Relief and Action

[DavePlaysBass]

I am not a newbie when it comes to setups. I change string brands, gauges, and type a lot and have gotten pretty good at setting up accordingly on a stable of 5 basses.

Recently I was playing a friend's new G&L Tribute fiver and it felt fantastic. It had pretty low action but spoke very cleanly. I made some quick measurements and relized he had a setup that I call "high relief" but "low action" with the saddle height adjustments. The bass spoke cleanly in both the low and high registers.

So I went to my G&L Tribute four string and did kinda the same thing. I loosened the truss rod to get me in the 0.020" to 0.025" relief at the 9th fret with first and last fretted. I then lowered the action into the medium low area (per Sadowsky setup measurements at the 12th). And it played great.

I may try this on my Sadowsky and see if I can get things to feel the same. I question why it is that most setup things I read seem to indicate to first get the relief as low as possible and then adjust saddle height. I am starting to believe that higher relief than factory does not penalize you at all. Am I missing something? I know there is the buzz up high but I have never had a setup that buzzed up high and not down low. It seems the higher relief allows the lower notes to really speak in a lower action setup.

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by DavePlaysBass

I am not a newbie when it comes to setups. I change string brands, gauges, and type a lot and have gotten pretty good at setting up accordingly on a stable of 5 basses.

Recently I was playing a friend's new G&L Tribute fiver and it felt fantastic. It had pretty low action but spoke very cleanly. I made some quick measurements and relized he had a setup that I call "high relief" but "low action" with the saddle height adjustments. The bass spoke cleanly in both the low and high registers.

So I went to my G&L Tribute four string and did kinda the same thing. I loosened the truss rod to get me in the 0.020" to 0.025" relief at the 9th fret with first and last fretted. I then lowered the action into the medium low area (per Sadowsky setup measurements at the 12th). And it played great.

I may try this on my Sadowsky and see if I can get things to feel the same. I question why it is that most setup things I read seem to indicate to first get the relief as low as possible and then adjust saddle height. I am starting to believe that higher relief than factory does not penalize you at all. Am I missing something? I know there is the buzz up high but I have never had a setup that buzzed up high and not down low. It seems the higher relief allows the lower notes to really speak in a lower action setup.

Not to belabor the point I was making in another thread here, but this is a perfect example of what I was talking about in that thread.

No, you're not missing anything. What you've discovered is yet another way to setup a bass to give the results you want. The important thing, though, is that it may or may not conform to someone else's suggested setup and _that's ok_.

Personally, a setup like you described here would probably break my left hand and drive me nuts - so if I were to come along and say you had to set your bass up my way, you probably wouldn't like the results.

Instead, you know how to adjust that bass so the feel is to you're liking - you could tell me to go to hell and set it up however you want. That's a _good_ thing not a bad thing .....

So yeah I say ignore the advice and measurements - set the bass up the way you want and enjoy....

LS

[Turnaround]

I don't think it is as easy as "one-size-fits-all". On my Fenders (Jazz and Precision) I got the best results with little relief and higher saddles, while on my Sadowsky and Laklands I had more success with more relief and lower saddles. Same player, same style, same strings, just different basses.

[JustDavid]

Originally Posted by unclejane

Not to belabor the point I was making in another thread here, but this is a perfect example of what I was talking about in that thread.

(edit)

So yeah I say ignore the advice and measurements - set the bass up the way you want and enjoy

Still agree that setups are not 'one size fits all'; strongly agree.

But I think this thread shows yet another way that setup parameter measurements can be a very valuable tool; transferring a setup from one instrument to another.

[202dy]

There is no "one size fits all" set up. This is why measuring relief, string, and saddle heights is so important. Using measuring tools (scale in 64ths, straight edge, and feeler gauges) gives a clear picture of the geometry of the instrument. In doing so, we establish a base line from which to make decisions in completing the set up.

[DavePlaysBass]

I use a set of electronic calipers to measure action and pickup height along with my capo and feeler gauges for the relief. I always like to start from a point of reference. And while I agree that different instruments and strings send me in slightly different directions, I think my recipe gets me 80 to 90% on most basses. Although I will be doing some more expermentation with the relief measurements in the future.

[elBandito]

Exactly. Thank you.

Originally Posted by 202dy

There is no "one size fits all" set up. This is why measuring relief, string, and saddle heights is so important. Using measuring tools (scale in 64ths, straight edge, and feeler gauges) gives a clear picture of the geometry of the instrument. In doing so, we establish a base line from which to make decisions in completing the set up.