Light strings and bowed neck

[amos]

When I had my bass intonated, the light strings they put on were worthless, due to the tension being out of control (waaay too loose). I put mediums back on and they were fine.. The guy mentioned my neck is waaaay bowed (concaved). Could this be the reason the tension was way off with light strings?

I plan on taking it in today... for a trussrod adjustment

[202dy]

String tension has absolutely nothing to do with how a guitar is set up. A string of a given mass at a given pitch at a given scale or speaking length will have a given tension. A lighter string will have a different tension as will a heavier string at the same pitch at the same scale length.

[amos]

Okay that makes more sense. I was just used to medium-guage strings on a 34" scale bass. Thanks

[Magneto]

Originally Posted by 202dy

String tension has absolutely nothing to do with how a guitar is set up. A string of a given mass at a given pitch at a given scale or speaking length will have a given tension. A lighter string will have a different tension as will a heavier string at the same pitch at the same scale length.

Good points.. I've also noticed that if strings are setup "high", there will always be the feel of more tension because more pressure is needed to press them down against the fretboard. Although the actual tension might not have changed, your hand will think there's more.
Some brands/types of similarly gauged strings seem to have more or less tension at the same tuning. You can have a set of mediums that play like lights and vice-versa..

Mag...

[ErnieD]

I took my G&L L2500 in to replace the output jack. When the tech returned it he mentioned I had some bow in the neck. I assume that means "forward bow?" Now I had just made a neck adjustment a couple weeks before the jack went out to raise the strings from the neck cause they felt too low for the slapping I was needing to do on funk tunes. I loosened the truss rod about 1/2 turn. So did he mean it was bowed cause alota guys like very low action, not me, and it looked high to him. Dont mean to hijack but its kinda OT. Am I not understanding the meaning of a bowed neck?

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by ErnieD

Now I had just made a neck adjustment a couple weeks before the jack went out to raise the strings from the neck cause they felt too low for the slapping I was needing to do on funk tunes. I loosened the truss rod about 1/2 turn.

The truss rod is for adjusting relief which is required to keep the strings from buzzing on the lower frets (nut end of the fingerboard). A little relief helps, but if you need more string clearance for slap, raise the bridge saddles.

[amos]

Yeah I had my neck relief adjusted. It plays better but will now buzz on first fret on E string and make a terrible noise with open A string, but that has to do with my bridge...