Low String Tension, Buzz, no punch...

[groovejam]

I just got my bass back from the repair man, a MIM Fender Jazz. Before, when it was playing well I had no problems with buzz and had a fairly high string tention which I like.

The repair man put a new set of strings on and said that he set up the bass since it needed it. When I got the bass back there was so much buzz below the 5th fret, esp. on the E, that I found the bass almost unplayable even with the lightest touch.

I thought It might be the new steel strings, I ususally use nickel, so I put the old strings back on which helped a litle but not much. Then I raised the bridge sadles a little and this helped some but there is some buzz and the tension seems much lower than it used to be. No matter how I pick the notes seem to have no punch or definition, it almost sounds like a shot scale.
I know he took a lot of tention out of the neck and lowered the pick ups. But wouldnt this decrease buzz and and tension and clarity...

Please help.. I am frustrated!

[SherpaKahn]

Well, buzzing between the nut and 9th fret (low down on the neck) would be due to the neck not being bent enough (not having enough bow, having too much backbow, however you want to put it), which you get when you move from a heavier gauge of strings to lighter strings.

You correct this by loosening the truss rod, NOT by raising the saddles. You raise the saddles to keep the notes higher on the neck (12th-19th frets) from buzzing. If I were you I would lower the saddles back to where he had them, or get him to do that, and either have him loosen the truss rod a little or loosen it yourself.

If he "took a lot of tension out of the neck", that probably means he loosened the truss rod, which would be good, but your neck could have settled in a bit after you brought it home, and might need to be loosened a bit more.

The type of string you put on your bass is very unlikely to be the source of the buzz; it's how it's set up that would do it, and regardless of which strings you put on it, the neck is still going to need to be adjusted a bit to suit the tension.

[groovejam]

ok I might try this, the only thing that makes me leary is that is seems like he already changed the truss rod alot.

[62bass]

I'd just take the thing back to the guy and demonstrate to him what the problem is. If he's at all competent he'll be able to adjust it to your liking while you are there.

When you have someone do this work for you, you should always play it through an amp before you leave the shop. It saves you a lot of extra trips.