I'd be grateful if players of the early six string guitar (say, 1800 - 1830) could let me know what string height they find best on the instrument. To be specific: by string height I mean the distance required to depress the string to the fingerboard (not to the top of the fret - the usual 'action' measurement) at the 12th fret, for both the first and sixth string.
I've fairly recently dug out my Grobert copy for a few shows and, as I start to pluck harder, I find I'm getting some string rattles (possibly on adjacent frets) in the lower positions (ie on frets 1 to 5) on the first and second strings. Whether or not the belly has sunk I don't know (it doesn't seem to have done) but the depressing distance (as described above) of the first string at the 12th fret is only 3.0mm which seems low by modern guitar standards. The frets are about 0.9mm high so the 12th fret 'action', if you prefer that measure, is only some 2.1mm. Clearly this all makes for ease of playing in the higher positions - but at the expense of some string rattles. So in making the necessary adjustments it would be interesting to know what others use on similar instruments. My first thoughts are to heighten the bridge saddle to increase the depression distance of the first string at the 12th fret to between 3.5 and 4.0mm (ie an 'action' of between 2.6 and 3.1mm). MH -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
