Bow in neck?

keithconn · #1 11-16-2001, 07:16 AM

Bonjour my friends.

I just got a used bass. Nice 'thru neck carlo robelli' job. It seems all well, but after reading the boards, and playing a bit I notice that when I play the A string(second fret) I get a 'string hitting fret' noise after the note has 'rung' for a couple of seconds.

I checked it out, my action is good, but I noticed that the neck has no 'bow' to it. I hear that there should be a slight 'bow' to the neck. I am scared to play with the 'rod-ma-job' thing that everyone speaks of. Should I??

Thanks - K.

Sound Guy Paul · #2 11-16-2001, 11:10 AM

Usually you want someone experienced to at least show you how to do it. First time I noticed it I took it to monkey and he fixed it for me and showed me how to do it myself. It's very simple, but if you mess it up, you can really damage the neck, and then it costs a lot of $ to get it fixed.

progplayer · #3 11-22-2001, 05:32 PM

i have a question, when i got my warwick set up the tech was bustin that truss rod. turning that thing so hard i started sweating and almost had an accident in my pants!

he was turning it so much to try to straighten out the neck. finally he just stopped and said, "Wow this things is tight. And the neck isn't moving as much as it should be... hmmmm, I better stop" whew.... i thought the guy was gonna snap the neck!

but the neck is still not as straight as i'd like it to be, but i dare not touch that rod. i don't know why he had to put so much elbow grease into it, kind of scary..... any idea why the neck wouldn't straighten out or why the rod is so tight?

progplayer · #4 11-22-2001, 08:07 PM

yea, this is the tech i know very well. he's been repairing and doin set ups for me since 1996. he definitly knows what he's doing but he didn't say anything was wrong with the bass. just that the rod was really tight and it didn't move as much as he thought it would. he set up my thumb 5 perfectly, the action is so low and not much buzz at all. very fast action.

the fretless is different in that the bridge was already as low as it could go, p/u's couldn't be raised much more, and the neck had way too much releif to begin with - he adjusted the rod and took out a lot of the releif but there still is a little more. he tried to get the action as low as possible but its still not as low as i'd like it. maybe its just the way the bass is. thanks for ur response!