Bought a bass but...

[TheGreek]

False alarm - been playing it (with metal strings - yuck) for the past few days - The truss rod was way over tightened - there was no need for it to be as tight as it was.

 

The neck is now perfectly straight and the action lowered - plays really nice.

 

Still waiting for the Yamaha parts to arrive - somebody on annual leave - how dare they!! Adding a couple of washers will no doubt completely alleviate it ever being over tightened again (by me anyway).

[ubit]

On 26/07/2021 at 21:20, Reggaebass said:

My Yamaha was perfectly playable mick, it’s just that I play with a really low action, and it just wouldn’t go quite low enough for me, if the neck is straight it might be okay 

I used to play with a really low action but as I dig in quite a lot it resulted in lots of clicks. I increased the action and instantly got better sounding playing. Each to their own right enough.

[Reggaebass]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

I used to play with a really low action but as I dig in quite a lot it resulted in lots of clicks. I increased the action and instantly got better sounding playing. Each to their own right enough.

Yeah I totally get that ubit, I don’t really dig in as such, I play with a soft touch so I can get away with a low action with no fret noise or buzz, whereas a friend of mine plays in a heavy metal band and when I’ve seen him play he plays quite hard, his action is about 3mm on his jazz, he can play my basses but I find his hard work to fret , perhaps I’m just lazy 😁

[ubit]

I think my digging in was exacerbated by a lack of decent monitors. Not being able to hear myself over a loud guitarist and latterly a loud drummer meant I dug in and turned up louder myself. Years ago I thought I was meant to have really low action as my guitarist mate had such low action and always went on about it. It took me quite a long time and a moment of oh, is that coming across out front? Before I realised that I should raise it a bit.

[TheGreek]

The parts to address the truss rod issue arrived today. 

Packaging was a bit of overkill. 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by TheGreek

[Bigwan]

Are they longer truss rod nuts? Can't see how you get that in behind a truss rod adjustment nut!

[TheGreek]

They are truss rod ends.

 

My thoughts too. Without removing the original there's no way of telling.

[TheGreek]

Further correspondence with Yamaha CS (quick and reliable) I'm advised that the thread on the replacement is much longer/ deeper. 

 

Change the nut yesterday, obviously the neck relaxed, tightened it to close to straight. Leaving it for a couple of days to settle.

[Stub Mandrel]

I have a 2002 Squier Jazz. I set teh neck, and a couple of weeks later it was bowed again. Repeated and a couple of weeks later... I realised the truss rod must be pulling up the neck.

 

I took it apart, after taking off the tension, considering a bit of exploratory drilling to find the anchor point. Lo! There was a small hole between the end of the infill piece and the end of the slot, metal visible.

 

I 'injected' a cc or two of runny superglue in the hope the wood would absorb it and even swell slightly, giving the strength to stop the rod being pulled in further.

 

That was over a year ago (I think) and I haven't had to re-tighten and actually had to relax it a bit after the recent heatwave.