String Height

[Wolverinebass]

On 02/04/2020 at 20:45, 4000 said:

IIRC Wolverinebass likes his action a fair bit lower.😉

I do indeed. I've had my Status Buzzard down about 0.5mm at the 12th fret. My Alembic is pretty much the same.

 

There is no way that I want to fight a bass with my left hand. Sod that for a game of tennis. 

 

Admittedly, some basses just can't be set that low. However, try doing tapping when you could drive a bus under your action. My style which is quite percussive (not slapping!!) suits this really well, but it's not for everyone.

 

Even my 12 string Hamer has an action probably lower than most people could believe. Many thanks to Martin at the Gallery for that.

 

A lot of it is down to style as well. I tend not to dig in and play somewhat differently to most. If I had a different style then I'd have a different preference. 

[4000]

28 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

I do indeed. I've had my Status Buzzard down about 0.5mm at the 12th fret. My Alembic is pretty much the same.

 

There is no way that I want to fight a bass with my left hand. Sod that for a game of tennis. 

 

Admittedly, some basses just can't be set that low. However, try doing tapping when you could drive a bus under your action. My style which is quite percussive (not slapping!!) suits this really well, but it's not for everyone.

 

Even my 12 string Hamer has an action probably lower than most people could believe. Many thanks to Martin at the Gallery for that.

 

A lot of it is down to style as well. I tend not to dig in and play somewhat differently to most. If I had a different style then I'd have a different preference. 

Martin once said he had one only customer who likes lower action than me. I imagine it’s you. 😉😂

[Bassfinger]

Medium-low for me, about 3mm at the 17th fret.

 

Any lower and it starts to adversely affect the tone, and the frets clanging can show up as clicking and popping, which is annoying.

 

Also, going any lower than that starts to make hammer-on's and pull-offs both harder to do, and sonically less effective. 

 

Really low is restrictive in so many ways, so fairly-low but not silly-low works best for me.

[Wolverinebass]

13 hours ago, 4000 said:

Martin once said he had one only customer who likes lower action than me. I imagine it’s you. 😉😂

Very probably. I think when he fret stoned the 12 string the amount of metal taken off could have built the empire state building.

[Musicman666]

Low action for me on my fretless is when it can’t be played lying down …only standing up.