Old Soviet acoustic with very high action, worth fixing or not?
Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2026 8:16 pm
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.
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.