Action on cheap bass

Berserkr · #1 03-04-2011, 01:43 PM

Hey all,

I aquired a cheap bass to learn on and I think the action is too high. I've been a guitarist for a while so I'm not sure if the action is normal for a bass, but I doubt it. The saddles are as low as they will go and the nut seems fine the truss rod is as far as it will go too. Any suggestions? The only thing I can think is to put a shim in the neck pocket.

Cheers for looking.

Testing_123 · #2 03-04-2011, 01:56 PM

Hard to tell for sure from the pics, but yes, there could be room to bring that down a bit. Ideally, you'd want bridge saddles to have some room for adjustment higher or lower -- if they're at the minimum travel point, it certainly calls for an adjustment.

Yep, start with a shim. A seemingly small change can make a big difference in playability, so set up a small shim, tune to pitch, observe change, repeat as necessary.

Pilgrim · #3 03-04-2011, 02:00 PM

Start by reading the stickies having to do with setup at the top of this forum.

Just because it's a cheap bass doesn't mean you can't get really nice action - it just means that the manufacturer didn't spend the time to fine-tune it as well as YOU can.

pathdoc2 · #4 03-04-2011, 02:06 PM

Looks like the trussrod needs to be carefully tightened.

LilloEsquilo · #5 03-04-2011, 03:56 PM

Actually I believe in his case the truss rod will need to be loosened. Tight increases the bow and raises the action and that action does look high in the picture. It might be deceiving but it LOOKS like you could stack two quarters on each other and slide them under that with room to spare. My basses are set so that you couldn't likely fit a credit card through without pushing the strings up, and there is no buzz. That's pretty low, and it's what I like, so my feeling is that you should be able to get it lower than that or there is a problem.

But try loosening the truss rod which will straighten the neck and should lower the action. ONLY do it a quarter of a turn at a time, say once a day, for a couple of days if needed. If that doesn't do it, likely there is some problem.

By the way not meaning to be insulting but are you sure the saddles are as low as they will go? It LOOKS like there is an allen screw in the back of them that you have to loosen to adjust it but I could be seeing/imagining things.

darkstorm · #6 03-04-2011, 04:01 PM

That is overly high action. As best I can tell from the pic there is absolutely no rearward tilt of neck which makes low action easier to get in my experience. A neck shim is gonna be required I think to get better action. Even if that bass could get low action, Id still shim the neck for little rearward tilt myself since thats allways benefitted action to me for any bass whose neck pocket wasnt cut for that in the first place. Never could understand why some mfg's dont cut there neck pockets that way.

Bob C · #7 03-04-2011, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilloEsquilo

Actually I believe in his case the truss rod will need to be loosened. Tight increases the bow and raises the action and that action does look high in the picture.

Maybe you're seeing something in the pics that I'm not. But that sounds to be the opposite of conventional wisdom - unless the neck is backbowed.

I agree with all above that there are many possible adjustments to be made that will likely improve the action. But I can't be specific as to where to start just from the photos provided.

Cross303 · #8 03-04-2011, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilloEsquilo

My basses are set so that you couldn't likely fit a credit card through without pushing the strings up, and there is no buzz.

I'm having some action issues on my p bass. I just had it set up and it was buzzing too much. So I started to do some diy adjusting (with some Internet tips) and in order to get it sounding good with intonation set and minimum buzz, action is way too high. I was thinking of getting the frets professionally leveled. Just wondering what you had to do to get such low action with no buzz.

Cross303 · #9 03-04-2011, 08:45 PM

Could the neck itself be so bad that it's not possible to compensate with truss rod or bridge adjustments? Just wondering because I have an old bass with that 5inch action, saddles all the way down and I assumed it was f-ed without a new neck.

Berserkr · #10 03-04-2011, 11:54 PM

Thanks for all the input guys.

I've adjusted the truss rod already and the neck is as straight as I can get it. If I hold down the 1st and 24th fret there is hardly any gap at all around the 12th fret, so it must be pretty straight. The saddles are as low as they will go, I've loosened the grub screw as far as I can.

Gonna try the shim I think, I'll let you know how it goes.

FretlessMainly · #11 03-05-2011, 12:15 AM

Sounds like you know what you are doing, so if you need things lower, your shim idea is likely the best way to go. Truss rods really aren't meant for action adjustment, although they do play a role in fine-tuning it in. Saddles adjust action.

As an aside, I love my action high like you've got it.

Berserkr · #12 03-05-2011, 01:31 AM

Well that was easier than expected! I put a piece of an old credit card in the neck pocket to tilt the neck slightly and the action is now perfect! Took about 15 minutes.

Thanks for your help!