I'm not a luthier by any standard. I enjoy working with flat wood, but lately have been working mostly at the lathe. In my other spare time I play acoustic guitar and mandolin with the church praise band. I noticed a couple of months ago that the action on my trusty Yamaha APX-4X I bought in 1996 was unusually high. I checked the neck and it is pretty straight - using the low E as a straight edge capoed on the 1st fret and held down on the last fret, and it touches from the 14th fret on up. Not perfect, but good enough for me. The nut hasn't changed since I bought it. I sanded down the saddle a bit and that helped, but the body under the bridge seems to be quite a bit more rounded than I remember. I first assumed that one of the braces had popped loose, but it isn't buzzing or rattling. I pulled the strings last night and felt around the braces as best I could and didn't feel anything obviously wrong or loose.
So my question is, is this what I can expect from my guitar as it gets older? If a brace has popped loose I can try to find someone to fix it, but if not is there anything that can be done to keep it playable? I'm saving up for a new mandolin this year, but I was hoping to also find a guitar tech to level/replace the frets, replace the nut and saddle with bone and adjust the action. But if the body is going to keep pulling up and raising the action I might retire it and start looking for a replacement.
I know its a lot to ask for a diagnosis without actually seeing it, but I'd sure appreciate some thoughts from my fellow creekers. Just breaks my heart to think about retiring Etta, so thanks in advance!