String Height

[chrisanthony1211]

What constitutes a low action? I set my Precisions up with a 2mm gap between the top on the 12th fret and the bottom of the strings, this seems pretty good to me, I've managed to set it lower before but found it a little uncomfortable to play, particularly when slapping, what's string height do people tend to have?..

[PlungerModerno]

About the same. More for the Low B on a 5er - more like 2.5 mm, but never over 4 or 5 mm - It'd be hard to play.

[FinnDave]

I set mine to 3/32" (about 2,5mm) at the 17th fret, feels comfortable to me.

[HowieBass]

Yeah I go for the Fender recommended heights, 6/64" (2.4mm) for the E at the 17th and 5/64" (2mm) for the G at the 17th. The low B on my Curbow 5 gets just a touch more height than 6/64", about 2.6mm.

[EssentialTension]

I don't like what is in my view too low an action; in my experience it limits the string's ability to vibrate - so Fender Precision is 4mm at 12th fret for E string.

With acoustic bodied instruments even better to be higher, IME - so fretless Takamine B10 is close to 6mm at octave position for E string.

[franzbassist]

With a capo at the first fret, I aim for 2.5mm on the E and 1.5mm at the G. These measurements are taken with a gap of .25mm at the 9th fret when pressing the string at the first and last frets.

 

Edited April 20, 2018 by walbassist

[chrisanthony1211]

2mm a actually seems to be quite low then! Does anyone have their string height much lower than this?

[chrismuzz]

I always thought my action was on the low side, but it's definitely more than 2.4mm!

[LITTLEWING]

Now THERE'S another thing.....Fender and the Haynes Fender manual say about setting up the heights but is that at the 17th with a capo at the first fret or without?

I set my P and Jazz without a capo at 7/64" at the E at the 17th fret gradually sloping to 5/64" at the G and that gives me a nice relationship between finger/thumb and plectrum as long as I don't get too enthusiastic.

[hamfist]

Potential string heights can vary massively between different players. Some players almost just stroke the strings with the finest touch, others (including me) play like a possessed gorilla. For me, I can never ever get the E string down to less than about 3mm at the 12th fret, whatever the quality of the neck and fretwork, simply because I pluck the strings so hard they need a lot of space to vibrate without causing way too much fret buzz. Other folks can get their actions down to 1.5mm or even lower on the 12th Fret E string. I find that these plays always play very gently though.

I'd say as a general rule of thumb a good, well adjusted, high quality neck and action should be able to get down to 2mm for a light player and 3mm for a heavy player (12th fret E string). Personally I'm happy playing actions up to 4-5mm, but I am aware I am not the norm.

[HowieBass]

I only set the neck relief with a string held down at the 1st and 17th frets (and aim for about .012") whereas for the action I measure without fretting a string at the 1st and that seems to work well for me.

[Twincam]

I had my guitars set up all different ways.

Here is my "own personal" view on strings heights and neck relief measurements. Now people do measure height in different places i measure at the 17th fret (from top of fret to bottom of string). Also it depends on strings. In general the higher tension the string the lower you can go.

4.0mm string height measured at the 17th fret and neck relief .20 measured at the 7th (with capo at 1st fret and finger on the last. Is the max string height and relief most people could get away with. This setup will be very clean and give a nice deep tone. This comes with trade off's such as ease and speed of playing. There are folks out there how can easy play with a setup like this and even higher, but in general this really is the most you want.

3.0mm and .15 relief. is a good trade off between a standard action height and a high one.

2.4mm and .10 to .15 relief. This is in line with fender specs. Pretty much any bass will play ok with this setup. Some players with a robust attack might still get fretbuzz when not intended. This i my default go to setup, from there i will adjust a bass to match what i want or if im doing a set up for another i will fine tune it for them.

2.0mm and up to .15 relief Will just be really starting to test how good the frets are. Most people with a controlled attack can play this set up.

under 2.0mm-1.5mm and .10 and under relief needs good fret work. Someone who can control there attack.

Under 1.5 mm i feel tone starts to degrade (my view only). 0 to .7 relief is for players with a very light touch. There are some great players who can get big sounds out of low relief im not one of them.

