Action troubles...

[Ziddy]

My bass's action is quite high (to the point where the higher frets, in particular, are difficult to play), but when I lower the saddles, frets past the 12th start to buzz. After reading the Gary Willis setup guide, I concluded that I needed to tighten the truss rod. However, I'm having trouble with this part of the process:

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I've tried doing that, but I'm not sure how much pressure I need to put on it when turning it (don't want to break the neck!), and it's a quite awkard position (my bass's physical shape doesn't seem to lend itself to that technique very well). Any advice?

 

[Matthew Bryson]

I was talking to somebody about this last night. I got a call from my step son about a buzzing problem in the high frets and I was describing how to tighten the truss rod.

I told him to hold the bass vertically with the strap button on the floor, to put his right foot in front of the bass, his left hand behind the neck and his right hand on the front of the head stock and then have his dad tighten the truss rod nut a 1/4 turn while he pushed with his left hand. I told him that you need to be an octopus to do it all yourself.

Can you just get somebody to lend a hand?

 

[Poop-Loops]

Uhhh... You're supposed to "help" straighten it when you tighten the rod? Oops...