Neck ramp?

[RockInRollDaddy]

Fellas:

A friend of mine bought a G&L L-2000 off e-bay and, since I use his house gear when we jam together, I offered to set it up for him...because I'm a nice guy and, well, I get to use it so I want it as nicely set up as possible. The action was set really low and the strings clanked against the frets everywhere. If played very lightly it was barely playable, but that ain't how I roll. Problem is the neck on this puppy seems to have a significant "ramp" to it. I can get it to play pretty nicely on the first five frets and then the action is too high until past the 12th fret when the "ramp" takes over. The strings are set to the lowest point where playing at frets 15-17 is tolerable, but you can't hit 'em to hard.

I think the relief on the neck is reasonable, maybe even more than I would set it optimally. I adjusted the neck tilt gizmo some, but it seems like no tilt is best as that setting at least doesn't enhance the "ramp".

I can set up my bass & guitars pretty well, but this G&L is a tough old buzzard. Interestingly enough the body of this bass is dated 1984 the neck 1995. Makes me wonder if there is a history of neck problems with this one.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Rock on!

[96tbird]

Carl Pedigo of Lakland says the rule of thumb is buzz at 5 down, not enough relief. Buzz from 12 up too much.

Try getting your relief to .010" at the 9th and then set action.

But, if that doesn't work, you may have the dreaded ski jump and a fret level (or worse, planing of the board) may be needed.

[RockInRollDaddy]

Will do, thanks.