Neck through 5er setup - need advice

[Marley's Ghost]

So I have been working on getting an optimal setup on my Carvin XB75, but have run into some issues. With a straightedge and feeler gauges, I measure the space at the 7th fret at about .022. Carvin specifies .015 for optimal relief. The truss rod is so tight that I am hesitant to try to adjust any more. There is only a bit of fretbuzz, but the main problem is that the B and E sound clacky with anything more than a feather touch. The intonation is close to perfect. Do you think I should try to adjust the relief further, or maybe raise the saddles a bit?

[AmadeusXeno]

Sounds to me like raising the bridge should help eliminate the clack, and probably the fret buzz too. I have found the straighter the neck the higher the action needs to be on my basses. Thankfully for me I like medium/high action. Every time I try setting low action with an arrow straight neck I get fret buzz and clank like you are getting unless I use a soft touch. I get kinda aggressive with my playing at times though lol.

[Marley's Ghost]

I just gave the truss rod about a 1/8 turn (it seemed to have loosened a bit). Will check the clearance later to see if it helped.

[JLS]

Originally Posted by Marley's Ghost

So I have been working on getting an optimal setup on my Carvin XB75, but have run into some issues. With a straightedge and feeler gauges, I measure the space at the 7th fret at about .022. Carvin specifies .015 for optimal relief. The truss rod is so tight that I am hesitant to try to adjust any more. There is only a bit of fretbuzz, but the main problem is that the B and E sound clacky with anything more than a feather touch. The intonation is close to perfect. Do you think I should try to adjust the relief further, or maybe raise the saddles a bit?

Consider getting a fretmill, from someone who knows what he's doing. (Didn't I just say that, somewhere else?)

Several months ago, I bought a used Carvin 5 from GC, so beautiful you could die, looking at it, but the neck was bowed, the trussrod maxed, and it didn't respond at all to back clamping. I was so disappointed, I didn't even plug it in, until the next morning, whereupon I found out the B string piezo wasn't functioning. Back to GC it went...

[Rockin Mike]

Best is when the neck has more curvature near the nut and is straighter near the pickups.

How much is the right amount? Find that by trial and error. Adjust the truss rod until the relief looks about right. Let the neck settle for a couple of days. Adjust string height at the bridge. If it's buzzing before it gets low enough for you, loosen the truss rod a *tiny* amount to give it a *tiny* bit more bow. Go back and forth between fine tuning the truss rod and fine tuning the bridge saddle height.

You can do a better job than a professional because you can spend a couple of months fine tuning it once a week until it's optimal.

Taking it slow also teaches you how to adjust your technique to play on a really low action without buzzing. I found myself turning up the volume and playing with a much lighter touch and compression.

You probably already know, don't adjust the truss rod more than a half turn every couple of days. The wood needs time to adjust evenly to the new pressure. Go too fast and you can make a permanent pretzel out of the neck.