is only 2 years old, it’s hard to believe that you’d have worn out the shop supplied one – unless someone mucked it up –
I would ask that you measure the difference in action between the SC lights and other strings. A feeler guage at the 12th fret should give you a number that you can use to compare how other strings affect the action. You should also measure the relief at the same time. That would give a more objective look at whats actually happening.
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The Nut was the original and was not tampered with and was the recommendation of the “Martin Authorized” Luthier that I use. It plays well now but I might take a chance and try the D’Addario strings that were recommended at some later point. I have read some of the SC literature regarding their guitars and it is not that unusual for a guitar to move around early in their life until they settle in. This is my take on what SC says on their website
Thanks for you input
“Long may you play”
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Tadol’s correct.
Do some measurements of neck relief, nut action, and 12th fret action on different sets of strings. You might be surprised at how similar the measurements are between different string sets.
The SC low tension strings do indeed feel softer under the fingers than others, or at any rate more pliable on a given string than comparable sets, at least for me
Switching string sets to other brands with similar tension has (in my experience) resulted in a stiffer feel despite actual measured relief and action height not changing appreciably after the string change.
I suspect the delta in feel is due to differences in core/wrap wire sizing between SCGCs and others. For example, SCGC LTs feel softer at ~156 lbs of tension than D’Addario NB 12s with ~147 lbs of tension….and the NBs have bigger core wraps.
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