[carpie]

I was playing my guitar when I was unceremoniously interupted by people who happened to be hiking through the area. (Yes, I play outdoors sometimes... I know a few decently secluded spots.)

Anyhow, the one of the people in the group plays and asked to look at my guitar. He checked it, strummed a few chords, and gave it back. He said that the strings looked funny. I asked him how so, and he said that he had to press harder on them. We both looked at it and I noticed it as well, it looks like the strings are raised up off the neck further. At the top of the neck the strings are less than 1/4-inch off the fretboard; at the bottom they're up to 1/2-inch... and little more!

Is this a common problem? Has anyone else noticed this occur? How do I remedy this? There is a bolt inside the guitar, but I'm not about to go cinching down on anything on my own.

Any help is appreciated.

Carpie

[goldrush]

All guitar strings are slightly higher off the fretboard further up the neck. I assume by "bottom" of the neck you mean the higher frets. This is normal to a point. Sometimes necks can warp or need a truss rod adjustment in order to correct abnormally high action. You are smart not to try to adjust the truss rod yourself, unless you know what you're doing (I never mess with mine). What kind of guitar is this? Some, like cheaper Yamahas, tend to have high action normally. Do you notice the guitar plays out of tune the higher up you play? Also, sight down the side of the neck and see if it bows alot (it should have only a slight bow to it.) If so, I'd take it in to a luthier to have the action/intonation checked and adjusted (cost $50-75).

[k1llahd]

I noticed this with some of my cheaper guitars, and thats now one of the things I look for when buying a new guitar.

Also on cheaper guitars the strings are much stiffer and its much harder to play. I remedied that problem by replacing the acoustic strings with electric, but I had to sacrifice volume and tone. The cheap guitars dont really sound great anyway, so it was ok, at least for a beginner.

[Mikky04]

My other guitar was in bits b4 I gave it back to my cuz