How do you wear your "action" ?? a Poll..

[fish slapper]

since I play fretless and upright as well as fretted, I hate fret buzz and I tend to dig in quite a bit, I like my action a bit on the high side.

 

[Hoyt]

I prefer my action fairly high on my electric and medium high on my URB. I like it when each individual note punches through. I feel it has a tad more clarity, but it all depends on your style. Bill Dickens probably has a pretty low action, while Rocco might have his a mite higher...

 

[cabcreaser]

I've always set my action on a bass to bass basis (sorry that was awful, but it gets my point across). For instance, I love the way a pbass sounds with high action and flats but I also love the way a more modern bass can sound with much lower action. I guess I mostly like med-high to high action.

 

[Mr Venus]

I like it pretty low. I could have it lower on my Rickenbacker without buzz but I like all of my basses (5) to be about the same in this respect.

 

[ctbass]

I set my action high. I find that as certain songs get aggressive I dig in pretty hard and with lower action, I get buzz and farting distortion. When I dig in, I love the growl and punch but don't want the extra noise.

 

[fretless Bob]

i clicked low, but maybe i like it just a little bit above that, like a fraction, that way you get a little bit of bounce when you come away from a note, but i have my geddy lee set up as ow as it will go, i like that also, cant decide what i like more to be honest.


Dave

 

[zachbass02]

what? no super low? I like my strings under frets if possible, I play with a very light touch......

 

[J Posega]

I've got my gross low. When I first got my Ibanez, the action was really high and since it had dual truss rods, I didn't want to toy with it. Brought it to the shop, and the guy said they were set near perfect, all that needed to be done was lowering the saddles.

Thing plays beautifully now. I can coax some clicking out of every note by moving my hand towards the neck and playing a little heavier, or keep things super clean by playing over the bridge PU. I also have my pickups set just high enough that they act as a playing ramp.

 

[bassjigga]

Really low. I don't mind some buzz. Helps me keep a lighter touch.

 

[kherber]

I like a real high action. I've been playing a long time and my hands are pretty strong.

I think I get better, cleaner tone with a high action. Part of my technique (I think) is plucking the string just a nano-second before I actually fret it. A good hammer with the left hand makes the harmonics jump out a bit. To get a good hammer I need some space to build up speed.

Doc

 

[Figjam]

Low

 

[BassGod]

Uber-Low.

I like a bit of the fret buzz when I dig in, but usually I play with a very light touch. The buzz just adds a bit of grrrrrrind.

Graeme

 

[rabass6]

The lowest possible on the Fodera tuned EADGC, a little higher when tuned BEADG to allow the B string to vibrate better.
Slightly higher in both tunings on my Tobias, the lowest possible without buzz on an average pluck.
But I'm costantly tweaking saddle height and truss rod, just to discover the various ways a low setup can be obtained, and I set it differently when I have to slap a lot.
For some reason, my favourite setup for finger playing is not that good for slapping, so I straighten the neck a little and raise the bridge saddles.
But this is in constant improvement!!!

 

[HotTubesGrooves]

I'm in turmoil - my left hand loves low and my right hand loves high. I like the tension of high action on my plucking hand, I find I groove more. Less fret noise too. I do like the feel of low action on my fretting hand though... easy string bends, easy vibrato...

 

[mobax]

I start with the manufacturer's spec and then fine tune. Usually I end up pretty close to spec. If I can't find a spec, I go with the Fender spec. I'm guessing that would be medium.

 

[PawnJunkie]

Medium low. I like a little buzz, especially when I'm playing with a pick.

+1

 

[lonote]

I go with medium low. I used to use high or medium high, but my hands and arms feel much better now that I've gone lower.