Old Soviet acoustic with very high action, worth fixing or not?

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bobur_samarqand
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Location: Samarkand, Uzbekistan
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Old Soviet acoustic with very high action, worth fixing or not?

Post by bobur_samarqand »

Hello from Samarkand. My uncle left me an old acoustic, Soviet made, I think late seventies, and I have been trying to learn fingerstyle on it for about a year. The problem is the action. At the 12th fret the low E is maybe 6 or 7 mm off the fretboard, and anything above the 5th fret hurts after ten minutes.

There is no truss rod as far as I can see, the neck is bolted on with one big screw inside the body, and the bridge looks glued but slightly lifted at the back edge. A local repair man looked at it and said the neck angle is gone and it is cheaper to buy a new guitar.

He is probably right about the money. But it is the only thing I have from my uncle, so I would like to at least try. Has anyone here reset a neck on one of these old bolt-on Soviet guitars, or shaved the bridge down instead? I have basic tools and I am an electrician, so not scared of a little work, but I have never done wood.
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