Electric guitar action explained: what it is and why beginners should care

More beginners quit guitar because of a bad setup than I reckon most people realise. Not because the songs are too hard. Not because they lack talent. Because their guitar hurts to play, buzzes on half the frets, or won't stay in tune — and nobody told them that's a fixable problem, not a personal failing.

Action is usually the culprit. So let's sort it out.

What guitar action actually means

Action is the distance between the bottom of your strings and the top of your frets. That's it. Usually measured at the 12th fret, in millimetres or 64ths of an inch depending on who set it up and where.

High action means the strings sit far above the fretboard. Low action means they sit close. Both extremes cause problems. High action is hard to press down — your fingers ache, barre chords feel like a punishment, and notes go sharp when you fret them too hard because you're bending the string sideways into the fret. Too low, and the strings hit the frets when they vibrate, which gives you fret buzz instead of a clean note.

The goal is a middle ground that's easy to play and still sounds clean.

Why cheap guitars often have terrible action out of the box

Budget guitars frequently leave the factory with action set way too high. Some of that is genuine manufacturing variance — a guitar built to a tight price has less hand-finishing time. But honestly, a lot of it comes down to how they're stored and shipped. Wood moves with temperature and humidity. A guitar that sat in a container for six weeks, then in a shop's back room, then on a wall display for another month, might have a neck that's shifted noticeably from where it started.

I've had students come in with a brand-new guitar that was genuinely unplayable — strings sitting 4mm off the 12th fret on a guitar that should've been closer to 1.5–2mm. A basic setup fixed it. They'd been struggling for three weeks thinking they just weren't good enough yet.

This is worth knowing before you buy, too. If you're shopping in a physical store, always ask to plug the guitar in and play it, or at least run your thumb under the strings at the 12th fret and get a rough feel. If you're buying online — and plenty of great beginner guitars are sold that way — factor in the cost of a setup at a local tech. Usually $60–$90 in Australia, and worth every cent.

How to check the action yourself

You don't need specialist tools for a rough check. Fret the low E string at the 1st fret and the last fret simultaneously, then look at the gap between the string and the 8th fret. A credit card slid under it should just pass through with light resistance. If it's snagging hard, the action's high. If there's no gap at all, it's dangerously low.

For a proper measurement, a set of feeler gauges or a purpose-made string action gauge — available from most guitar shops for under $15 — gives you a real number. For most electric guitars, a starting point of roughly 1.5–2mm on the high E and 2–2.5mm on the low E at the 12th fret works well. Exact preferences vary with playing style, but those are sane beginner numbers.

Bear in mind that action isn't just set at the bridge. Three things affect it: the bridge saddles, the nut, and the neck relief (the slight bow in the neck controlled by the truss rod). A proper setup addresses all three. The nut in particular is often overlooked — if it's cut too high, the first few frets will feel stiff and notes will go sharp even when you're barely pressing. That's a job for a tech, not a home experiment with a file.

What a setup actually costs and whether it's worth it

Yes, absolutely worth it. I'd say a basic setup — action adjustment, truss rod check, nut-slot check, intonation — is the single best investment you can make on a new beginner guitar. More useful than any pedal.

If you've picked up one of the more playable beginner guitars like the Yamaha Pacifica 112V (check price) or the Squier Classic Vibe '50s Stratocaster (check price), they often come set up well enough to play straight away — but still have a tech check the nut slots and intonation if something feels off. Even a well-regarded guitar can have a high nut from the factory.

Our full beginner electric guitar guide covers which models tend to arrive in the best shape. Worth a read before you buy.

Adjusting the action yourself: what's safe, what isn't

Bridge saddle height is relatively safe to experiment with. On a Stratocaster-style bridge, each saddle has two small hex screws — raise or lower them with the right allen key (usually 1.5mm or 2mm). On a tune-o-matic bridge like a Les Paul-style guitar, the two large thumbwheels raise and lower the whole bridge at once. Go slowly, in small increments, tune back up, and test. This is low-risk stuff.

The truss rod is a different matter. It's not dangerous to touch, but it's easy to over-adjust, and a neck with too much or too little relief changes how the whole guitar plays in ways that aren't always obvious at first. I'd suggest leaving truss rod adjustments to a tech until you're comfortable reading neck relief and understand what you're changing. I'll admit I got this wrong a few times early on — tightened a rod too fast on a cold day and had to back it out over two sessions to let the neck settle.

The nut is the one thing I'd strongly advise leaving alone. Filing nut slots deeper is irreversible. If a slot is too low and buzzing, a tech can shim it or replace the nut cheaply. If you file it too deep, you need a new nut. Not expensive — around $20–$40 for the part — but an unnecessary hassle.

Action and the guitars you'll look at next

Once you're comfortable with what action does, you start noticing it instinctively when you pick up any guitar. It becomes part of how you assess an instrument. And when you're ready to move up to something like the guitars in our intermediate electric guitar guide, you'll know what questions to ask and what to look for.

The short version: don't assume a hard-to-play guitar is your fault. Check the action. Get it set up if needed. Then actually learn to play.

— Rob, Beginner Gear & Teaching Editor