Raising/Lowering Action?

maju dragon · #1 03-21-2006, 11:02 PM

hey, i was just watching this guy play some primus stuff on youtube. he was pretty dang good and played really fast and everything. I was noticing that it seemed as though his action was really low (the strings were really close to the fretboard.)
I was wondering if I should make mine low because im interested in learning tapping and it just doesnt sound right when i try. Is it because my action is too high?
anyway, here is the link to the guy if you want to check it out.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cIactu60mEM

so any suggestions on the benifits of how the action is, would be great. thanks guys.

Poop-Loops · #2 03-21-2006, 11:03 PM

I never knew there were benefits to high action, actually...

ras1983 · #3 03-21-2006, 11:27 PM

high action has some major benefits, mainly less string buzzing and less hissing. the closer the strings are to the pickups, the more hissing you will have because they are in a stronger part of the magnetic field.

Poop-Loops · #4 03-21-2006, 11:32 PM

I have a question. When I fret the 9th fret on the E string, and then play the open G string, my E string buzzes. No matter how correctly and hard I press down, it still buzzes. It's weird. No sound through the amp, though, only the bass itself. Any idea what I can do to fix this, or if I should even bother with it?

Twistad · #5 03-22-2006, 05:37 PM

I used to have extremely low action and my luthier recently reconverted me to a medium-higher action.

It is still probably low compared to the instruments you try in music stores but i just can't believe how much better my bass sounds.

I now have the possibility to accent notes much easier and i get a tone that is miles and miles ahead of what i had previously. Notes also ring out a lot more this way, and i feel like my bass has much more "boom" to it.

It was a bit hard to tap in the first week but i am now accustomed and i realize that my tapping sounds much better since the note are actually coming down hard on my fretboard.

Anyway my point is, a lower action is definitely not necessarily better a higher action.

Correlli · #6 03-22-2006, 07:38 PM

I have high action. I use tapping techniqes as well.

morfine · #7 03-27-2006, 07:28 AM

i use the highest action i can get and isnt still high enough.