How high or low is your action set/preference?

[Yahboy]

i set my neck relief and action base on playing style ，string type and string stiffness.

to me, Fender bass setup guide is great starting point since 2007 when i want do setup my self.

.012 neck relief check on 7th fret. action check on 17th fret , 2.4mm on E to 2.0mm on G.

On my previous China Squier CV 60 pbass + Ti Flat , i prefer .010 relief, action 2.0mm ~ 1.6mm . No fret buzz with medium finger style playing. Yes, this bass has wonderful fret work from factory.

My current Sub Ray5 has higher tension EB Flat 2810, i set the relief .014 , action 2.0mm on B to 1.5mm on G. this is another bass with wonderful factory fret work.

I have a bass player friends who prefer aggressive pick playing style, he prefer use high tension DR lo rider SS (45-105) on his Pbass. I set him .020 relief which has more room for string vibrate , and 2.6mm on E to 2.2mm on G. No fret buzz when medium picking, meanwhile the wonderful fret clicking bass tone once his aggressive picking style engage. Win Win on both playing feel and comfort fretting hand.

Hopehelp

 

[tomd999]

Hiya,

Currently I'm running .080 to .065 on my fretted Leo type 34" scale 4 strings, .075 to .060 on my fretless and .100 to .060 on my 35" scale 5'er all with ~.008 relief except the 5'er, I run .010 on that.

Tom

 

[Yahboy]

LOW...only way to go.

My Spector's flat-profile neck(bass side), and the action on the treble side at the 12th fret:

View attachment 3791326

View attachment 3791327

wow, very low action.

 

[Element Zero]

I run a medium-high action on my main and a medium-low on the other one.

 

[James Collins]

The answer to your question is your action is not weirdly low. I don't know why a tech would literally laugh at it.

 

[Reiska]

I come from upright and old school pizz tone, gut strings set high. I`m working on my right hand touch but I do like to dig in on the electric too, that`s why i prefer high tension strings with medium action, on both my fretless and fretted slab. Quite recently watched Gail Ann Dorsey interwiev and she explained how she tends to play with light touch. That was real food for the though as I find her beeing a pretty hard rocking and huge sounding bass player:

 

[Michael4bass]

Hey, Michael. I think I’ll use that measurement to check mine with. I just today bought lighter strings and lowered my action to try to make myself play lighter. I set things by how they felt, but a starting reference would be nice. We ain’t getting any younger and I want to head off any hand problems before they start.

I made a post in Technique about how I spent my day with this endeavor.

Talk soon, take care...G

That's cool, Geri. I like the original Rotosound gauges (.046, .063, .080, .102), so I prefer the GHS ML5000 (.044, .063, .080, .102) sets or a stainless .045, .065, .080, .100 set. We'll do lunch as soon as the restaurants open back up. Stay safe.

Bassically, Michael

 

[chuck65]

My action is low ! How low ?.......so low that if I play standing I will definitely get some clank if I dig in , but high enough that I can still get clean tones without having to tickle the strings. So low that if I sit down and play, and lean the Bass with the fretboard facing up ,the weight of my hand on the fretboard will make it buzz while I play. This helps me stay neutral with my hands ,only playing the neck and not leaning on it. I have found that it is the weight of my fret hand resting on the neck that causes fatigue a lot more than it is the weight of the Bass overall. So I keep the action real low and practice playing the instrument without adding any body weight to it while I play..Only my fingers touch the Bass...I know TMI ! but .....

 

[HardNHeavy]

low enough where there is no fret buzz anywhere on the neck while staying in perfect intonation.

 

[phangtonpower]

As low as it can go. My warmoth p bass has the Estring between 1.5 to 1.7mm on the E string at the 12th fret using heavy gauge La bella flats. Neck has a little less neck relief than what Fender recommends and the frets were leveled when I got the neck. Not much fret buzz unless I really dig in.

 

[scuzzy]

Hello fellow bassists! Just curious how low or high you have your action set. My tech literally laughs at how low I like my action. I have a really lite touch and like to be able to dig in and get some fret buzz when the song calls for it. My 4 string basses are all set at .080 inches at the 12 fret on the low E and .060 inches at the G. From the top of the fret to the bottom of the string. I also tune down a half step and play mostly P basses with medium gauge strings. Is this ridiculous low or just average low? Thanks and let’s hear some of your action preferences. Thanks and stay safe and healthy.

To me, that doesn't sound ridiculously low. I have all mine set up sightly lower and consider them to have a medium/low action. I have played a couple with even lower. Just didn't suit my style.

I try to keep a hint of relief and like my string height at about 1.25-1.5 mm on all strings at the 17th fret. It's comfortable for me. I keep the nuts cut pretty low.

 

[dhagopian]

I'd laugh too

 

[ChrisBowsman]

I used to play guitar with fairly high action, started bass with it fairly high, then got into the ultra low thing.

