Action height?

[catty]

I recently acquired a fretted BG. As a fretless player, I have a question regarding action height. Currently, it's very low producing rattle with a moderate attack. However, when plugged in it still sounds good, and the fret buzz is unnoticeable. Will raising the action in order to eliminate fret buzz improve the plugged in sound?

[PBass101]

How could it? If there's no audible fret rattle coming through the speakers now, there isn't going to be less should you raise the strings.

Just get your action to where you're comfortable with it.

[BurningSkies]

Is it rattling at the lower frets or in the upper range, or all over?

It wouldn't bother me if I'm not getting it through the amp, but it may you. If it's only down low, then check your neck relief you may need to give it a bit more. In fact. checking relief is always my first move when checking for a buzz...its most liable to be causing difficulty.

[202dy]

The golden rule of fret buzz for electric guitars:

If it doesn't buzz through the amp, it doesn't buzz.

Yours doesn't. There is nothing to fix.

Enjoy playing your new bass guitar.

[catty]

How could it? I'm thinking that the vibrating string is being restricted and, thus, sonically inhibited. But while this would be a problem with acoustic instruments, I'm thinking that it's not so much with electrics.

Re neck relief: the first thing I did when I acquired this guitar was take an excessive amount of relief out of the neck. I prefer just a tad of relief, then adjust the action at the bridge. The thing looked like a bow when I got it, with very high action. I don't know if the former owner liked it that way, or just wasn't aware of how to correct it. Anyway, it's kind of cool having super-low action--not that I need it, but if there's no reason to raise it, I won't.

[catty]

202dy-

That makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by 202dy

The golden rule of fret buzz for electric guitars:

If it doesn't buzz through the amp, it doesn't buzz.

Yours doesn't. There is nothing to fix.

Enjoy playing your new bass guitar.

There is a subtle difference though. If there is fret buzz acoustically, this is doing two things to the string vibration.

First it is imparting of some of the string energy to the fret it is buzzing against - this will reduce change the decay characteristic of the note - shortening the "sustain".

Secondly, the buzzing against the fret will add some harmonics into the signal that were less prominent otherwise.

Neither of these is a bad thing. Just personal preference. So you may not need to "fix" it.

[dave_bass5]

Originally Posted by PBass101

How could it? If there's no audible fret rattle coming through the speakers now, there isn't going to be less should you raise the strings.

.

Raising the action can improve the tone. Nothing to do with the fret buzz, more to do with less magnetic pull (i think).

This is taken from the Sadowsky set up guide.

"In the early '80s,Marcus had an amazingly low action of
1/16" (G) to 3/32" (E), but he realized the bass didn't "speak" very well that way. Going to a slightly higher setup has given
him a wider range of articulation."

[catty]

Thanks Dave--that makes sense as well. I'm familiar with general acoustics and do lots of set-up work on acoustic instruments. Some of this can be applied to electrics, I'm sure.

What I did was this: I rescued this bass from a pawn shop...its neck relief was so extreme that the truss rod required a couple of full turns to render it almost dead level. Last night, I backed off about a quarter-turn, which brought up my action just enough to eliminate most of the buzz. Yet, still low. A very nice playing bass now.