Pioneer CT4-B owner manual Strings & Action Adjustments

B R I N G I T T O L I F E

STRINGS & ACTION ADJUSTMENTS

All guitars are shipped from the factory with light/medium (.012" -.054") gauge strings on steel string guitars and normal tension nylon strings on classics.

‘Action’ is used to describe the ease of playing and the resistance felt when fretting the strings. Generally the higher off the fingerboard the strings are the higher the action setting is. The setting is measured as the distance between the top of the 12th fret to the underside of the 6th and 1st strings. However the action setting is a personal preference and can be difficult to measure accurately. Unless your guitar feels uncomfortable to play or has obvious string/fret buzz it probably does not need any adjustments.

Takamine guitars are set with a standard action before they leave the factory and small adjustments are also be made to the truss rod, saddle and nut at quality control in the Korg U.K warehouse. This is to correct any movement that may have occurred during shipping. This extra care ensures that your guitar is in a fine playable condition that suits the requirements of most guitarists and retains optimum volume and tone.

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When changing strings, do not wind on too many turns, 3 or 4 is usually sufficient with wound strings and 4 to 5 turns on plain. Too many string windings can cause tuning stability problems.

If you are changing to a different gauge of string it may be necessary to adjust the truss rod to balance the change in stress on the neck to restore the previous action setting. Strings that seem uncomfortably higher or have significant string buzz in a particular area of the fretboard indicate an adjustment may be needed. All Japanese made Takamine guitars are built with an adjustable bi-flex truss rod. This counter-balances string tension and permits adjustment of neck straightness to compensate for changes due to humidity conditions or strings. The truss rod adjusting nut is located below the fingerboard, just inside the sound hole. It is adjusted to remove too much relief (forward bow), which may be needed when changing to heavier gauge strings and adjusted when relief is required (backward bow) i.e. perhaps when changing to lighter gauge strings. Adjustment must be made carefully, preferably whilst the strings are tuned to desired pitch so that you can see the affect adjustment is making and try the result (slacken off the third and fourth strings to gain access without damaging the strings).

The bone nut, tuning machines and stringing

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