2011 Legacy - Absurdly high action with vibrato set to spec

Hello! I am hoping I am just missing something super obvious here as I have never owned a G&L before. I set up all my other guitars and they play great. I just got a beautiful used custom 2011 Legacy in mint condition, but the action is horrid.

1) Neck relief - set to insert a .010 feeler gauge at fret 8 with first and last fret depressed
2) Bridge is set to be 0.187" off the body with bridge perfectly parallel to the body when the guitar is in tune
3) Even with the Low E saddle bottomed out, the bottom of the Low E string is a ridiculous 0.143" above the top of the 12th fret.

I don't need my action to be shredder low...I set my other guitars at about 0.094" from the 12th fret; I've seen much lower action than that. What do you think is going on here? I'll post some pics to see if they are any help. Thanks!!

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5oqs3qiZoCH

Sounds like you need a neck shim - I know some people like to adhere to the factory setup, but I would never hesitate to tweak to your preference. From my experience, some guitars just need a shim and others don’t.

(You could also lower the bridge a bit if you don’t care to lose some up-bend - I admit I’ve never cared to measure the height on mine but it appears yours is a bit high relative to what I typically see.)

Sounds like you need a neck shim - I know some people like to adhere to the factory setup, but I would never hesitate to tweak to your preference. From my experience, some guitars just need a shim and others don’t.

(You could also lower the bridge a bit if you don’t care to lose some up-bend - I admit I’ve never cared to measure the height on mine but it appears yours is a bit high relative to what I typically see.)

Thanks for the reply.

First of all, I want to say that I wanted to check out a USA G&L because I have heard that they are head and shoulders above USA Fenders that are not custom shop. Second, I have read that you can't willy nilly swap G&L necks because each neck is custom fit to each individual body for maximum fit. Given these, how on earth could this guitar leave the factory with such poor playability when set to spec? Why would G&L let a neck that needs to be shimmed pass QC??

As far as my bridge being too high...it's set exactly 3/16", and up-bends get exactly 1.5 steps on the G string like they are supposed to.

I definitely don't want to lose any up-bend...want the full 1.5 steps on the G string. And actually, if the bridge were lowered, I wouldn't even be able to get a 1/2-step up-bend on the High E...so up-bends there would be flat.

I'm really disappointed at the prospect of having to shim the neck and am extra disappointed in my first G&L experience...unless I am missing something simple.

It is unlikely G&L would have let the guitar leave the factory set up like this when it was new. The previous owner(s) likely tinkered around with it.

Sounds like you need a neck shim - I know some people like to adhere to the factory setup, but I would never hesitate to tweak to your preference. From my experience, some guitars just need a shim and others don’t.

(You could also lower the bridge a bit if you don’t care to lose some up-bend - I admit I’ve never cared to measure the height on mine but it appears yours is a bit high relative to what I typically see.)

Thanks for the reply.

First of all, I want to say that I wanted to check out a USA G&L because I have heard that they are head and shoulders above USA Fenders that are not custom shop. Second, I have read that you can't willy nilly swap G&L necks because each neck is custom fit to each individual body for maximum fit. Given these, how on earth could this guitar leave the factory with such poor playability when set to spec? Why would G&L let a neck that needs to be shimmed pass QC??

As far as my bridge being too high...it's set exactly 3/16", and up-bends get exactly 1.5 steps on the G string like they are supposed to.

I definitely don't want to lose any up-bend...want the full 1.5 steps on the G string. And actually, if the bridge were lowered, I wouldn't even be able to get a 1/2-step up-bend on the High E...so up-bends there would be flat.

I'm really disappointed at the prospect of having to shim the neck and am extra disappointed in my first G&L experience...unless I am missing something simple.

This guitar was not setup to the current factory settings. See this post in this sub-forum: Current Factory setup for G&L guitars with vibrato bridges.

It is unlikely G&L would have let the guitar leave the factory set up like this when it was new. The previous owner(s) likely tinkered around with it.

+1
Perhaps it was setup using the Owner's Manual, Version 2 (1988-2008) based upon the bridge plate setting.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the response and forgive my delay. My life is crazy busy!

Ok...I set the bridge to the current specification as listed in the post above. However, there are still some issues. With the bridge at the specified height and the Low E and High E saddles completely bottomed out, the action is almost exactly at the factory specified height above the 12th fret. This is fine for me, but if I (or another player) wanted to lower the action, it would not be possible (and that’s a problem since there are players who like it lower).

Also, I cannot get the strings to intonate. The bridge basically looks like all of the saddles are straight across (slight variations). The low E is still sharp at the 12th fret by quite a bit, but I cannot move the saddle back any farther.

Also have some weird noise issues only WHEN playing. Like heavy static not present when the instrument is not being played but plugged in. I’ll try to post a recording.