Epiphone Thunderbird Action?

[balton4]

Hey there.
So... I am im a bit of a pickle. I bought an Epiphone Thunderbird 4 string last year. Around march if i remember correctly. Anyways, the action is horribly high. Im only now getting around to it, as i was a fairly new bassist back then, so i had no clue about all of this "action" buisness.

Here i am now, though. So, i took it to my local music go round. I asked for a truss rod adjustment, and for the action to be lowered. They told me to pick it up the next day.

Well, they did not do a thing to the bass. The neck was still bowed as ever, action still horrible.

What is the best plan of action, taking it to a Schmidtt Music and pay about 20 bucks plus price of strings (im currently broke ) or could i do it myself? If myself, how do i do this?

[T-Bird]

Hi.

IME, Epi T-bird has to have its string tension lowered a bit before taking that 1/8 - 1/4 of a turn tighter. Failing to do so may yield some results later on, but if You want it to respond quicker, just loosen the strings a bit, 1-2 full notes, and retune after turning the wrench.

Play/wait for a day or so, and repeat if necessary.

IME only again, any neck adjustments, especially with compressing TR's, require at least a day to be evaluated so one day turnover is a pipe-dream.

As for the string height, Aquateen has posted a great tutorial how to adjust the dreaded 3-point.

I do it a bit differently, but loosening the strings is again necessary.
Just keep the bottom plate level and You're halfway there.
If You're worried about the stud inserts pulling out, you can raise the front post slightly.

Regards
Sam

[balton4]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

IME, Epi T-bird has to have its string tension lowered a bit before taking that 1/8 - 1/4 of a turn tighter. Failing to do so may yield some results later on, but if You want it to respond quicker, just loosen the strings a bit, 1-2 full notes, and retune after turning the wrench.

Play/wait for a day or so, and repeat if necessary.

IME only again, any neck adjustments, especially with compressing TR's, require at least a day to be evaluated so one day turnover is a pipe-dream.

As for the string height, Aquateen has posted a great tutorial how to adjust the dreaded 3-point.

I do it a bit differently, but loosening the strings is again necessary.
Just keep the bottom plate level and You're halfway there.
If You're worried about the stud inserts pulling out, you can raise the front post slightly.

Regards
Sam

Wait, which direction should i turn the truss rod? I still havent done anything, but i want to make sure i do it all right. De-tune the strings (i was already going to do that if i had to adjust, its kind of a given), then turn the truss rod, wait a day, repeat as nessicary.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

99.9% of the time it's righty-tighty & lefty-loosey, just like any regular thread in everyday appliances.

Your Epi falls into that category as well.

The direction is viewed from the nut (or bolt in rare cases) that You turn, IOW from the headstock in your case.

So, right/clockwise means less bow=straighter neck.

It's a good practice to first loosen the TR nut before doing any adjustments on a compressing TR, and if the nut feels harder than necessary to turn, taking the nut off completely and lubing the THREADS ONLY, is a good precaution for future seizing problems.
If the nut is being teken off, the strings have to be loosened completely. Obviously.

Regards
Sam