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Lowering action on P Bass causing fret buzz

P

Plasticites

Aug 28, 2010
1
0
#1
My P bass has been giving me the biggest headache lately. The action I have set on it is pretty high at the moment, and has been this way for a while but is so painful to play anymore. Gigging 5-6 nights of the week with this thing has killed my fingers so bad, i would really like to drop the action on this thing, but heres the problem.

I know most of the basic setup for a bass (guitarist gone bass), and im still trying to figure out exactly how low the action should be, ect. My neck looks straight, no bows or anything, but when i drop my strings to where its comfortable (i dont go low low, but reasonably low.) probably still higher than most bassists caus some of the music i play requires aggresive pick use. anyways, when i get the action to where i want it i just start buzzing like crazy. i know all my words are really confusing to read, i just dont really know how to explain myself because im not as familiar with basses as i would like to be. i read in some other posts are relieving the tension or something might make it better?

thanks for trying to decipher my crappy explanation of whats going on any help would be appreciated.
 
#2
Plasticites said:
My P bass has been giving me the biggest headache lately. The action I have set on it is pretty high at the moment, and has been this way for a while but is so painful to play anymore. Gigging 5-6 nights of the week with this thing has killed my fingers so bad, i would really like to drop the action on this thing, but heres the problem.

I know most of the basic setup for a bass (guitarist gone bass), and im still trying to figure out exactly how low the action should be, ect. My neck looks straight, no bows or anything, but when i drop my strings to where its comfortable (i dont go low low, but reasonably low.) probably still higher than most bassists caus some of the music i play requires aggresive pick use. anyways, when i get the action to where i want it i just start buzzing like crazy. i know all my words are really confusing to read, i just dont really know how to explain myself because im not as familiar with basses as i would like to be. i read in some other posts are relieving the tension or something might make it better?

thanks for trying to decipher my crappy explanation of whats going on any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Wow, gigging 5-6 nights a week! Are you pro? Are you on tour? That's quite the schedule!

May I ask what brand/model P bass you're playing? What brand/model/gauge strings are you using?

I realize you say you're familiar with basic setup procedures, but still, take a look at the stickies section. There might be clues that will give you one of those Ah Ha! moments.

Keeping the schedule you've mentioned might mean you'd be best served taking your instrument to an instrument tech. Your frets might need to be worked on, and that's probably something best left to an expert.
 
#3
You don't necessarily want a dead straight neck; try giving it a bit of relief by loosening the truss rod a bit. But never do more than a 1/4 turn in one day. Lots of n00bs turn it a bit, check the relief, and see that nothing has changed. Then they crank it more until they've stripped the nut or something. The wood needs time to "settle in" to the new setting.
 
#5
I'll be the second one to chime in, and tell you that you may need to add a little bit of relief in the neck. You can find rescources on the web that will go into detail about how to adjust an instrument's neck to set relief. As for a super low action, with a super straight neck, one may also have to have the frets leveled and crowned.
 
#6
i have my p bass (a squier) at about 2 mm at the 12th as well. the neck has very little relief. I also use chromes which have a fairly high tension.

I would have never been able to play it this way without getting my frets leveled and crowned.

Good Luck!
 
#8
Gigging 5 to 6 nights a week with high action should be giving you some cramping.

Here's my old timer story--I played 6 nights a week for a little over a year straight. High action is what I'm talking about!!!!!!
 

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