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Specific action question

JTE70

JTE70

Mar 24, 2019
521
704
Florida
#1
Hello,
I have a Fender jazz bass with action I can’t get down to 2.25. The saddles are not bottomed out, but if I lower them anymore, I get buzz on the upper frets. The truss is maxed out with as little relief as possible. I was thinking of shimming, but I don’t know whether I need a wedge shim that would raise the angle, taking the lower part of the neck away from the strings, or a flat shim.

Any advice is appreciated. I need a good .3 or .4 mm correction I think to get the action to 2.25 or lower. Thanks.
 
#2
I am assuming when you say "upper frets" you mean like the 12 through the last. If that is right, it is possible your frets needs a leveling job. Neck shim is usually when you bottom out on the saddles and the action is still to high, not really to fix the buzz. It is always best to set the neck relief to a spec 0.012" or so at the 7th fret with capo on first and fretting last. Once that works, you can then fiddle with reducing the relief.
 
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#6
My suggestion would be to do a carefully measured setup on it. Put the neck relief at 12 thousandths of an inch. Then bring your E string height down to 5/64ths of an inch. You should be able to do the rest of the strings slightly lower, but put the G lower than 3.5/64ths.

If you do that and you have notes that won't play cleanly, then it may need fret leveling.
 
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#7
Actually I managed to get another half turn out of the truss rod after leaving it alone for a day and got the action where I wanted it. I think I was just not trying hard enough. Thank you for the replies.
 
#8
JTE70 said:
Actually I managed to get another half turn out of the truss rod after leaving it alone for a day and got the action where I wanted it. I think I was just not trying hard enough. Thank you for the replies.
Click to expand...

Cool. You know sometimes all the truss rod needs is a little mechanical help. Bend the neck in the direction you're trying to go and then tighten the rod. Helps to have another set of hands when doing this, though. This way, the rod doesn't have to bend the wood itself, it just has to come in and hold it there once it is where it needs to be.
 
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#9
scottfeldstein said:
Cool. You know sometimes all the truss rod needs is a little mechanical help. Bend the neck in the direction you're trying to go and then tighten the rod. Helps to have another set of hands when doing this, though. This way, the rod doesn't have to bend the wood itself, it just has to come in and hold it there once it is where it needs to be.
Click to expand...
I’ll keep an eye on it for the next couple of days to see if it stays put. If not, I’ll try the bend technique! Thanks.
 
#10
scottfeldstein said:
My suggestion would be to do a carefully measured setup on it. Put the neck relief at 12 thousandths of an inch. Then bring your E string height down to 5/64ths of an inch. You should be able to do the rest of the strings slightly lower, but put the G lower than 3.5/64ths.

If you do that and you have notes that won't play cleanly, then it may need fret leveling.
Click to expand...
Put the G NO lower than 3.5.
 
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#12
JTE70 said:
just curious why to not put the G lower than 3.5. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hey, you can put it wherever you want. I'm not the boss of you. It's just that any lower and I think you may find some buzzing. It's like 5 for the E. Could you go lower? Maybe. Or higher? Could be. But I find that 5 is a low enough to please most players and yet high enough to avoid any unwanted buzzes. Provided the neck relief is set to a reasonable level.
 
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#13
scottfeldstein said:
Hey, you can put it wherever you want. I'm not the boss of you. It's just that any lower and I think you may find some buzzing. It's like 5 for the E. Could you go lower? Maybe. Or higher? Could be. But I find that 5 is a low enough to please most players and yet high enough to avoid any unwanted buzzes. Provided the neck relief is set to a reasonable level.
Click to expand...


Thanks, just was wondering.
 
#14
This is true, people always want to get action as low as possible, but it is not always evident if there is any benefit of that passed certain point. It becomes more of a case of chasing the unicorn I guess.
 
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#15
Just wondering are the measurements specified from the bottom edge of each string (facing the fretboard) or the top edge (away from fretboard)?

I’m sure there’s a sticky on this?
 
#18
Action too low for me= fret buzz on loud long notes anywhere on the fretboard. Depending on music and if you need an aggressive fret “clank” you could stay lower.

I usually lower all the strings until they all buzz then raise each a little at a time, tuning in between, until none of them are buzzing. Then I measure all four from the bottom edge of the string to the fret, and using the highest measurement, I raise the others from the bottom edge until the bottom edges are all the same distance from the fretboard.
This gets me as low as possible but with the bottom edges of the strings matching the fretboard radius. Feels most comfortable this way, even though some strings could be lower.
I was just wondering how my method measured up to numbers quoted above.
 
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