What is the best action on a guitar?

[peewee69]

How do I know what to look for in a guitar with the action, what's too high or low?

[Danny Poole]

I've been teaching for a while now, when lessons come to me with a guitar that has a high action, I'm talking about 5mm at the nut & 10 mm at the last fret, I will defiantly encourage them to get it professionally lowered. When a professional does it they should lower it enough so that it doesn't buzz and rattle too much and yet is easy to play.

Sometimes some guitars are just too bad and there can be no compromise found. If this is the only guitar you have then persevere with it until you can buy a new one. It will not affect the bigger picture of your playing.

I remember when I first stood up and played with a strap on my guitar, man that was different. I thought to myself then "how do they do this?" The truth is that people adapt quickly and as you play for more years it won't matter if you go from a heavy gauge high action acoustic to a light gauge, low actioned electric, it will just be the length of time that changes for you to adjust from one to the other.

[Fried]

I keep my strings as low as they can go. (Without buzzing on any frets). If you are a beginner, this is a very importaint guitar trait. If they are too high, it cant be discouraging to have to press real hard while making chords. It is hard enough to get the finger placement correct. As a player advances, I dont think it matters as much. If the strings are too high, the notes can be the incorrect pitch due to over stretching getting the string to the fret ,even though the guitar may be properly tunes while open.