Action (music)

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The action of a stringed instrument is the distance between the fingerboard and the string, which determines how easy it is to sound notes when pressure is applied with the finger tips. Generally a low action is considered to be more playable, due to the lower amount of pressure needed to press the string to the fingerboard. However, if the action is set too low the instrument could suffer from an unwanted buzzing noise (on fretted instruments, this is known as fret buzz).

On some instruments, such as certain guitars, the action can be easily adjusted by tightening screws at the bridge which changes the height of the strings. On other instruments, changing the action can be potentially more complicated and involve removing entire pieces from the instrument to achieve desired action.