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Setup advice


slingo
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Just bought a second hand Cort A6 and the action seems a little high - like 4- 5 mm at 12th fret.Plus bridge saddles are normally a nice diagonal line but these seem a bit odd. ( see pics). I've never had the nerve to adjust a truss rod especially with a through neck. Any advice folks?

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The truss rod is there to set the neck relief and it might not need adjustment. The height of the strings above the fingerboard is determined by the nut (depth of slots) and the bridge saddle heights. The saddles are your first thing to check assuming you know how to adjust them.

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Saddles generally end up diagonal but it's dependant on your intonation. Check how close you are at the 12th fret and if your sharp, tighten the saddle to bring it down, lengthening the string, if your flat, do the opposite. Only adjust the truss if you know your sh*t but if you're going to, a quarter turn is rarely not enough. Tighten to straighten neck, slacken to increase the bow. Tightening should lower action together with dropping saddle height. Be careful though. A little makes a big difference.

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The bridge on your A6 will have two ways to adjust the saddles; some height adjustment and also the way to set the intonation; I'd get the intonation correct before you try setting the action. Be very careful if you decide to adjust the truss rod, if tightening it (which is usually a clockwise turn) then slacken the strings off first and whichever way you go (tightening or loosening the truss rod) never try more than 1/8th a turn at a time and let it settle for a day before tweaking it again. Be aware that overtightening a truss rod can break it (though I've never run into any problems with my basses). I tend to follow the Fender bass setup guide for action but it's quite a personal thing as it depends on how hard you play and the amount of fret buzz you like http://www.fender.com/en-GB/support/articles/bass-guitar-setup-guide/

Note: If you don't have a set of feeler gauges to help you determine/set the correct neck relief then it's safe to assume that a business card (talking about thin card not a plastic credit card) usually has a thickness of 0.012" or 0.3mm.

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