Lo riders with an RBX A2?

[w33nie]

How do you think this would sound?

The main reason I want to change them is that the originals are too slinky. I hear they're much stiffer, but is it just the higher gauge ones that are stiff or at the light medium ones stiff, too?

Oh, and I've heard people having trouble with the Trussrod on the yamaha. Should I get a set up?

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by w33nie

The main reason I want to change them is that the originals are too slinky. I hear they're much stiffer, but is it just the higher gauge ones that are stiff or at the light medium ones stiff, too?

I would not go with stiff strings on this bass as it has a softwood-cored (supposedly balsa) lightweight sandwich construction. High tension strings consequently seem to me (and others) like a somewhat imprudent idea.

Oh, and I've heard people having trouble with the Trussrod on the yamaha. Should I get a set up?

If you need to take some relief out of the neck, slack the strings, and with the wrench properly seated in the adjustment bolt, LOOSEN it until the bolt frees up. Back it off a little more to take all the tension off the trussrod, bounce the middle of the neck a bit on the back with the heel of your hand to make sure that the trussrod mechanism has freed up, and then carefully retighten the bolt enough to get the slack out of the trussrod and then go about adjusting the neck normally.

If you can't loosen the trussrod bolt with the strings slack using a reasonable amount of torque, the neck will have to be "backloaded" a bit to further remove more pressure from the loaded trussrod. I had to do this on mine before it finally let go. If you don't know how to do this, you may take it to a competent tech, or have local Yamaha warranty service deal with it -- hopefully for free, as this in my professional opinion is a warranty issue, a known problem with these basses.

Once the trussrod gets unstuck from whatever paint or glue or whatever it is in the neck that's jamming these up, it works just perfectly -- smooth as can be. The trick is not wrecking anything getting it loose.

[w33nie]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

I would not go with stiff strings on this bass as it has a softwood-cored (supposedly balsa) lightweight sandwich construction. High tension strings consequently seem to me (and others) like a somewhat imprudent idea.


If you need to take some relief out of the neck, slack the strings, and with the wrench properly seated in the adjustment bolt, LOOSEN it until the bolt frees up. Back it off a little more to take all the tension off the trussrod, bounce the middle of the neck a bit on the back with the heel of your hand to make sure that the trussrod mechanism has freed up, and then carefully retighten the bolt enough to get the slack out of the trussrod and then go about adjusting the neck normally.

If you can't loosen the trussrod bolt with the strings slack using a reasonable amount of torque, the neck will have to be "backloaded" a bit to further remove more pressure from the loaded trussrod. I had to do this on mine before it finally let go. If you don't know how to do this, you may take it to a competent tech, or have local Yamaha warranty service deal with it -- hopefully for free, as this in my professional opinion is a warranty issue, a known problem with these basses.

Once the trussrod gets unstuck from whatever paint or glue or whatever it is in the neck that's jamming these up, it works just perfectly -- smooth as can be. The trick is not wrecking anything getting it loose.

Thanks, I'll see if my teacher can help me with this.

Do you know of any strings that aren't floppy and won't damage the bass, but have a similar sound?

[Cthulhu]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

If you can't loosen the trussrod bolt with the strings slack using a reasonable amount of torque, the neck will have to be "backloaded" a bit to further remove more pressure from the loaded trussrod.

O.K. - I've heard the term "backloaded"used a couple of times, including the RBX4 thread talking about how you did this to free the truss rod. I'm a bit thick, so humor me on this. With the neck horizontal, fretboard facing the ceiling, a "backload" would involve pressure that would straighten the neck or add an additional bow into the neck. In other words, what exactly gets "bowed?"

And yes, I have seen your (excellent) earlier post but its been a long day and I've had a few malted beverages to relax.

As far as strings are concerned, I would certainly rule out most of the LaBellas - those things have a serious pull on my baseball-bat necked P-bass, so I would think that they would be a serious no-no on the Yamaha. I actually left the stock strings on it, and I'm deciding what to put on it next.

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

With the neck horizontal, fretboard facing the ceiling, a "backload" would involve pressure that would straighten the neck or add an additional bow into the neck. In other words, what exactly gets "bowed?"

In your description -- the bass on its back -- the center of the fretboard is bowed upward toward the ceiling.

In other words, the neck is being bent in exactly the same direction the trussrod bends it, but you are doing the bending, not the trussrod. The object in this instance is to bow the neck to the point that most or all of the internal strain is off the trussrod so that it can be loosened up at the bolt and freed from whatever is sticking to it inside the neck.

You accomplish this by safely supporting the fingerboard at both ends (somehow) and carefully pressing the center of the neck's back upwards toward the fingerboard. There are various plain and fancy methods or rigging something up to do this safely and conveniently.

This works for not only unsticking jammed trussrods, but also for preloading the relief on heavy or otherwise stubborn necks. By actually squeezing the neck bow in manually, you can easily tighten the trussrod to hold that position. This takes a HUGE amount of mechanical stress off the trussrod mechanism and makes for more precise and stable neck adjustment.

This is the way a real tech sets neck relief. Dan Erlewine has made an elaborate bench jig for this procedure. I use a more compact method, but it works fine for me.

The object -- as always -- is to minimize and evenly distribute stresses when doing a potentially damaging task like trussrod adjustment.

[Cthulhu]

That is a PERFECT description. Thanks!