Bass Setup for a noobie

black57 · #1 09-03-2008, 11:02 AM

I want to achieve the lowest action without buzz and have adjusted the saddles of my bass as low as they can go without buzzing but the action is still real high. I don's want to do anything with the frets or nut, so is the next best thing to do to get low action minus buzz would be to adjust the truss rod? If so should I turn it clockwise or counter? Thanks

slyjoe · #2 09-03-2008, 11:14 AM

In general, NO.

Truss rod adjustments are for setting relief. You are probably looking at shimming the neck. I have had this problem when I put bridges with thick base plates on a bass. You run out of room lowering the saddles.

Or are you saying there is still room to adjust the saddles down, but buzzing starts when you lower them?

black57 · #3 09-03-2008, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slyjoe

In general, NO.

Truss rod adjustments are for setting relief. You are probably looking at shimming the neck. I have had this problem when I put bridges with thick base plates on a bass. You run out of room lowering the saddles.

Or are you saying there is still room to adjust the saddles down, but buzzing starts when you lower them?

Ya, I can lower the saddles a lot more, but buzzing starts. The bridge is the original bridge. I just had a refret and a new nut cut so if replacing those is my other option to get low action then I guess I'll have to settle with high action.

XylemBassGuitar · #4 09-03-2008, 01:21 PM

black57,

It sounds like a truss rod adjustment could help if you can't get the saddles much lower. It is likely that you have too much or too little relief on the neck which could be causing the fret buzz.

For detailed instructions on safe/proper truss rod adjustment, check out my post on Bass_masta16's thread "Truss Rod Instructions."

If a proper truss rod adjustment doesn't help, or you have more questions, let me know.

If the rod adjustment doesn't help, I'd be concerned about the refret. Generally, if a combination of truss rod and saddle adjustments doesn't improve the action without giving you buzz, you have some uneven frets.

Who did the refret? They should have made sure the frets were very even when they were finished.

Let me know how it turns out!

Pilgrim · #5 09-04-2008, 11:23 AM

Truss rod first - carefully.

After that, double and triple-check the frets. You may still have a high one...one may have shifted.

JTE · #6 09-04-2008, 12:20 PM

DOH!

Adjust the truss rod so the neck releif is correct. That's all it's for. But if you didn't check the releif and started monkeying with the saddles, then you've thrown it all out of adjustment. Plus you just paid for a new nut and fret-dressing, but didn't get the action adjusted?!

OK, start with the truss rod. Do a simple check. Fret the lowest string at the first and last fret, so the string serves as a simple straight-edge. Is there a small bit of clearance between the bottom of the string and the top of the 7th fret? If so, then your truss rod is right and you need to address the saddles, fret work, etc. If not, then you can adjust the truss rod.

Once the rod is set correctly, then you start the saddles.

jte