| I had pretty much the same issue. I have some Precisions, so my solution is going to be different than yours. I had to raise one side of half my split pickup. I made the mistake of adjusting my bridge saddle height, but not adjusting pickup height as well. My A ended up too close to my pickup. With a jazz bass, you can't really move the middle part of a pickup. It may just be your A saddle, but it's probably best to just go ahead and re-setup your guitar.
OK, here we go:
-First, tune your guitar to get proper string tension.
-Second, you need to set your bridge height. You may as well do them all. The gap between your 17th fret and your strings should be about 3/32"(2mm). I use a gap measurement tool purchased from Pep Boys. Your saddle heights should get higher as you move toward the middle - a slight arch, mirroring your fretboard. I like a lot of action, so I set my bridge a tad bit low. Love that slapback!
-Third, re-tune your guitar.
-Fourth, you'll set the pickup height. Hold the strings down against the last fret. Now, measure the distance between your pickups and strings 1 and 5. The gap should be 3/32" for a bassier sound; 5/64" for more treble. Adjust pickups accordingly. If your pickups are too close to the strings, you can get false tones and lack of sustain. On the basses that I have with multiple pickups, I will set my bridge pickups on the treble side and my center pickups on the bassy side, for mutiple sound options.
-Finally, re-tune your guitar. If you find you are getting excessive fret slap that you don't care for, by all means raise the saddles a little bit. Before this point, you should have your bridge properly set. So, if you adjust it, I wouldn't do more than 1/4 turn per screw, doing them all at once. You would also have to re-adjust your pickups to proper height. Bridge height can be flexible. The gap between pickups and strings isn't.
If your measurements are correct, you should be good-to-go!
The specs I just gave you are Fender factory specs. I use them on all of my basses.
Good luck!
If that doesn't take care of the problem, try adjusting just your A saddle. I don't know how your guitar is set up. Just remember, larger gap = bassier sound. But, don't overdo it. If you're fine tuning the saddle height, use very small increments.
Last edited by deeptubes : 02-22-2011 at 10:22 AM.
| 
