Botched Gretsch Baritone neck?

[some kid]

Hi all, first post here after lurking for about a month. Haven't participated in an online community for a good year now. Hopefully I won't deter you all

Anyway, my problem comes after much tinkering with why Gretsch Baritone. I got it about three months ago, mainly because I'm a guitarist turned bassist who wanted a baritone guitar to muck around with, so I got the cheapest and most available one I could find - The Gretsch G5265, made in China. It was also one of the first bolt-on necks I've had in a while.

Out of all my guitars and basses, this one is the only one I've tinkered with so much just to try and get the setup right for me. But I can't seem to get it to feel right and I'm not sure if it's because it's a botched instrument.

I've only just been getting into this side of basses so I'm not sure if this neck bow is excessive. Apologies in advance for lazy camerawork (if you want better pictures, I can take more in daylight).

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On my Ltd neck-thru, the action starts high at the nut and remains high all the way through (the way I like it). And only my Sterling, the action starts low and stays moderately low all the way down. Same with my guitars.

This is the only instrument I've got that starts with a low action and then jumps so damn high. I read before I bought the Gretsch that it had a high action, but because the neck bows like that, it's really offsetting and some of the lower notes aren't on key (noticeable enough for a tone-deaf moron like me to notice). The rod is tightened fairly tight, where I have to apply a fair amount of strength to get it to tighten a quarter turn. Which leads me to my next question, Gretsch recommends adjusting the truss rod with the strings in standard tune, but are you supposed to do it without the strings/loosened?

Some other things I've been curious about are the fact that the neck heel (or tongue, which was it?) doesn't sit flat on the body; it kind of goes up a little bit. Also, the neck seems to have been made from two pieces of wood - peculiarly, that's where the neck starts to bow upwards. I have a strange feeling that that's a terrible sign of workmanship. Final question, is my bridge supposed to be leaning forwards like that?

If all this is botched, then we might have a decent review for this guitar, coz I noticed some others were questioning this guitar elsewhere in the forums. Cheers in advance.

[62bass]

Looks like a bit of careless work there not uncommon with some of the Chinese stuff. The bridge shouldn't lean that much but if it's not afftecting your ability to intonate your strings I'd leave it alone. Unless it's loose and likely to pull out like some of the Cassady basses.

Too much bow in the neck. You can get it a lot straighter but you'll also have to shim the end of your neck so the action stays low all the way up. After that, how low you can get it will depend on how well the truss rod works and how level the frets are.

A good tech would be able to do a lot for you. You can do a decent job if you work carefully.

[ridgeback]

its hard to tell from the pictures but there looks like a lot of curve in the neck..i think if your unsure what to do you best bet is to get a tech to set it up the way you would like..for the cost of a set of strings its a cheaper option than messing around with it and doing damage...

[some kid]

Yeah, I think I might take it around to the music shop if they can do it for a reasonable price. Otherwise I might leave it - it's not exactly a priority instrument.

Thanks for the replies.

[Pilgrim]

You need a shim under the neck - that's the only way you'll get the strings closer to the higher frets. Very simple to do - search TB for plenty of info.

Last one I did took me about 20 minutes and one business card for a shim.