It’s easy to play, but I don’t think I like how it feels. Been listening to Janek Gwizdala’s podcast a lot, and he’s an advocate of higher action. I’m doing his method of raising it a little every so often, and it’s working really well. Right now, I’d call it medium-ish, but the actual measurement varies from bass to bass.

 

[Tom Gallo]

As Entwhistle once said, I like my action on the other side of the frets. I need action due to arthritis in my hands. It definitely makes my tone worse.

 

[Hypercaffium]

Relief is 0.30 millimeters on all of my basses. Action is 2.5 millimeters on each string, on all of my basses. I measure everything just because I can, and it's easier and faster to do. I'm sure I'd be able to do that by feel, but it's unnecessary and less precise imho.

 

[David McIntire]

I measure my action on an initial setup. Just for reference later if I try new strings or acquire new basses. My Main I've had for ages. It doesn't move or change. And I have found what I like on it, and use the same strings and setup almost always. If I'm gigging a lot? My hands get in shape and I have to raise action a tad. If, like now, I'm sitting a lot, I lower it a bit as my hands aren't being kept in shape.

Tone is my first concern with setup. Not comfort. Muscles used will get stronger. To get the tone and control of buzz I like, I run my action a bit high. I don't measure fret buzz at home, alone. I listen for it on my gigs and rehearsals, make mental notes, then adjust as necessary.

My first bass' action was awfully high. I didn't know you could adjust it. So I just played it. My hands got strong. Later, as I tried to copy some of my heroes' setups, I realized how high my action was. But because of my experience, I simply can't go as low as others. And I wouldn't want to.

I measure my basic action at the last fret, not fretting a string. I call it "unweighted". At the last fret, my main bass has action of 3.5mm under my Low B string, and my G string hides the line of 3mm. The other strings follow the fretboard radius. My necks are very straight, so that the action raises by the same amount the length of the board. And, when I fret a note, the action at the next fret is similar to the open string action at the nut. At all positions.

Apparently, the action I set is considered high by many. But once I fret a note, the next frets action is as low as it is at the nut. So my hand doesn't notice. But the tone seems bigger as the strings have more room to vibrate. Reading articles long ago by Roger Sadowski talking Will Lee's setup led me to my current formula. Along with articles by Anthony Jackson, who said, "I want my action to get consistently higher as you go up the neck". Anthony also said that because of his No Relief setups, that he had to run his Nut Height a bit higher, too. That has also been my experience. But my basses have been played. A lot. Flat frets, worn nut slots, change things slightly over time. My fretless setups are the same, minus the fret height on my main. I find this reassures me mentally that my hands feel the same on both basses, even tho that isn't true.

As someone earlier said? Each person's hand size, strength, will vary a setup. I could not play basses setup as low as I've read in this and other threads. That's super cool. But I could not do it. Others tryin to play my bass laugh, an call me crazy. But it works for me. And that is what a setup should do. Work for the player. No matter the height.

 

[deckstirparnell]

I play pretty light with a lot of dynamics. I guess I would say as greasy low as I can go but still be able to dig in a little without rattling or string distortion for louder passages.

 

[gln1955]

Each bass I have has it’s own fit and feel. I don’t measure I just set it where it feels comfortable.

The first time I did my own setup, I got out the ruler and feeler guages and measured everything. I soon decided that was a total waste of time since those numbers were useless to me. I do it all by eyeball and feel. I have no idea how much relief I'm running or how low my action is. It's probably highrer than some of y'all go with since I can't tolerate buzz.

 

[scottfeldstein]

Hello fellow bassists! Just curious how low or high you have your action set. My tech literally laughs at how low I like my action. I have a really lite touch and like to be able to dig in and get some fret buzz when the song calls for it. My 4 string basses are all set at .080 inches at the 12 fret on the low E and .060 inches at the G. From the top of the fret to the bottom of the string. I also tune down a half step and play mostly P basses with medium gauge strings. Is this ridiculous low or just average low? Thanks and let’s hear some of your action preferences. Thanks and stay safe and healthy.

I'm right with you there. That's about 5/64 on the E and 4/64 on the G. I make some allowance for my low B to be a little bit higher than the E, but basically it's the same as what you like. Most bass guitars can't go much lower than that without experiencing significant fret buzz. But this height is comfortable to play and also allows for some "honk" of fret bounce when you dig in hard.

 

[Standalone]

It’s weird that nobody ever talks about hand / finger size when discussing string height. The focus is always on playing style, and while that definitely has a lot to do with it, we also all have different size / shape hands and fingers, which means that our definition of what’s ‘comfortable’ will not be universally the same for everyone. Someone with long boney fingers will fret a note differently to someone with short stubby fingers. Someone with giant lumberjack hands might naturally use more force than someone with thin, delicate ‘pianist’ hands. We can all just set the action where it feels right, according to our anatomy and playing style.

We’ve all picked up basses that we find unplayable because of high action. An upright player borrowed my PBass for a song at a jam once, and every note he played sounded like the neck was broken, he couldn’t deal with how low the action was. For me, it was set up perfectly.

I play DB and yes I prefer medium action on electric. And then there are my long bony fingers to consider.