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Lakland DJ5 action

S

Stephen May

Jun 20, 2022
7
8
#1
This is my first post; I hope I haven’t missed anything as I searched through the forums. I recently purchased a Lakland DJ5 and the setup / action is remarkably low, which I enjoy, however this bass is incredibly telegraphic, meaning so sensitive. I’ve adjusted my touch to be precise and more ‘light’ (not digging in), but it’s just crazy, like being under a microscope compared to my Fender American Professional Jazz, or really, compared to any of my basses, including a Q4 Modulus.

All my basses have La Bella flatwounds so I realize the Lakland roundwounds contribute to the liveliness of the sound, but the D string buzzes when played at the first and second fret, and by the fourth fret it is clean. The G is similar but slightly less. I considered making an adjustment but the B, E, and A are not doing that. I know great lengths are taken at Lakland in setting it up, (PLEK), so I don’t want to adjust anything without getting some advice. Any advice??
 
#3
Stephen May said:
This is my first post; I hope I haven’t missed anything as I searched through the forums. I recently purchased a Lakland DJ5 and the setup / action is remarkably low, which I enjoy, however this bass is incredibly telegraphic, meaning so sensitive. I’ve adjusted my touch to be precise and more ‘light’ (not digging in), but it’s just crazy, like being under a microscope compared to my Fender American Professional Jazz, or really, compared to any of my basses, including a Q4 Modulus.

All my basses have La Bella flatwounds so I realize the Lakland roundwounds contribute to the liveliness of the sound, but the D string buzzes when played at the first and second fret, and by the fourth fret it is clean. The G is similar but slightly less. I considered making an adjustment but the B, E, and A are not doing that. I know great lengths are taken at Lakland in setting it up, (PLEK), so I don’t want to adjust anything without getting some advice. Any advice??
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need neck relief. Loosen the truss rod a bit.
 
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#4
Thanks, I’ll try that. I’m not new to caring for my basses, and I’m comfortable adjusting my setup but I’m concerned that possibly the string slot on the nut on the DJ5 for the D and maybe also the G might be cut too deep since the B, E, and A strings are not behaving the same as the D and G. (buzzing at first and second fret)…
Also, thanks for moving this post to the correct forum.
 
#6
Skyline, I appreciate your reply. I made a very small counter-clockwise turn to the truss rod; I’d say it was like “12 O’clock” to “11 O’clock”. And I raised the bridge guides slightly, and a smidge more so for the D and G. I am surprised at the difference it made. Truly I was extremely careful to make it a very subtle adjustment and it sounds so much better. Action is still very low but the buzzing is almost completely gone, it’s more of the Lakland ‘purr’.

I think my hesitation to adjust it was because it had received the PLEK treatment in Chicago…. I’m grateful for all the input and especially the advice about making slight / sparing adjustments. I run LaBella flats on all my other basses, so it was already shocking to me how sensitive my DJ5 seemed and I figured it was partly the roundwounds but certainly it was also a significant amount of fret buzz, so I’m super relieved that it is much better now! Thanks again.
 

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