Adjusting the action

[AM1]

Yo foolios

What is the best way to lower the action? I actually quite like the action being high but it's hard work on the old fretting hand.

I think the action can be altered by adjusting the truss rod with an allen key...but can you do it just by adjusting the saddles at the bridge??

I just want to get the strings a little bit closer to the fretboard.

Then I can practice for another 40 hours a day with less wrist pain. Mehehe.

Answers on a postcard

Cheers
AM

Edited December 26, 2008 by AM1

[Sarah5string]

You should be able to raise or lower the saddles individually using a smaller allen key. make sure you make small changes and raise and lower each side evenly. for example one turn on the right one turn on the left, tune, check it, detune adjust again until you're happy.

[yorks5stringer]

You may find this useful....
[url="http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/setupmanual.html"]http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassm...etupmanual.html[/url]

[The Burpster]

This has been covered several times in repairs and tech.... search the word action at the bottom of the page and behold pages of advice!

[6stringbassist]

Hold the strings down at the 1st fret with a finger of your left hand, and at the end of the neck with your right elbow.
Check to see how much space there is under the strings at the 12th fret.

If there is a lot of space, then adjust tighten the truss rod a quarter turn at a time, try to get the neck almost flat, just the smallest amount of relief.

Then adjust the string height at the bridge until you're happy with it.

I have my strings all the same height from the fingerboard to the top of the string, I find this facilitates faster and easier right hand playing.

[octavedoctor]

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='363910' date='Dec 26 2008, 09:42 PM']Hold the strings down at the 1st fret with a finger of your left hand, and at the end of the neck with your right elbow.
Check to see how much space there is under the strings at the 12th fret.

If there is a lot of space, then adjust tighten the truss rod a quarter turn at a time, try to get the neck almost flat, just the smallest amount of relief.

Then adjust the string height at the bridge until you're happy with it.

I have my strings all the same height from the fingerboard to the top of the string, I find this facilitates faster and easier right hand playing.[/quote]

Adjusting the action for optimum playability is [i]much[/i] more complex an issue than most people believe, involving adjustments to the nut, arc relief and saddles. It's not simply an issue of heading straight for the saddles and cranking them down; if you do this without due diligence to the other parameters you will cause more problems than you solve.

There is a rough guide to DIY set up on my website here. It is aimed at guitarists but the principle is the same for basses.

[url="http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/quickfix.htm"]quick fix set up[/url]

[ezbass]

Here's a link to [url="http://www.fender.com/support/basses.php"]Fender's[/url] set up guide for their basses, but it's generic enough.

As has been said before set up is a combination of saddle height, neck relief and nut slot height. IMO that's the order to tackle set up too.

[GreeneKing]

+1 on the Gary Willis site, very user friendly.

Peter