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Action adjustment

KingRazor

KingRazor

Jun 4, 2010
6,747
415
37
Beaverton, Oregon USA
#1
I want to, very slightly, increase the action of the strings on my bass. It's mostly the bass side that needs it because of the B string. It plays fine with a light touch but if I dig in too much it rattles. I'd like the action to be high enough that I can dig in a bit and not hear any rattles.

The bass was pretty recently set up. Neck is totally straight. Frets are level. Honestly the guy did a very good job on this bass, I have less rattling and fret buzz than I've ever had on this bass. I want to try and have even less though.

So, what I'm asking is, what do I need to do to accomplish this? Will I have to do any truss rod adjustments or can I do this all at the bridge?
 
#2
From your description, you should only need to adjust your bridge. If the height increase is small enough, you may not even have to tweak the intonation. Definitely not the truss rod. The truss rod should only need adjusting if the environment influences your neck, or if you change the amount of tension on the strings, (different strings, alternate tuning, etc.) In any setup adjustment, the best rule is to go slowly and gradually.
 
#3
+1 VERY slight adjustments on the bridge saddles until you're happy. Not a truss issue at all.

Actually, getting to "know" your bass to where you can do your own adjustments like this is great. I don't even go to a tech unless I have a fret issue.
 
#4
Good to hear. I really don't want to mess with the truss rod if I don't have to, I prefer to have a tech take care of it if I need neck adjustments. But for something as small as this I don't have any qualms about doing it myself. Thanks for the help, now I just need some allen keys.
 
#7
dave_bass5 said:
All good advice but, i would say that if the neck is totally straight (and im only going by whats been written), putting a bit of relief in it might help with the digging in issue, especially if its more of a problem from the nut to around the 6th fret.
This would also mean the action might not need adjusting.

Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's where the rattling comes from primarily. There is very little space between the first fret and the string. As it gets closer to the 12th fret the distance increases.
 
#8
Alright I'm still trying to figure out exactly what to do here. The only place where the B is too close is at the first couple of frets. If I increase the relief, won't it dip more in the middle of the neck before it starts to relieve at the ends? The spacing is fine in the middle of the neck...
 
#9
Man, don't screw with the relief, especially if you don't know what the hell you're doing. Get the right Allen key and adjust the saddles you want higher action on ( count the turns, just in case ;)) and if that doesn't do it, take it back to your tech. IMO the flatter the neck the better, as long as there is no fret buzz.
 
#10
Never fails...."buzzes / rattles" and "neck is straight as an arrow" all in the first paragraph. A few suggestions / comments:

*There's no reason you can't do your own set-ups, including truss-rod tweaks, provided you read the stickys above and apply some common sense.

*Your set-up will change with the seasons, different string brands & gauges, etc. Being able to recognize and adjust accordingly is basic instrument maintenance IME.

*Invest in some rudimentary tools....straight edge, feeler gauges, complete set of hex keys, capo, decent tuner, etc.

*Standard disclaimer: more than a few TBers tout the advantages of a perfectly flat / -0- relief fingerboard. I, for one, cannot make it work to my satisfaction. Given the number of complaints (read my opening statement above), this apparently holds true for many.

Riis
 
#12
Most of my basses require some relief. One of my old Ps and my 4001 do not.

My point was that if he doesn't know what he's doing, take it to a tech, but it seems like adjusting the saddles ( as long as he counts the turns so he can change it back if need be) is something that ANYONE can do.

Possibly, when he picked his bass up from his tech and he told him that it was fine, he didn't really have time to put it through it's paces first. Most techs will tweak their set-ups for you if you are not happy. The tech I used to use before I began doing my work myself guarantees his set-ups forever. Once a year you can bring your guitar back to him and he'll set it up for free.
 
#13
Floyd Eye said:
Possibly, when he picked his bass up from his tech and he told him that it was fine, he didn't really have time to put it through it's paces first. Most techs will tweak their set-ups for you if you are not happy.
Click to expand...

I've been lucky...a couple of techs allowed me to watch the process firsthand. They'll actually go as far as to watch you play and make adjustments accordingly.

Riis
 
#14
A little buzzing and rattling never hurt anyone. :) For real. If it's only doing it when you dig in it might not even be noticable in a band situation.

As for the fixin it yourself if you choose to, don't allow anyone to scare the crap out of you. Practice doing it yourself, it's not as difficult nor dangerous as some people make it out to be. All you really need are the proper allen wrenches and a little bit of common sense. To me the capos, feelers and rulers make it a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. But I guess it depends on personality. I play by ear and feel, others read music. :) Anyhow, as long as you go easy and only make small adjustments (1/4 turn at a time is the general rule) you won't get into trouble. And you can always undo whatever you've done, or worst case scenario (which most like WON'T happen) have to bring it back to your tech guy.

Learn to do it yourself. You'll be happy you did.
 
#15
I had the same problem. I took it to a tech gave it his "birthday" special and still buzzing. Once we looked at it he saw that some of the frets were not level. So we went fret by fret and slightly shaved down the frets until we got what we were looking for. Hope this helps.
 
#16
Be sure that you are not digging in to compensate for an amp that may
be a little on the weak side. Also, be sure it is not your technique
applying too much up/down motion on the string (versus desirable
side-to-side motion).

If these are not the problem, go ahead and adjust the bridge to raise the
action. It's an easy, fully reversible adjustment. Be sure to loosen the
string before you make the adjustment so you don't stretch the string.

Low B strings are floppy. They need a little more room than the other strings.
 
#17
warnergt said:
Be sure that you are not digging in to compensate for an amp that may
be a little on the weak side. Also, be sure it is not your technique
applying too much up/down motion on the string (versus desirable
side-to-side motion).

If these are not the problem, go ahead and adjust the bridge to raise the
action. It's an easy, fully reversible adjustment. Be sure to loosen the
string before you make the adjustment so you don't stretch the string.

Low B strings are floppy. They need a little more room than the other strings.
Click to expand...
I know it's not the amp. My amp has two inputs, low and high. I have to put it in the low input in order to keep the volume reasonable and even then the volume knob is at like 4 (on the amp).

I don't think there's any problems with my technique really. It might not be ideal, but I can dig in all I want on any string other than the B without much unwanted noise.

Once I get my hands on some allen keys I'll give the bridge some adjusting and see what happens. As I said, this bass was recently setup, so the frets and neck should be pretty good. Also, the string definitely rattles much less than ever before. I just don't want to have to use a super light touch every time I play the B string, especially because I like hard rock and when I play that stuff digging in just comes naturally.
 
#18
KingRazor said:
...
I don't think there's any problems with my technique really. It might not be ideal, but I can dig in all I want on any string other than the B without much unwanted noise....
Click to expand...

I didn't take warnergt's comment to mean your technique is a "problem" per se as much as he's suggesting a lot of pushing the strings at the FB ("up/down motion") will cause more clacking than spanking them parallel to the body ("side-to-side motion"). So it's possibly as much a root cause as your action (even though your other strings behave differently). So if you can get less clacking by rotating your wrist, that might provide a bigger payoff for your playing in the long run.

Good luck, and keep digging in!!!
 

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