NBD - Epiphone Grabber

[60bass]

It may just need a shim. Very common for bolt on basses

Thanks for your response. As someone who's played bass for over 50 years it's actually not as common as one might think. And I've rarely had to do it to a brand new bass. Especially one that has a list price of $1000. Of course, I got it for less than that but still it's brand new. I have however had to do it on some of the older import bases from Japan and Korea. I actually did mess around with it some more today and was able to get it significantly better by adding a full pocket Shim in the neck pocket. But it was a very thick Shim and it is very noticeable. If you look at the neck pocket / body joint you can see a visible gap. It does play nicely with the shim Shim installed but I still say it shouldn't be needed especially not when it's thick as I had to put in there. That just affirms my feeling that for some reason the neck pocket got routed too deep on this particular instrument. That's why I was asking here if anybody else who owns one has run into the same issue.

I've got some of the actual wooden tapered full pocket shims here and I will try messing around with those tomorrow. if not I'll just probably try another one and return this one.

 

[Lammchop93]

Thanks for your response. As someone who's played bass for over 50 years it's actually not as common as one might think. And I've rarely had to do it to a brand new bass. Especially one that has a list price of $1000. Of course, I got it for less than that but still it's brand new. I have however had to do it on some of the older import bases from Japan and Korea. I actually did mess around with it some more today and was able to get it significantly better by adding a full pocket Shim in the neck pocket. But it was a very thick Shim and it is very noticeable. If you look at the neck pocket / body joint you can see a visible gap. It does play nicely with the shim Shim installed but I still say it shouldn't be needed especially not when it's thick as I had to put in there. That just affirms my feeling that for some reason the neck pocket got routed too deep on this particular instrument. That's why I was asking here if anybody else who owns one has run into the same issue.

I've got some of the actual wooden tapered full pocket shims here and I will try messing around with those tomorrow. if not I'll just probably try another one and return this one.

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I've played two of these Epi's. One had insanely low action, but the other was "close enough". Sounds very different than your experience.

 

[SonnyBassPlayer]

I have to ask the op and anyone else who might have purchased one of these how they found the action height and setup out of the box?

I recently purchased one of these and the action was very high to the point where I would estimate to be around 3.5 MM. Also, the bridge saddles were almost fully bottomed out on the E and the G string. The A and D were pretty low too but there was a tiny bit of travel left. But the saddles were nowhere near the middle of their travel like you would want them to be so that you could go both directions with string height .

After studying it a little bit and contacting my sales rep to let him know I had a lot of issues with it out of the box. I studied it a little bit to see if I could ascertain what the problem was. My guess was that the neck pocket had been routed too deep at the factory and someone at final setup prior to shipping dropped the bridge saddles all the way down to try to compensate for it and when the action was still too high they went ahead and shipped it anyways.

So I guess what I'm asking any other fellow owners is how was the string height at the 12th fret and higher and were the bridge saddles on the deck or were there adjustments available in both directions? When you received yours?

I really like the playability of this but on a brand new instrument I shouldn't have to pop in a stack of fairly thick shimming material in order to get it where it plays decently. I'm okay with asking for a replacement but I don't want the replacement to be the same way as this. Since these things are usually CNC routed or at the lease machine routed I can't believe that my bass with the neck pocket being wrong is just a one-off thing. That just doesn't happen in mass production.

In all honesty there would have to be something seriously wrong with any bass guitar if I couldn't repair it myself. I've been playing for decades and have done all my own work for decades. But I feel I shouldn't have to on a brand new instrument. So TIA your opinions and advice are appreciated. Here's a couple pics of how it looked right out of the box. Pretty bad, also, note that the neck relief was dead on at 0.10 So I know the high action wasn't because the neck was bowed .

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Hi there!

If I remember correctly the action was a bit high out of the box, but so were the saddles; I had room to adjust everything and now it'ìs perfect for me (low tension strings). Your bass seems like it could have used some more QC, mine never had such height. How is the truss rod?

I must admit that I could get lower but not too much.

 

[60bass]

Hi there!

If I remember correctly the action was a bit high out of the box, but so were the saddles; I had room to adjust everything and now it'ìs perfect for me (low tension strings). Your bass seems like it could have used some more QC, mine never had such height. How is the truss rod?

I must admit that I could get lower but not too much.

TBH I never even looked or adjusted the truss rod because the neck relief was perfect right out of the box. but the fact that I had to put that thick shim in there definitely tells me that either the neck is not the correct heel depth or the body is routed too deep.

I didn't change strings or anything because I'm going to be returning it. Since these things are machine made I find it hard to believe that the issue I'm having is just a one-off. That's why I figured I might ask other owners what their experience was cuz I'd hate to order another one and have it have the same issue.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

No excuse for a bass to be shipped with action like that.

 

[60bass]

No excuse for a bass to be shipped with action like that.

I agree 100%. Somebody at the final section area blew it Big time. I really believe what happened was when it got there the action was way way high and they just lowered all the bridge saddles right to the deck and threw it in the box.
TBH This would not be the first time that I purchased an Epiphone bass that, should we say it was not in the greatest of condition when I received it. Maybe Fate is trying to tell me something and I haven't been listening.

 

[60bass]

I decided to go ahead and return this. I packed it up and rebuilt the box as best I could because it was mashed up from shipping the company I bought it from honestly didn't do a very good job of packing it. And it was Sweetwater and they have always been very thorough in their packing in the past. In fact I would say most of the time when I would get a guitar from them it would be over packed. So something definitely went wrong this time. I looked at the box closely today to see if I could pack it back up. And it really looks to me like they took a box and they cut it down to make it fit which I can't understand because he could just put some more packing material around it inside. Who knows.

I really did like it and I might honestly try another one I'm undecided right now. Mainly due to the way it was packed. If that's how they have to pack these to ship them I'm not going to take another chance. Because the box was abysmal .

But I can say 100% that the box and bass are going back in better shape than When they arrived.