Is my action to high?

[Verdun 67]

I like my action to be medium-high since I like to really dig in.But I’ve been wondering if my action is just to high even for my style of playing.
Images attached below.

 

[4SG]

 

[micguy]

It's often tough to judge such things from pictures, but that does look high. When I do setups for myself, or for folks that don't already know what they want, I shoot for .070", .075", .080", ,085", and .090" on a 5 string from the bottom of the string to the top of the 17th fret. The smaller numbers are the higher strings.

 

[blastoff99]

We have a forum these questions will take up
The help over there never lets up
The people in there
Will guide you fair and square
I'll move this right over to Setup

 

[Watchootognbout]

500 miles high.

 

[SteveCS]

I like my action to be medium-high since I like to really dig in.But I’ve been wondering if my action is just to high even for my style of playing.
Images attached below.

Looks very high to me, even for a very heavy hand. I imagine it is really demanding on your left hand and also a nightmare to intonate. What is more striking is the way it seems to get higher and higher as you go up the neck. Generally speaking, IME, a higher action is better achieved with increased relief rather than simply raising the saddles. That way you still make plenty of room for the strings to vibrate but they tend to become more parallel with the fingerboard as you approach the heel. This makes playing all over the board less variable in terms of left-hand effort and intonation.

YMMV

 

[Naigewron]

If it works for you, that's all that matters. I like my action super low because I don't like to work hard, and I like the attack of the strings hitting the frets. I've seen plenty of other bassist do amazing work on action similar to yours.

But yeah, definitely far too high for my tastes. I wouldn't describe that as "medium high", but rather as "very high".

 

[vaesto]

There should be reason for such high action! In general, you should have it as low as possible to play without fret buzz (or at least acceptable level of the buzz). If you have that high action and still have a buzz then the neck might have geometry problems like "ski jump" or some frets are high.

Another thing which contributes to high action is neck bow (relief). Please press the E string on 1st and 15th fret and see how big is the gap between string and top of the 8th string. It should be 0.3-0.5 mm, not "a few mm".

 

[ElectricBass72]

I despise high action. I get my strings as low as possible to the fretboard without buzzing. The action on one of my fretless basses is so low.... I don't see how the strings don't clank off the board, but amazingly they don't.

 

[Steve Slate]

I like my action to be medium-high since I like to really dig in.But I’ve been wondering if my action is just to high even for my style of playing.
Images attached below.

If you think it's too high then you might try tightening the truss rod just a bit. See if that helps.

 

[roadyboy]

If the gap keeps rising the higher you go up the neck,...I imagine that plays hell with the intonation.

 

[buldog5151bass]

If it works for you, the it works (ask Jamerson). Adjust it lower and see for yourself.

 

[lowendblues]

500 miles high.

This.

 

[Turnaround]

500 miles high.

Which may be right for you


(...though I doubt it)


.

 

[fourstringdrums]

Jokes aside, that looks prohibitively high. I would get it set up properly and then if you have to raise the action some, go from there.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Which may be right for you


(...though I doubt it)


.

For me?
No.
I'm a belly scraper.

 

[Chris_will_do]

If it works for you it's not too high.

 

[Grinderman]

There's string height works for you and there's height a measuring ruler would show.

I don't know or see either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SkylineFiver]

If you can slip a box of business cards under the E string your fine.

 

[96tbird]

You are high. Way too high.