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Low Action / Soft Touch

C

CultParadox

Dec 28, 2001
69
0
39
Cape Town, South Africa
#1
I'm know this has been done to death, but I have not been able to find exactly what I'm looking for...

I am the proud owner of a gorgeous new Music Man SUB 5. I took it home, restrung it with my strings of preference (Ernie Ball 45, 65, 85, 105, 130) and took it back to the shop to have it set up.

The setup is great. The action is very low. Thing is, I have to play with a very soft touch to avoid fretbuzz. I mean, very soft. I kind of got into this at band practice last night - I cranked my stack up and it kind of felt like I was barely doing anything at all, yet I was still getting massive volume and tone. On the other hand, if I dig in even slightly even for a moment I get punished unmercifully with fretbuzz that is bad enough to get amplified and blasted at me.

My question is this: is playing with such a soft touch commonplace? Is this the soft touch that everybody is always talking about? Or is my setup poor?
 
#3
Wow it must be really low with it being a sub5 / having the pickup placement where it is. Next time play it amplified at the shop where you get it set-up, and nicely ask the tech/luthier to adjust it to your settings. Maybe you can take it back as soon as possible and ask... they might do it for free real quick since you were just there.
 
#9
CultParadox said:
I'm know this has been done to death, but I have not been able to find exactly what I'm looking for...

I am the proud owner of a gorgeous new Music Man SUB 5. I took it home, restrung it with my strings of preference (Ernie Ball 45, 65, 85, 105, 130) and took it back to the shop to have it set up.

The setup is great. The action is very low. Thing is, I have to play with a very soft touch to avoid fretbuzz. I mean, very soft. I kind of got into this at band practice last night - I cranked my stack up and it kind of felt like I was barely doing anything at all, yet I was still getting massive volume and tone. On the other hand, if I dig in even slightly even for a moment I get punished unmercifully with fretbuzz that is bad enough to get amplified and blasted at me.

My question is this: is playing with such a soft touch commonplace? Is this the soft touch that everybody is always talking about? Or is my setup poor?
Click to expand...
this is whats great about low action. you normally play soft, but when you want the sound of digging in, you just play a little harder. dont dig in like you would with higher action as youll just gett buzz/rattle. just play a little bit harder and youll get that digging in sound if you want it.
 
#10
ApeIsHigh81 said:
Yeah, why? So the fretbuzz that he dislikes is still there? :eyebrow:
Click to expand...

My mistake, I guess it was too early when I read this hehe. I was thinking part of the problem was when he dug in it was loud.

I guess to answer the correct original question, either raise the action, or see if the neck might have too much relief. The straighter the neck, the lower the action can usually be.
 
#13
slinkys are rather low tension strings and tend to flop around. how low are we talking here? below certain height you cannot play hard without buzz. a good fretwork will allow playing around 1mm at the 12 fret, but that`s pretty much it. anything lower and it will buzz.
 
#14
Fliptrique said:
slinkys are rather low tension strings and tend to flop around. how low are we talking here? below certain height you cannot play hard without buzz. a good fretwork will allow playing around 1mm at the 12 fret, but that`s pretty much it. anything lower and it will buzz.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I measured from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the B string and it's about 1mm.
 
#16
You have two simple choices... raise the action or adjust your technique. You've already decided on what needs to be done;)

To your original questions... playing with a lighter touch/using higher amp volume setting is becoming more and more commonplace. Works for some and obviously it doesn't work for others who don't care to do it. Should you decide it is for you, as Narud already said, you'll find that getting the sound of digging is just a matter of degrees. That takes practice. IME using a lighter touch gives you the most manual control over your dynamic range.

If that's what you want, it's time to practice. If not... raise the saddles. You can raise them yourself, no need to take it back to the shop.

BTW pickup height can be an issue... make sure the strings aren't hitting the pickups when you play. People frequently miss that.
 
#18
I would love to raise the saddles myself, but the screws (I think they're called screws? The place wherein you put the allen key) are kinda stripped, and I'd rather have the shop that sold me the bass admit that they have to replace the saddles than have them tell me that I stripped 'em setting it up myself.

That, and the bass didn't come with an allen key or anything, so I don't even have the right tools.
 

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