neck and truss rod adjustment questions

[francisl2500]

Hi assume that i donloaded and readed the GnL manuel for neck and truss rod, so i still have one question.... It's an old manuel i beleive ( There is pictures of 3 bolts neck), it talk about of loosen the screw for neck adjustment, and also loosen the screw at the tail of the neck ( the one farther from the keys) for neck "tilt" adjustment..... is there the same adjustment for a 6 bolts neck? and is it a must to loosen these screws?
Thanks for input
Francis

[Ken Baker]

If neck tilt needs to be adjusted on 6-bolt basses, it will involve using a shim rather than an adjuster. That mean removing the neck and inserting a thin shim, like a piece of business card, between neck & body at the appropriate location. It's a geometry thing, though certainly not difficult.

Assuming that the bass was set up properly at the factory, it is unlikely that the tilt will need to be adjusted. A little trussrod tweak and saddle adjustment is normally all it takes to keep things tip-top, and even then it would be with a change in string type.

Ken...

[francisl2500]

ok many thanks for input Ken... except for neck tilt adjust, is it the same way to adjust my 6 bolt as the 3 blots exemple?

[Ken Baker]

Originally Posted by francisl2500

ok many thanks for input Ken... except for neck tilt adjust, is it the same way to adjust my 6 bolt as the 3 blots exemple?

Yes, but you should understand that using the manual will get your setup into the ballpark and should render a pretty playable bass. You may still have some fine tuning to do to make it "yours". This is especially true if your bass is pre-CNC, which would mean that your bass would be hand made and subject to a fair amount of variance.

Ken...

[francisl2500]

yep my L2500 tribb is Korean and......cnc made for sure and i just need to adjust as best as possible without finding tech-man every time. Get the action as low as possible without buzzing and that kind of stuff. Many thanks for input i'll practice tuning and adjusting for few next week. just take time to do that as well as possible.
Thanks Ken
Francis

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by francisl2500

yep my L2500 tribb is Korean and......cnc made for sure and i just need to adjust as best as possible without finding tech-man every time. Get the action as low as possible without buzzing and that kind of stuff. Many thanks for input i'll practice tuning and adjusting for few next week. just take time to do that as well as possible.
Thanks Ken
Francis

My L2000 is a 3-bolt model and has the little allen screw for adjusting the tilt of the neck. Basically, I went all over the place with the tilt trying various settings and in the end wound up back at the stock setting (basically bottomed out). So I don't know if it really helps that much to have it.

As for setting the truss rod.... what I'm going to say is going to be heresy but here goes.....

Most guidlines I've seen for setting the truss rod involve giving too much "relief". Usually it's fret the string at first fret and the last, and you should be able to fit a credit card under the string at the 12th fret.

Every bass I've ever setup like this felt like the action was a mile high and the stings were hard as hell to push down.....

Accordingly, now even on my fretted basses, I set the action as low as I can tolerate and then simply tighten the rod until one position somewhere on the neck is too buzzy. Then I back off until the worst spot doesn't buzz anymore and leave it there.

This is espcially what I do on my L2000 which is fretless.

But the result is a totally buttery-smooth super light action all up and down the neck. A little bit of buzz is present in most positions which adds some grunt to the tone when I want it.

The necks end up basically completely flat with no relief all the way from the heel to the nut.

Like I said, most folks would shriek in horror if they saw my setups, but they can't argue with how supple the action is

LS

[francisl2500]

My bass is fretted, and i tried to set up the neck....(oh just little bit) and the a string began to buzz around the 12th fret. But when i checked with a tool for .22 between fret and string i saw a bit more (ariound .25-.25). I'm pretty far from a guitar shop and it's a problem for me to find one and ship my bass to get setted-up. So how low can i set the string down to play the lowest action it maybe possible to play?
Francis

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by francisl2500

My bass is fretted, and i tried to set up the neck....(oh just little bit) and the a string began to buzz around the 12th fret. But when i checked with a tool for .22 between fret and string i saw a bit more (ariound .25-.25). I'm pretty far from a guitar shop and it's a problem for me to find one and ship my bass to get setted-up. So how low can i set the string down to play the lowest action it maybe possible to play?
Francis

Well the way I do it is I first set the action as low as it can go without excessive buzzing above about the 12th fret. Maybe about the last 4 or 5 frets on the heel.
Same thing on the fretless - as low as it'll go but still not "fret out" on the heel.

Then I start tightening the rod and checking each string in all positions for too much buzz. There's usually one spot on the neck where the buzzing is the worst (on my L2000 it's F on the D string and around there for the other strings). I tighten until that's tolerable and stop there.

You may have to do this more than once, or even a bunch of times (it took a couple hours the first time I did this on my L2000 with it's current set of strings, the lightest guage I could find), so plan to spend some time on it.....

Also, check the height of strings at the nut. Stock, the grooves are always too high, this is probably on purpose so you can file them down for the correct hieght above the first fret (or fingerboard period on the fretless). But if the strings are too high here, the action will always be miserably high no matter how much you adjust the rest.....
Yes, I had to have the nut grooves filed down on my L2000 when I bought it.....

LS

[TDR1138]

My setup advice:

1) do the nut first. Go slow. If you go too low, you need to start over with a new nut, so take your time and do very small amounts at a time. Getting the right nut height is a lot more important than people realize.

2) you only need to shim the neck as a last resort if you have your saddles sitting on the bridge baseplate (i.e. can't get any lower) and your action is still too high.

3) only adjust the truss rod about 1/8-1/4 turn at a time. Bring it back to pitch, let it settle (play it for a while), then deal with it again.

4) I personally adjust the action as best as I can everytime I make a change, so I know right were it's at. Get the action where you want it, and see where feels high and where you have buzzing.
buzzing above the 12th fret -> tighten the rod, raise your action.
buzzing below the 5th fret -> loosen the rod, lower your action.

5) don't forget to set your intonation.

Follow these steps, and it should get you pretty close to where you want to be. Adjust to taste from there.

[francisl2500]

that give me very nice way to work my action, you all are good for me guys, many thanks
Francis