Zon Setup Help

[trayerrx]

Hey Everyone,

I have a Zon Sonus Custom 5 (fretted). I've had it for almost a year and a half, but it rarely gets played. The last few times I've played it i've been getting really bad string/fret buzz. I changed the strings and raised the action at the bridge, but it didn't help very much at all. I'm thinking the action at the nut may be too low? It has a graphite nut....would I need to have a new nut installed? or is it possible to adjust mine somehow? anyone know a repair man in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area who would be good at this? Thanks!

Scott
trayerrx@hotmail.com

[fretlessrock]

Having a new nut made and properly fitted is the best way to go if the problem is the nut.

Check the neck relief by fretting a string at the 1st fret and at the 15th fret. Look at the gap (hopefully) between the string and the frets between those two points. You are using the string as an ad-hoc straightedge. You can move those two fretted points around to check in other areas of the neck.

If you have some relief then your feeling about the nut is probably correct. Still. I'd get it to a good tech before trying anything. And it might seem extreme, but you will get the best results by biting the bullet and sending it to Zon for a setup.

[62bass]

If you're getting fret buzz on open notes, then it could be the nut. But if you get it on fretted notes, look at neck relief, neck angle and high or low frets. The nut has nothing to do with fretted notes.

[trayerrx]

Yes, I'm getting buzz on fretted notes, so it sounds like a neck relief issue? I swear this didn't happen when I bought the bass a year and a half ago! How could it have changed having a composite neck like it does? Thanks for your help!

Scott

[trayerrx]

The bass used to play well, BUT I always felt like I needed to play with a super light touch on it....digging in too much alweays caused buzzing. I didn't change anything to make the buzzing worse. I tried changing strings (I put a new set of D'Addario's on it last week). This didn't help, so I raised the saddles....this didn't really help either. From what I can tell about the neck it is VERY straight. I can't see any relief at all. I talked to Zon on the phone tonight. They suggested sending the bass back to them for a check up. Apparently they started putting metal rods in the necks in 2005? Thanks again for the help guys!

Scott

[ehque]

yup if youre lucky (like me) the early 90's basses had truss rods too. im thinking you just have to raise your action more, and bite it, or send it to zon. they are nice ppl.

[Halftooth]

What's the string height at the 12th and 24th frets currently?

At which frets does the buzzing occur?

Every Zon bass that I've owned ('00 on up) has had little to no relief in the neck to begin with, and I think the difference in string height from 12th to 24th was less that 1/64 of an inch.

I've also heards that at times, Zon necks can move or settle, and At times the necks back-bow from this settling period. Joe says that almost 99% of the time, there is no settling period with the composites but that it does happen some time. If this is in fact your problem based on string height measurement, I'd send your bass in to Joe to see what can be done.