another Jazz Bass question.. this time it's all about the action!

[daydreamdelay]

the action on this bass is just too high.. the bridge saddles are down as low as they can go and I tried to shim the neck (not even sure if a bass neck should be shimmed.. should it?) and that helped a little but then I was getting buzzing at the last few frets so I played around with moving the saddles up and then back and I just can't find that happy place 

[i love sharin foo]

It sounds like it needs a trussrod tweak. I'd try to tighten it a little then wait a day or so and see if that helps any.

Justin

[Orang Goreng]

That would be my suggestion as well. Fair chance your intonation will improve as a side effect.

And yeah, surely bass necks can be shimmed as well. If I'm not mistaken the late 70s ones even had the micro-tilt adjuster.

[mezcalhead]

Yeah, the J basses had the three screws and the micro tilt .. the P basses escaped the worst excesses of the CBS years.

[daydreamdelay]

thanks I'll try that.. quarter turn clockwise?

[mynameisjonas]

thanks I'll try that.. quarter turn clockwise?

yeah, you don´t want to turn it too much at a time.

[mezcalhead]

One quarter turn a day keeps the luthier away ..

[daydreamdelay]

A DAY! 

[mezcalhead]

You don't really know where you are until it settles, and there's always the risk of overtightening especially on vintage necks .. since I have the time, I like to make just one or two quarter turns a day and see how it has settled in the next day.

I'm sure that professional luthiers with deadlines don't actually do it this way though.

[i love sharin foo]

I do that too. I just go a little, then wait a few days and see how it feels. Better safe than sorry, although it is times like this that I almost think I'd prefer a more modern headstock adjustable truss rod.

Justin

[daydreamdelay]

I never touch mine.. afraid of screwing the neck up which I'm probably doing by doing nothing 

[tremolite]

I'm pretty reckless with adjusting the truss rods on my guitars. I just loosen/tighten till it feels right. I'm definitely not as nervous about it as I used to be. I have learned quite a bit though about doing these types of adjustments by just going for it. There's a great book by Dan Erlewine called "Making Your Electric Guitar Play Great" that has a lot of awesome tips on how to safely do a variety of set-up related adjustments. Worth checking out. My local library has a copy...

[mynameisjonas]

i used to be pretty reckless too, but efter a while i noticed that if i adjusted the neck too much at a time, the next day the neck had straightened/bowed much more than it had right after turning the rod, so i´d have to adjust it again.

[daydreamdelay]

i think that's what just happened.. how do you tell for sure if a neck is slightly off?


I swear I remember hearing something about pressing down at a certain fret high on the board?

[tremolite]

I've never had that problem. Interesting...