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Lateral Nut Position Wrong?

#21
This may be partially due to nut placement, but more often this sort of misalignment comes from the neck being slightly skewed in the neck pocket. Simple fix: loosen the neck bolts, push the headstock gently toward the treble side until the strings are evenly centered on the fingerboard at the 12th fret and above, and retighten.

A common problem with Fender bolt ons.
 
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#22
interp said:
This may be partially due to nut placement, but more often this sort of misalignment comes from the neck being slightly skewed in the neck pocket. Simple fix: loosen the neck bolts, push the headstock gently toward the treble side until the strings are evenly centered on the fingerboard at the 12th fret and above, and retighten.

A common problem with Fender bolt ons.
Click to expand...

This is also quite common if the instrument has fallen off a stand at some point.

The nut is wrong and should be fixed, but that degree of misalignment at the 20th feet is going to be the neck or a misaligned bridge. The fret alignment is between 1 and 2mm out, but it looks like a lot more at the body. Let's see a picture of the strings over the pickups - ideally they should be between the pickup poles, but if they are skewed towards the e string then the bridge needs to remounted and/or the neck shifted in the pocket.

It's a pain to pay for a defect to get fixed, but it's a minor job to correct. You do need to know which bits are out of wack though. My money is on the neck shifting as a result of a knock.
 
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#24
grillman said:
I might be wrong but shouldn't this thread be in the "Urology" section ? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
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#27
It's always a crapshoot trying to diagnose action problems via photos, but from what I'm looking at the nut slots are wrong inasmuch as the E (and then the resulting spacing of the others) is too close to the fingerboard edge. A little stagger to the low side isn't a bad idea, but this is way past that. And if it's jumping out of the slot, that tells me the slot is a hair too shallow as well.

I'd think this is another case of probably a great little bass that needs to be massaged by a good guitar tech to put the details right, and a new nut with a careful neck line-up would bring this to fighting shape in no time. (NOTE: The operative word here is 'a GOOD guitar tech' . . . . ). Remember, if and when you do that to bring a set of the strings you use.
 
#30
The picture showing your string alignment at the heel indicates that the neck needs to be realigned. You have to understand that moving the string over at the nut doesn't result in much change at the heel. Try it for yourself - loosen your E string and pop it out of the nut, towards the A string - you'll see it's still not right at the heel.

It's easy to do, as has been mentioned previously - loosen the strings a bit, loosen the neck screws a bit, push at the headstock sideways, towards the G string, a bit, until the strings are centered at the heel. Retighten the neck screws and tune. Very easy, nothing to fear.

Also keep in mind that the strings can be a lot closer to the edge down near the nut because it's a lot harder to bend in the first 4-5 frets. Up towards the middle and heel of the neck it gets a lot easier to bend, and so a lot easier to push/pull a string off the edge. I'm not saying your nut doesn't need work, it does, but I think it's a lot less of a problem than your neck alignment.
 
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#31
yes, that looks like neck alignment as well as the nut being slotted wrongly. The G string slot is too far in and the E slot is too far to the edge, as well as the neck not being set straight. it might be acceptable if you can get the neck to shift enough, at least to start with. At least the bridge looks like it's been positioned correctly. Is the string spacing adjustable on that bridge? I cant see from the photo.

With care, I'm sure that can be corrected but you may need to fill the neck holes with a piece of Maple dowel and re-drill the holes in the riht position. The lower side of the neck pocket or neck may need to be shaved slightly.

Good luck with the fix - hopefully it won't take a pro long if you don't feel happy taking it on.
 
#38
Dump the BadAss and go with the vintage threaded saddle bent plate bridge. You will get perfect string alignment over the magnet poles and neck edges and your bass will sound exactly the same and also will be about 5 oz lighter in weight. High mass bridges are a joke! IME

Works best with strings off..................

Measure center on fret #1. Measure center on fret #20. Mark center with tape and a pencil. Run a string or sewing tread from center mark on fret #1 to the center screw hole for the bridge. Take a look at center mark on fret #20. Does the taunt string run through the center mark on #20? If not, you'll see which way the neck has to go to center up. You can loosen the neck and pull it one way or the other to center up (hopefully). You can use black construction paper pieces as shims in the neck pocket (on one side or the other) to help hold the neck in place while ya tighten it down.

I am a geometry freak. There must be near perfect alignment with bass assembly!
 
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