~Curse of the Dead Frets~

[Mesa XI]

I acquired a nice Schecter Neck-Thru bass from my father recently. It had been in the "care" of my little brother for a while, and the neck was completely out of whack. I made a horrible failed attempt at fixing the bowing neck and lowering the action myself, but made it much worse so I took the bass to a local guitar shop for a set up. He fixed it up for me and it played beautifully, until recently...

The first 3 or 4 frets near the headstock are dead or sound like ass. I tried changing the strings to see if that would help, but it did not. I have a few gigs coming up and would like to be able to fix this without taking it to another shop. I have an allen wrench kit and a good set of screw drivers, what should I do?

[Bobster]

Just a guess really, but you might want to try loosening the truss rod just a little. The cold weather tends to straighten necks slightly. This would effect the first few frets.

I'd suggest loosening 1/4 turn and checking the next day. Another 1/4 turn the next day if needed.

Good luck!

Bob

[Mesa XI]

Originally Posted by Bobster

Just a guess really, but you might want to try loosening the truss rod just a little. The cold weather tends to straighten necks slightly. This would effect the first few frets.

I'd suggest loosening 1/4 turn and checking the next day. Another 1/4 turn the next day if needed.

Good luck!

Bob

Now here is my real question. Which way do I turn the truss rod? Last time I apparently turned it the wrong way, so I'm a little gun shy now.

[Lakland55]

With the allen wrench set in the top of the truss rod pull it toward you a 1/4 of a turn, then leave it, check it the next day and make another adjustment if neccessary.

[Bobster]

The general rule is "righty tighty, lefty loosey" (when looking from the headstock toward the bridge). Which means, toward the "G" string to loosen if your truss rod adjustment nut is on the headstock.

Another general rule, is that it should be easier to loosen than tighten.

[JTE]

Almost all (I think Pedullas are backwards, might be others) use regular threads. So, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. Before you do ANYTHING, read through the stickies at the head of this repair forum on set up and maintenance.

Don't adjust the truss rod because it "might" be the problem. Investigate to find out what the source of the problem is, and then take appropriate action to fix that problem. The function of the truss rod is to compensate for different string tensions and to set the neck's relief. Now that affects the string height but it's not how you adjust action. So, check the neck relief. While "sighting" the neck by looking down it can tell you some things, unless you have some experience you won't know what to look for. So, use a straight-edge to see how the neck is set. And your bass has four or five straight-edges built in now.

Tune the bass to where you play it, then fret the lowest string at the first fret and the last fret at the same time. Look to see how much clearance there is between the bottom of that string and the top of the 7th fret. There should be a bit (and what's "right" is subjective. Mike Tobias says a Fender thin pick, Ken Smith said about 1mm to 2mm, Bret Carslon from Pedulla says 0.15", and Fender's spec is .014" (all taken from Dan Erlewine's "Guitar Player Repair Guide 2nd Edition" page 33 © 1994, 1990 by R. Daniel Erlewine).

Check that on your bass. I do suspect that the neck is too straight and you don't have nearly that much clearance. It's possible however that the neck has a warp in it that will give you the relief you expect at the 7th or 9th fret, but causes a hump at the 3-4 fret area, but I'd start with assuming it's a good neck and just out of adjustment.

Given that the bass wasn't treated well for a while I wouldn't be surprised if the wood is still moving. Plus weather always affects necks and most of the time it's pretty noticeable.

If you are going to adjust the truss rod yourself, first make sure you have the correct sized wrench. Then if the neck is too straight (which seems to be the case), loosen the rod a bit. That's a counter-clockwise turn from the viewpoint of where you make the adjustment. If it adjusts at the headstock (my assumption because it's a neck-through) then when you're looking from the headstock towards the body you want to turn the wrench counter clockwise to loosen the rod. Because you don't have a lot of experience, I'd suggest only a 1/8th or 1/4 turn and let it settle for a few days before you try any other adjustments.

John

[Mesa XI]

Originally Posted by JTE

Almost all (I think Pedullas are backwards, might be others) use regular threads. So, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. Before you do ANYTHING, read through the stickies at the head of this repair forum on set up and maintenance.

Don't adjust the truss rod because it "might" be the problem. Investigate to find out what the source of the problem is, and then take appropriate action to fix that problem. The function of the truss rod is to compensate for different string tensions and to set the neck's relief. Now that affects the string height but it's not how you adjust action. So, check the neck relief. While "sighting" the neck by looking down it can tell you some things, unless you have some experience you won't know what to look for. So, use a straight-edge to see how the neck is set. And your bass has four or five straight-edges built in now.

Tune the bass to where you play it, then fret the lowest string at the first fret and the last fret at the same time. Look to see how much clearance there is between the bottom of that string and the top of the 7th fret. There should be a bit (and what's "right" is subjective. Mike Tobias says a Fender thin pick, Ken Smith said about 1mm to 2mm, Bret Carslon from Pedulla says 0.15", and Fender's spec is .014" (all taken from Dan Erlewine's "Guitar Player Repair Guide 2nd Edition" page 33 © 1994, 1990 by R. Daniel Erlewine).

Check that on your bass. I do suspect that the neck is too straight and you don't have nearly that much clearance. It's possible however that the neck has a warp in it that will give you the relief you expect at the 7th or 9th fret, but causes a hump at the 3-4 fret area, but I'd start with assuming it's a good neck and just out of adjustment.

Given that the bass wasn't treated well for a while I wouldn't be surprised if the wood is still moving. Plus weather always affects necks and most of the time it's pretty noticeable.

If you are going to adjust the truss rod yourself, first make sure you have the correct sized wrench. Then if the neck is too straight (which seems to be the case), loosen the rod a bit. That's a counter-clockwise turn from the viewpoint of where you make the adjustment. If it adjusts at the headstock (my assumption because it's a neck-through) then when you're looking from the headstock towards the body you want to turn the wrench counter clockwise to loosen the rod. Because you don't have a lot of experience, I'd suggest only a 1/8th or 1/4 turn and let it settle for a few days before you try any other adjustments.

John

Well, that certainly was a well worded explanation. Not only that, but that was exactly what I needed to know and my bass sound MUCH better.

Thanks a million guys, I love this website!!!