Fender Bridge Adjustment

[Fender4Me]

In order to adjuts the action to factory specs on a friends J-bass, I have to lower the bridge all the way down on the D and G strings. Will this affect the tone or sustain? Do I need to shim the neck at this point? Thanks

[Benjamin Strange]

First of all, you don't have to set the bass to factory spec - set it to the way you want it to play.

Secondly, if your bridge saddles are down as low as they can go, and you have a minimum amount of relief in the neck, then yes - you have to shim the neck at the heel.

[Fender4Me]

I personally like a high action but, he like sit pretty low. Neck has .014" relief. Ok, thanks. I'll shim the neck on it.

[Benjamin Strange]

.014" relief is an enormous amount. How exactly are you measuring it?

[walterw]

.014" is a lot.

i'd straighten the neck first, to .010" or maybe .012" if the frets are not so good; at that point, the saddle height issue will likely take care of itself.

[Benjamin Strange]

.010"-.012" is still quite a lot. You should be looking closer to .006"-.008".

[Fender4Me]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

.014" relief is an enormous amount. How exactly are you measuring it?

With a 14 thousanths feeler guage. strings depressed at the 1st and last fret. relief measureed at the 12th fret.

[Benjamin Strange]

Originally Posted by Fender4Me

With a 14 thousanths feeler guage. strings depressed at the 1st and last fret. relief measureed at the 12th fret.

Ok, here's where your problem is. The truss rod is most effective between the 1st and 13th fret or so - it barely affects anything from the 15th fret and up, especially on bolt on neck instruments. My shop checks at the 1st and 13th. Try that, and shoot for around .006"-.008". Depending on your attack and how even your frets are, you should be good in that range. If it still buzzes, take it up to around .010". Anything more than that and you may want to take it in to a tech to have some fretwork done.

[Fender4Me]

Ok Thanks! I'll give it a try.

[Benjamin Strange]

I forgot to mention: fret at the 1st and 13th, and measure at the 6ths fret.

[The Birdman]

Originally Posted by Fender4Me

With a 14 thousandths feeler gauge. strings depressed at the 1st and last fret. relief measured at the 12th fret.

By Fender's procedure on their website, they recommend that it be measured at the 8th fret. If your fretboard has a 7.25" radius, relief at the 8th fret should be .010". If your fretboard has a 9.5" to 12" radius, relief at the 8th fret should be .012".

Of course, you can set it as fits your playing style, but Fender's specs have worked well for me.

Roger

[Benjamin Strange]

Fender oftentimes recommends action that is much higher than it should be because their fretwork is NEVER perfect. You can get a much better setup by not following their recommendations.

[Fender4Me]

Benjamin, I dropped the relief to .008" and it really did drop the string hieght. I ended up having to actually raise the bridge. What are you setting your string hieght at and are you measuring it at the 12th fret?

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by Fender4Me

With a 14 thousanths feeler guage. strings depressed at the 1st and last fret. relief measureed at the 12th fret.

There are many opinions about how you should measure this, but measuring at the 12th fret is not one of them. You should be measuring somewhere in the 7th fret position if depressing at the 1st and last fret, i.e. in the middle of the neck.

Better still, go with Benjamin's guidelines. Fretting at the first and last is not the best way to measure.

[walterw]

i've done it by fretting the first and last fret forever, which gives me the slightly higher relief numbers. measuring from before the body joint like benjamin suggests will give you his tighter numbers from the same curve.

IME, if the end of the neck has a "ski ramp" problem that throws off the relief measurement, then the numbers are out the window anyway and i'm back to just eyeballing it and doing set-up "triage".

either way, yeah, you're measuring at around 7 or 8, not 12.