My personal set up is using rounds 3.0mm and .10 relief. Flatwounds 2.0mm and .10 relief.

Carol Kaye used a high setup and used to recommend 4mm from fret board to string. So just over 3mm or depending on your fret height.

James Jamerson supposedly had huge string clearance too. You can really hear this in his tone, it's not all about the ancient flatwounds he was playing. He had a very strong plucking technique and needed that room to let the string really vibrate.

Will Lee. He had a big string height at 4mm and still complained of fret buzz. Apprently his action has came down over the years.

In the other direction. There are also plenty of players who make low action work for them, and there is tone in fret buzz and clank too. Chris Squire, John Entwhistle etc etc.

There are no rules just what feels right for you.

[Dan Dare]

It's all down to the individual player. I never measure height. Just set it so it feels right and doesn't buzz.

[LITTLEWING]

Absolutely spot on.

[RhysP]

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1420975078' post='2655597']
It's all down to the individual player. I never measure height. Just set it so it feels right and doesn't buzz.
[/quote]

This.

People get far too hung up on numbers.

[FinnDave]

Measuring everything to the Nth degree can seem a bit OTT, but I have two P basses, one Fender which is my main bass, and a Squier I use as a back-up, and I want them to feel as similar as possible so that if I need to change mid gig there is no difference in feel or sound. Measuring one and then applying those measurements to the other made this quick and easy for me. My Jazz bass I set my eye and feel as it will never feel like a P anyway. In fact, it very rarely comes out of its case these days.

Anyone interested in the eternal Fender vs Squier debate might be amused to know that I copied the set-up from my VM Squier to my US Standard and not the other way around!

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1420975078' post='2655597']
... I never measure height ...
[/quote]
I only measured it because someone asked.

[xroads]

around 3mm at the 12th fret, between bottom of string and fret. I hate fretting noise, so I prefer a bit higher action.

[Michael J]

I can slide a pencil in between my E string and the fingerboard at the 12th fret. I guess that means I have quite a high action...

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='Michael J' timestamp='1421270278' post='2659284']
I can slide a pencil in between my E string and the fingerboard at the 12th fret. I guess that means I have quite a high action...
[/quote]
... or a very small pencil.

[FinnDave]

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1421271242' post='2659306']
... or a very small pencil.
[/quote]

I believe that can be treated these days, though probably not on the NHS.

Meanwhile, back on topic....I was under the impression that an excessively high action would make it impossible to set the intonation correctly, being able to slide a (perfectly healthy) pencil between fingerboard and strings sounds excessive to me.

[Brother Jones]

Long ago in the late eighties I would drive myself nuts about this. I'm a lot more accommodating about it these days. It partly depends on the neck. Graphite/CF does make a big difference The two Zons I've owned in the past had the lowest actions of any bass I've ever played - probably around 1.5mm at the 12th.

It's not really possible to do that on a regular wood neck. And I'm not sure I'd want to anyway - preferring a bit of fight and bounce on my Jazzes.

[chrisanthony1211]

I've been messing around a bit with my string height and I'm actually liking it a little bit higher than I've had it fir the last 20 years!
About 2.5mm at 12th fret seems perfect, I found that the neck radius seems to have an impact on string height, my P with the 7.5 inch radius cannot get as low as my P with 12.5 inch radius, is this normal?...

[ubit]

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1420975078' post='2655597']
It's all down to the individual player. I never measure height. Just set it so it feels right and doesn't buzz.
[/quote]

Yip! This is me. I play around, if it buzzes, the strings come up. I used to always try and get the strings as low as humanly possible and think , yeah, this is ace. But folk kept saying they could hear clicking going on all night. So now the strings are a lot higher, but it's a nice clean sound.

[Michael J]

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1421271729' post='2659319']
I believe that can be treated these days, though probably not on the NHS.

Meanwhile, back on topic....I was under the impression that an excessively high action would make it impossible to set the intonation correctly, ...
[/quote]
Excessively high will do that, yes. My bass is on standard pitch and in tune with correct intonation. I have had the action quite a bit higher.