Crazy High action! HELP!

mooreon131 · #1 12-01-2011, 02:04 PM

Hey guys. I recently acquired a first act short scale that I plan to use for a Tele bass project.When I got it, the neck had crazy bow, and insane fret buzz. So about 3 days ago, I tightened the truss rod quite a bit, and it seemed to help out after settling over night. However, the action was still too high for my liking. I went at it again two days ago, and gave the wood a full day 2 rest. Then yesterday I restrung it, got the saddles as low as possible without getting fret buzz (much to the chagrin of my picking hand, which I rest on the bridge, and is none too fond of being scratched by saddle screws), but it still felt off. So this morning (or afternoon, whatever), I decided to take another stab at it. I looked at fender's setup guide, and noticed that at the 17th fret, it recommends E string action to be at 2.4mm. So I measured my action, and through my ghetto measurement methods (stacking 1mm tortex picks) I found the minimum action, sans fret buzz to be a hair over 5mm. So my fears were confirmed, and now I have no idea what to do. So, I'm asking for your help talkbass. You guys haven't let me down yet (especially with the farting on stage thread), so what do I do?

PS, I can take pics upon request.

tangentmusic · #2 12-01-2011, 02:10 PM

Shim the neck pocket with a strip of business card.
This will get your neck a little higher in the pocket. Add shims as necessary to where you dont have to have your bridge bottomed out. You'll need some bridge adjustment to intonate.
Keep an eye on your truss adjustment also. Play around with this combo till you get it how you want it.

Ric5 · #3 12-01-2011, 02:23 PM

Keep the bass in a humidity controlled room. 35% to 50% is the desired range. low humidity can cause the wood to shrink the steel rod will stay the same. This will make your neck bow. So put a humidifier in the room and set the bass next to it and that could correct some of the bow.

Luckie · #4 12-01-2011, 02:28 PM

Solid suggestions so far, but lets be realistic, you may never get that bass into top playing condition. It's the budgetest of the budget models.

stflbn · #5 12-01-2011, 02:31 PM

So... after tweaking the truss rod, how much relief is in the neck? Not the string height.

tangentmusic · #6 12-01-2011, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luckie

Solid suggestions so far, but lets be realistic, you may never get that bass into top playing condition. It's the budgetest of the budget models.

True statement... But if it's all he has, he's gotta make it as playable as possible..

mooreon131 · #7 12-01-2011, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stflbn

So... after tweaking the truss rod, how much relief is in the neck? Not the string height.

It still looks like there's quite a bit of back bow to me, but I've gotten to the point where I, as a relatively strong guy need to try to turn the allen wrench when I'm adjusting the neck. Like, I'm pulling it with my hand all the way around it, and it's gashing up my hand. It's not a huge deal, but I feel like that's the point at which the truss rod is gonna break. Then again, I've never done this before, so I don't know. Hence, I'm using a pos first act. I can take a pic if you want.

Oh, and I live in Baltimore, humidity is something, we've got plenty of here.

JLS · #8 12-01-2011, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mooreon131

Hey guys. I recently acquired a first act short scale that I plan to use for a Tele bass project.When I got it, the neck had crazy bow, and insane fret buzz. So about 3 days ago, I tightened the truss rod quite a bit, and it seemed to help out after settling over night. However, the action was still too high for my liking. I went at it again two days ago, and gave the wood a full day 2 rest. Then yesterday I restrung it, got the saddles as low as possible without getting fret buzz (much to the chagrin of my picking hand, which I rest on the bridge, and is none too fond of being scratched by saddle screws), but it still felt off. So this morning (or afternoon, whatever), I decided to take another stab at it. I looked at fender's setup guide, and noticed that at the 17th fret, it recommends E string action to be at 2.4mm. So I measured my action, and through my ghetto measurement methods (stacking 1mm tortex picks) I found the minimum action, sans fret buzz to be a hair over 5mm. So my fears were confirmed, and now I have no idea what to do. So, I'm asking for your help talkbass. You guys haven't let me down yet (especially with the farting on stage thread), so what do I do?

PS, I can take pics upon request.

Sorry, this instrument is garbage. Don't waste your time & energy on it.

gmarcus · #9 12-01-2011, 03:00 PM

Sounds like you have the truss rod nut screwed all the way down. Try removing the nut and putting a few washers under it. Try to get some steel washers that are kind of wide so that there is more surface area pressing against the end of the neck. I tried to set up an old squire once and the neck wood was pretty soft. I would tighten the nut and the next day it sank into the wood and I was back where I started. This sounds like your problem.

mooreon131 · #10 12-01-2011, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmarcus

Sounds like you have the truss rod nut screwed all the way down. Try removing the nut and putting a few washers under it. Try to get some steel washers that are kind of wide so that there is more surface area pressing against the end of the neck. I tried to set up an old squire once and the neck wood was pretty soft. I would tighten the nut and the next day it sank into the wood and I was back where I started. This sounds like your problem.

Do you have a picture of this? I'm afraid I'm just not seeing what you mean. My nut is glued in, not screwed in.

walterw · #11 12-01-2011, 08:48 PM

"truss rod nut" is the part you stick the wrench in to tighten the truss rod. it can usually unscrew all the way off, allowing you to put washers behind it and lube it up with a bit of wax and grease.

anyway, how much bow is in the neck? hold a string down at the first fret and the last fret, and look under the 8th fret; how big is the gap between the fret and the string?

if the string is touching, that's backbow, and you need to loosen the rod until a gap appears again.

if the gap is bigger than like a credit card thickness, you still need to tighten the rod more.

with good frets, you can get down to a business card thickness gap, or even tighter.

this all has nothing to do with how high the saddles are, it's just about the truss rod adjustment; get this right first, then mess with saddles, neck shims, etc.