Of actions and sunken necks.

So I borrowed my son's guitar for the weekly lessons and was troubled by the pain in my *fretting fingers.  

(*i.e. the fingers placed on the fretboard at various position on the strings in accordance to the stipulated chords to produce the sound.) 

This pain is the bane of all novice guitarists who are not accustomed to the repetitive holding of chords in practice or play.

"Your action could be too high", said the Teacher.

"Okay" Like I know what he was talking about.

"Take your guitar to Joshua. He will give you an assessment and recommendation." The Teacher gave me Joshua's address and off I trot to the guitar specialist.

"You have a sunken neck," Joshua declared as he peered at the guitar which was lying horizontal on his diagnosis table. "Your action is too high, right?"

I looked up in alarm. I must look the part, you understand? We're talking about a sunken neck here, for crying out loud.

It would cost an arm and a leg to get the neck fixed so Joshua recommended a new one. 

Not knowing a great deal about guitars, I asked if they had a Yamaha. 

"Well, Yamaha used to produce very good guitars but that was a long time ago. These days they have lost out to their competitors," said Joshua.

"As a beginner, which guitar should I get?"  I asked.

"Kepma. Made in China using very high-end technology. In China, they ranked third after Martin and Taylor." 

I've never heard of Martin or Taylor guitars but I figured they're probably related to Dean Martin and Taylor Swift. (Apparently not!) The long and short of this story is that I ended up buying a Kepma.

We had a jamming session shortly after this and my Teacher gave my guitar a thumbs-up although it was made in China. What's a jamming session, did someone ask? Well, that's a gathering where everyone brought their musical instruments to sing and play.

Several months later, I upgraded to a Martin Dreadnaught Junior.  

By the way, when they say that your action is high, they mean that your strings are too way up above the fretboard. That's why your fingers hurt when you hit those chords. The ideal height is between 2mm to 2.8 mm depending on which of the six strings we're talking about.