Low action, neck stability, and truss rod adjustments

[davecheng]

It's winter time in Toronto, and my basses are often in and out of places with notable temperature and humidity changes.

While I don't exactly leave my instruments in a parked car in sub-zero temperatures, a 60 minute ride in the trunk followed by a two hour set at a packed bar is still a pretty significant variation.

My two main basses—a Roscoe LG-3005 and a Lakland Joe Osborn 5—have graphite reinforced necks. They're both set up with ultra-low action, probably 3/64"–5/64" to the strings around the 22nd fret. The necks have but a hair of relief, and adjusted so that they're a blink away from fret buzz.

In the past few weeks, I've found myself needing to constantly tweak the truss rods on both these basses... a lot more than I ever remember doing in years past.

(I've always preferred low action, but this year I've brought it down even lower.)

I'm guessing my low-tolerance, low-action setup is revealing just how much climate can affect a bass.

Anyway, this might be a stupid but obvious question:

How stable are the necks/setups on your basses, esp. those of you that subject the gear to significant changes in temperature and humidity?

Do you find you have to tweak a lot to keep the setup where you like it, esp. those with low/ultra-low action?

[Deep]

To me it sounds like just what you said. You've lowered the action lower than you usually have in the past and now if that neck responds to any climate change even slightly it will be more noticeable.
My basses need tweaking every so often when I'm home and when I'm on the road even more with the changes in climate and flights. One of them is a Lakland five also and I consider it to be a very stable neck.
For me anyway, when the action is very very low the feel of the neck to a climate change is more noticeable and tweaking can be more often. When action is kind of medium-low or medium it may not be too noticeable when the neck reacts just a little bit.

[MNAirHead]

for conditions like this,./. made sense for me to go to graphite necks.

[JimiLL]

if I were you, I would keep the guitars out of the trunk and in the passanger seat near the heater with you......seriously.

It doesnt get that cold in nj, maybe down 10-15 F. But I Would never leave one of my basses in that kind of cold for very long.

Same thing with amps that have tubes inside.

[Deep]

Geez...I glossed over the "having it in the trunk" part. I'd keep it with you IN the car where you are comfortable and out of the cold yourself. Just like JimiLL said.
That can be an extreme temp change...ice cold trunk to a hot steamy club. That could easily cause you to need a tweak.
A composite neck works like a charm in conditions like that. MNairhead is is correct. I had a composite necked bass at one time and it NEVER moved.

[Lo-E]

+1 on keeping it in the car and not in the trunk.
Also, you may have better luck in extreme temps with a thick gig bag rather than a hard case. A hard case offers no insulation, whereas all the thick padding in a gig bag acts like a parka for your bass.
I think the others are right, though... you've lowered the action so much that even the slightest change is going to affect you. It might be worth going back to where you've had it in the past.

Personally, I haven't had too much trouble with necks moving around much in New York. Our summers are pretty muggy and our winters are cold and wet, but the extremes are not... well... all that extreme. Also, I tend to set my basses up with a medium action so a bit of movement doesn't change much for me.

[davecheng]

I guess the best common-sense piece of advice is to keep stuff out of the trunk.

I'm used to putting everything back there for the odd time I'm parked for a quick stop for food, etc. My professional (photography) insurance policy has a deductible that quadruples if ever equipment is stolen out of the passenger compartment of the vehicle, so by force of habit, everything has been getting locked up in the trunk.

[Ric5]

The temperature is not the problem ... the humidity is the problem. The shock of going from warm to cold will not change the bow on your neck. But it can cause finish checking. Wood does not really expand and contract much at all due to temperature. But wood does expand and contract with humidity. The perfect environment for a musical instrument is 35% humidity. I live in Denver, it is pretty dry here year round. When it gets below 0 outside it becomes a challange to keep the humidity above 25% in my house. I run several humidifiers. When you go out to gig there is no humidifier in your car but there is a heater which will dry things out. Also there probably isn't a humidifier in the bar either, but there is a heater which will also dry things out. When the wood dries out it shrinks. This has the same effect as loosening the truss rods. Conversely when the humidity goes up the wood expands. This has the same effect as tightening the rods.

Remember really low humidity can damage wood.