Going from heavy to light guage...

boodakon · #1 04-02-2010, 12:00 AM

Hey there Folks,

I'm getting restless, curious and bored, all at the same time, and am lookin' at experimenting with a lighter gauge. (currenlty using heavy).

The question is, if I want to get down to light or med-light, should i go gradually to avoid shocking the neck? or will the truss rod adjustment be able to accomodate a heavy to light switch?

I imagine this question has been asked at least handful of times, so if you don't want to re-type a book, feel free to send me a link. Thanks in advance my bass brothers.

Cheers!

JimmyM · #2 04-02-2010, 03:23 AM

if your neck gets shocked by lightening up the gauge, i would seriously consider throwing it out

you will definitely have to make a truss rod adjustment, and you may want to raise your action a little, but that should take care of it.

JustDavid · #3 04-02-2010, 06:07 AM

My view on this (there ARE better views) is that, with a setup to restore neck relief, you won't actually be changing your neck's tension.

With numbers:
1/ 200 lb tension heavy gauge strings. Neck wood resists 50 lbs of tension, so truss rod adjusted to counteract 150 lbs.
2/ Change to 150 lb med-lo tension strings. Neck still takes 50 lbs, & truss rod is loosened to only counteract 100 lbs.

(The above #s are wrong, & there's at least one large flaw in the argument if you go a level deeper in analysis.)

Meatrus · #4 04-02-2010, 06:08 AM

That would be no problem at all. There will be a fair bit of setting up though- massive truss rod loosening (but do it a small bit at a time if your not that confident), action will need to be a fair bit higher, and intonation re set.

I recently went from standard down to extra lights, and my technique suffered for a few days, so there will probably have to be a big change in how hard you play, even when set up correctly. Next time I'm going back to med lights of around 40-100, they seemed to have the best of both worlds for me.

boodakon · #5 04-02-2010, 09:55 AM

Thanks for the feedback Gents, I had to bounce that off some people with knowledge. And yes, I def will take it in for a set up. In all the years that I've been playing I never liked foolin' with the truss rod for fear of ruining a good instrument. Do you all do your own adjustments? Any recommendations on how to start if that's a good idea?

JustDavid · #6 04-02-2010, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boodakon

Thanks for the feedback Gents, I had to bounce that off some people with knowledge. And yes, I def will take it in for a set up. In all the years that I've been playing I never liked foolin' with the truss rod for fear of ruining a good instrument. Do you all do your own adjustments? Any recommendations on how to start if that's a good idea?

Follow the threads in the Setup & Repair forum here. Lots of great advice, along with other types of advice. Good Searching in there too.

**251** · #7 04-02-2010, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boodakon

Thanks for the feedback Gents, I had to bounce that off some people with knowledge. And yes, I def will take it in for a set up. In all the years that I've been playing I never liked foolin' with the truss rod for fear of ruining a good instrument. Do you all do your own adjustments? Any recommendations on how to start if that's a good idea?

Here's a good place to start;
http://www.fender.com/support/bass_g...etup_guide.php
After some practice, you will be able to adjust the set up on your bass, hanging on the strap from your shoulder in less than 10 minutes.

darkstorm · #8 04-03-2010, 09:11 PM

Ive done my own setups since the mid 1970's. One can loosen or tighten the truss rod a full turn without worries as long as its a qaulity bass. Most of todays entry level ($250 and up internet store prices not list) qaulify as qaulity basses in this regard btw imo. However, being new to truss rod adjustments, you might start with couple 1/4 turns or a half turn at a time. Wait a few minutes to see if that takes care of whats needed. If not, do another 1/4 to half turn. If that is still not enough, myself would go ahead and do another 1/4 to 1/2 turn, though others may choose to wait till the next day for further truss rod adjustment. Most repair peeps will just go ahead and do whatever amount of truss rod adjusting needed with very little time between new turns.

I go for allmost dead straight neck with no nindication of rearward bow and just a slight hint of upward curve. This is straighter then most factory reccomended settings. Factory reccomended settings are ussually for medium action rather then ultra low. So this is no surprise.

The only truss rods I wont monkey with are rickenbacker, theyre just too weird for me. Lol.