Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 Can anyone please quickly measure their relief ? Fnarr fnarr capo on 1, pressing last fret, how thick is it (the gap) below fret 8? jazz bass with 45105 rounds please Quote
ped Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 People say a credit card thickness but I like it literally a hairs width above 👍🏼 Go by feel, not numbers. 1 Quote
Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 It’s about that - think my bridge is too high then, or I need a shim preferred materials ? Quote
Deedee Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 6 minutes ago, ped said: Go by feel, not numbers. 100% agree with this. I set up my basses as I like them. If I was to set them as the factory or recommended spec they’d just feel wrong. 3 Quote
Reggaebass Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 Mine is less than .25 on this ruler , if that’s any help 🙂 1 Quote
Deedee Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 When I do it I firstly set the neck arrow straight with the truss rod (no relief). I then adjust the bridge saddles down to the required height. If I then find that I need to shim the neck, I’ve used cut-up business cards but ideally a thin piece of laminate. They’ll all work equally well in my experience. 3 1 Quote
Reggaebass Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 1 minute ago, Deedee said: When I do it I firstly set the neck arrow straight with the truss rod (no relief). I then adjust the bridge saddles down to the required height. If I then find that I need to shim the neck, I’ve used cut-up business cards but ideally a thin piece of laminate. They’ll all work equally well in my experience. That’s exactly the same way I do it 🙂 1 Quote
ped Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 8 minutes ago, Geek99 said: It’s about that - think my bridge is too high then, or I need a shim preferred materials ? The best option IMO is to file down the string saddle - go further than you need to then raise it to taste. You can get special files for that. Quote
Reggaebass Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 A business card looks really thin , but when used as a shim it makes a big difference to lower your action, it’s deceiving 🙂 2 Quote
Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 I’ll see how low with the saddles being dropped thanks Quote
nilebodgers Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 12thou (0.3mm) on both my p-bass and old yam BB. The "right" amount depends on how hard you play and how much buzz you can tolerate - 12thou works for me (quite heavy handed, happy with 5/64-ish (2mm) action), but YMMV. 1 Quote
dave_bass5 Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 I measure mine like Carl from Lakland shows in a video on YT. He puts a feeler gauge of the thickness he wants on the 8th fret, then uses a straight edge (like an 18" steel ruler) placed along the frets going up the neck. If the ruler rocks back and forth then the relief is not enough. I normally go for a pretty flat .010 but recently been trying .012 or a bit more, although strangely my P34 wont go to that. It keeps dropping back to .010. I understand those that say just go by feel, but when im setting up my basses i know that if i use a common amount of relief then i can (in theory) get the action common across the basses as well. Doesn't always work out that simple but it does seem to speed things up for me. Quote
dave_bass5 Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 5 hours ago, Reggaebass said: A business card looks really thin , but when used as a shim it makes a big difference to lower your action, it’s deceiving 🙂 I work in print and we do various thickness of business cards, going from 300gsm up to 450gsm and sometimes beyond. There can be quite a difference in thickness, especially for this task. Quote
Christine Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 6 hours ago, Geek99 said: It’s about that - think my bridge is too high then, or I need a shim preferred materials ? So you're neck relief is fine then I take it, just your action is too high? I must admit I like a high action, I tent to be a bit aggressive and sound like I'm auditioning for a door buzzer contest. Personally I would shim, it's totally reversible and makes the bass more comfortable to play. Stew Mac sell some purpose made shims but any wood like Mahogany, Beech, Maple etc. will do; just try and get the taper as even as possible to get the best overall contact you can for better energy transfer neck to body Quote
Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 I don’t know - I don’t get a lot of time to play, sadly Quote
Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 Would a copper sheet have any advantage ? Over say, a business card Quote
Deedee Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 3 minutes ago, Geek99 said: Would a copper sheet have any advantage ? Over say, a business card If it's thin enough it would be fine. Some of the off the peg shims you can buy are made from thin metal I'm sure. Quote
Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 Ok well a quarter turn sees my 8Th fret at .3mm the action at the 12th is a moderately high 5mm what would be a reliable average ? Quote
Aidan63 Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 relief of 0.3mm is 12 thou so that's a good starting point; so if your bridge saddles are towards the bottom of their adjustment and you can't lower the string height much more then an inch long strip of average business card at the butt of the neck joint will probably drop the action by a 1mm or so and a piece of .6mm veneer by maybe double that, you'll have to experiment. I have a piece of plasticard in one of my jazzes that is 0.46mm thick and it meant that I could raise my saddles back up so the adjusting screws weren't sticking up out of the saddles and jabbing my palm when I am trying to palm mute whilst keeping my string height at 2.5-2mm Quote
nilebodgers Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 22 minutes ago, Geek99 said: Ok well a quarter turn sees my 8Th fret at .3mm the action at the 12th is a moderately high 5mm what would be a reliable average ? FWIW "factory spec" is 6/64in (2.4mm). I like mine a touch lower, but the important thing is that it is set to your taste Quote
Geek99 Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 (edited) I’ll have to look out for some suitable shim material since I need to lose at least 2mm credit card slice ? Edited July 16, 2019 by Geek99 Quote
Deedee Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 As @Reggaebass said earlier, a very slim shim will make a bigger difference than you think. I'd try something slimmer first. 1 Quote
Christine Posted July 17, 2019 Posted July 17, 2019 11 hours ago, Geek99 said: I’ll have to look out for some suitable shim material since I need to lose at least 2mm credit card slice ? A slice of credit card will save you some money (pun intended) but it will leave a gap between the toe and heel of the neck joint which will tend to isolate the neck from the body. what you need is something like this ideally Quote
Geek99 Posted July 17, 2019 Author Posted July 17, 2019 How deep is a standard fender pocket ? Everything else was wrong on the body so maybe it’s somply too low Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.