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Relief and Action height - what do you use?


Twigman
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I answered a thread the other day in which I had expressed my dislike for the Gotoh 201 bridge as I found it impossible to get a nice action without shimming the neck.
Some bright spark 'joked' that my action must be something like 1mm at the first fret, obviously thinking 1mm at the first was stupidly low.
To me that seems sky high.
Am I wrong?

I generally setup as follows:
Nut cut to fret height plus 0.1mm
Relief (capo on 1 finger on 20 - yes I know I should use 16) a tad under 0.5mm at the 7th/8th
Action 2mm at the 17th

What setup measurements do you use?

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Relief; capo on fret 1, finger on fret 20/24 and tap on the string on fret 7 to make sure there's next to no gap.
Put a 2.5mm or 3mm allen key under each of the strings at the bottom fret and make sure the string rises no more than a gnat's as I push it under. I then use a 4/5mm allen key on the top of the pups to get the right height for those.

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I do it all by feel but I like a straight neck with very little relief. I don't have a truss rod so luckily it's right for me but being graphite it hasn't moved since 1988.

I like the action as low as possible so it clanks slightly when I dig in.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/dsv2Tp][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/dsv2Tp]Vigier Passion GK[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiscocks/]Christopher Hiscocks[/url], on Flickr

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[quote name='tom skool' timestamp='1444670241' post='2884965']
I lower the bridge till it just starts to buzz. If the buzzing is at the bridge end, tighten the truss rod
If its at the nut end, loosen. If its evenly spread, job done. Then raise the bridge again to lose the buzz.
[/quote]

My too.

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[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1444670705' post='2884968']
I like a straight neck.
I then raise the action until it scares the life out of some bassists.
(Fretted and Fretless).
Also means Bassists don't borrow my Basses very often. if at all.
:D
[/quote]
Obviously in this context, you don't live up to your user name!
;)

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On a fretted bass, capo on 1 and finger on 13, relief from 6th fret to string anywhere from .125 to .2mm
Action at 12th fret usually around 1.6mm for the G working up to 2.4mm for the E.
At the nut, I cut the slots so that when I fret between 2 and 3 I can tap the string over the first fret and just barely hear a click. I've never measured it precisely.

On a fretless bass I tend to go just a bit lower and flatter if the neck will allow it.

These numbers were converted from inches, so my apologies if the mm measurements don't fall conveniently on available feeler gauges.

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[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1444667145' post='2884923']
Feeler gauges work better than allen keys IMHO
[/quote]
Isn't this what this thread is about?

I have feeler gauges, and would use them if I were setting up a bass for someone else, but I read this thread as being about "how accurate do you measure yours?"

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My initial settings are always:

Relief: capo at first fret, press string at end fret, aim for .25 to .3mm at 9th fret
String height: capo at first fret, 2.25mm on the E/B and 1.5mm on the G at the 12th fret for fretted basses, slighly lower for fretless

Then I tweak to taste on each bass...

Edited by walbassist
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[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1445240140' post='2889740']
Isn't this what this thread is about?

I have feeler gauges, and would use them if I were setting up a bass for someone else, but I read this thread as being about "how accurate do you measure yours?"
[/quote]

yeah I suppose so...I started this thread because someone had joked in another thread that my action must be 'only' like 1mm at the 1st fret, as if that was uncommonly low....which of course it isn't.

I was curious as to how high some people's action might be set as I couldn't even play a bass that had 1mm at the 1st - imagine what it's like at the 12th!!!

So it wasn't so much how accurately it's set up but which measurements you employ that I was interested in.

It seems the chap who feels 1mm at the 1st is low hasn't turned up to this thread.

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I think people get too hung up on numbers, like if their own isn't the same mm at fret x as someone else's there's something wrong. Different players play in different ways and there are different approaches for different genres. Relief? well if the intonation is good/accurate and the neck plays comfortably for you then it's probably 'right' for you. Action is a personal thing, how much fretboard buzz can you live with, how hard do you dig in etc etc. Jamerson's action was notoriously high by modern standards but he'd been a DB player, probably felt fine to him.

Edited by KevB
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All these basses with very low action here.

I don't see them in shops and I don't see people playing them on gigs.
I'd say1mm at the 1st is very low indeed... that is slightly slimmer than a credit card.
If you are anywhere near that at the 12th.... I'd be surprised and would say 2mm at the 12th is low.

For me, it is a feel thing..and if it felt good and right I wouldn't be interested in how much it measured, myself

Obviously, bass action here isn't typical..
In fact, is anything here typical..?? or do we just post for an audience..?

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[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1445258635' post='2889971']
For me, it is a feel thing..and if it felt good and right I wouldn't be interested in how much it measured, myself
[/quote]

+1. I have a standard starting point (see my earlier post) as a reference, but basses can move some way from it according to many different factors.

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[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1445243383' post='2889777']
yeah I suppose so...I started this thread because someone had joked in another thread that my action must be 'only' like 1mm at the 1st fret, as if that was uncommonly low....which of course it isn't.

I was curious as to how high some people's action might be set as I couldn't even play a bass that had 1mm at the 1st - imagine what it's like at the 12th!!!

So it wasn't so much how accurately it's set up but which measurements you employ that I was interested in.

It seems the chap who feels 1mm at the 1st is low hasn't turned up to this thread.
[/quote]

It does, of course, matter HOW you measure the action at the first fret. If you take Warwick's recommended method, you measure with a business card having fretted the string at the 3rd fret.
[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NEXH61OCJY"]http://www.youtube....h?v=-NEXH61OCJY[/url]

But if you're measuring without fretting at the 3rd, then a business card height will be seriously low. But if you are, and it suits you, then fair play to you Bro. It's your bass.

Edited by Grangur
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