1975 fender Jazz bass . I cannot lower the action without serious buzzing after the 12 th fret. All parts are original . 3 bolt beck. Strings might be too thick or too old . Maybe needs new Bridge ,or replace neck . Simple truss rod adjustment , microtilt adjustment ?#... Strings are more than 6 months old .045 to 105. Please help.
Well you just need a decent "Set Up" - hint hint ! Most likely is that you need to adjust the truss rod and if this still doesn't get you a lower action, you couuld try the shim thing. I would suggest that you look at the neck and see whether it's straight or bowed in any direction - there are detailed guidelines on: www.fender.com - I would suggest going through these step by step - look for Mr. Gearhead!
The most common cause of your problem is too much relief in the neck. I would try a 1/4 turn tighten of the truss and then reset the action and intonation. As a rule, high fret buzz (12+) equals too little relief low fret buzz (1-5) equals too much Also, this thread should (and likely will soon) be moved to setup. Chas
That means trying to raise the neck as a whole by putting shims between neck and body. A lot of Fenders have necks that are set too low into the body joint, thus making low action hard to achieve, or even impossible. Our singer has a mid-70s Fender Jazz that has the same problem.
I sent the bass to the Luthier and confirmed that the neck at the body is too low. Either by tilt adjustment or shim . Saddles at thier lowest and action was still very high. Also D'DAARIRO strings are not best for versatility on this bass. Adjustment being made with fresh set of KEN SMITH nickel MEd. guage strings. Will get results in a few days .
