Unsolveable action?

[carlosolivera]

Hey guys its been a while since my last post and I need some help. I have a few basses all of which have handled the weather changes well except for my go to axe. It is a schecter stiletto custom 4. Recently the action has become quite high. I lowered the saddles down as far as they would go and the action is still high.

I took it to a tech and he was no help, he preceded to tell me that no basses have action as low as I want. I grabbed the exact model of his wall and showed him the difference. He said my neck was straight so I doubt it is a truss rod issue.

The most confusing part of this problem is that when I compared my schec to the one at the store, the store bass saddles were raised all the way and it still had lower action than mine whose saddles were bottomed out.

I think my next step might be to take it to guitar center, I bought the extended warranty plus schecter has a a lifetime coverage on their instruments. Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

[carlosolivera]

Sorry to nag, but I would really like to have my main player at full functionality. I am hosting a charity gig in ashtabula Ohio to benefit the local goodwill, and I want to put on the best show I can. Thanks again for the help.

[JustDavid]

Well, is the neck straight?

[carlosolivera]

It appears straight to me.

[JustDavid]

A search for "neck relief" in this forum should get LOTS of hits 7 provide lots of info. "Setup" is a good search as well.

Basically, fret a string at the 1st & last frets & measure the gap between string & 8th fret. That should be between a credit card's width & half that (ROUGHLY: different opinions exist).

[vcat]

If you place your finger on the fist fret (depress it all the way) and the last fret on your neck, how big is the gap between the string and the frets at the 12th fret?

[HaVIC5]

If you've lowered the saddles as low as you can, what you need is a neck heel shim. What ends up happening on a lot of basses is that even with the neck straight, the neck is set too low into the body and so the action ends up being too high. The way I fixed that on my go-to ax is took off my neck (taking off the strings first of course), and then sliding in a business card up against the far end of the pocket (I had to cut around it a little bit so it didn't get in the way of the pocket screw sockets). I only had to use one, and it made a lot of difference, but if after reattaching the neck and stringing it up again it hasn't made as much difference as you'd like, I'd try a second one.

[Beej]

No offense to you HaVIC5, but what you are suggesting is a last resort technique after all other options are tried.

To the OP, as others have said, you need to set the relief correctly first. Likely if you've moved to a different climate, the neck just needs an adjustment...

[toobalicious]

Originally Posted by Beej

No offense to you HaVIC5, but what you are suggesting is a last resort technique after all other options are tried.

To the OP, as others have said, you need to set the relief correctly first. Likely if you've moved to a different climate, the neck just needs an adjustment...

perhaps so, but *if* the neck is straight, and *if* the saddles are lowered to their max, and *if* the nut is cut deep enough, then the *only* way to fix this problem (aside from replacing parts) is with a neck shim.

[Beej]

Sure, but that's a lot of "ifs" there. I've been repairing and setting up guitars for a very long time and in my own experience, a neck shim just isn't usually necessary. That is unless you're working on late 60's/early 70's Japanese imports...

[carlosolivera]

hmm I dont think a neck shim is the answer because I used to be able to lower the saddles and get all kinds of fret buzzz. Now I dont think I could get fret buzz If I wanted it.

After checking the string height with a credit card it appears the neck isnt straight. at the 7th fret, with both first and last frets pressed I have about 2 or 3 credit cards worth of clearance.

Turn the truss rod clockwise?

[ByF]

Yes. One credit card thickness would be a lot of relief. Try for relief between one and two business cards.

And don't give that so-called "tech" your business again. He's an idiot.

Ed

[ehque]

Uh yeah. "2-3 credit cards" is not straight.

[lowendblues]

words to live by:

LEARN TO DO YOUR OWN SETUPS.

I dont mean this in an offensive way, but it will save you a ton of money over the years, and hours of frustration.

[toobalicious]

Originally Posted by Beej

Sure, but that's a lot of "ifs" there. I've been repairing and setting up guitars for a very long time and in my own experience, a neck shim just isn't usually necessary. That is unless you're working on late 60's/early 70's Japanese imports...

heh, or a 90's telecoustic. i had one of those, and had to shim it several times. before i finally offed it (from lost interest and fear of descent into worthlessness), i had moved from *several* thicknesses of business cards to a US quarter . string tension was causing that thing to slowly fold in upon itself. (apparently) the synthetic body material was a bad bad bad design, and not capable of supporting "real" strings, but the silver-flake paint looked pretty trick........ at any rate, the neck was straight, and the acoustic-style bridge virtually non-adjustable. the progressive shimming kept it alive for several years though.

[Zooberwerx]

Seriously, buy yourself a capo, feeler gauges (Auto Zone), and a complete set of allen wrenches. Seasonal set-up tweaks are an absolute must and there's no reason you can't do it yourself.

Riis

[JustDavid]

I think the conventional solution path to repair of seasonal action changes is "adjust neck relief" before "shim neck".