Lower the action on Gretsch Junior Jet

[stormbiggsbass]

Just had a brand new one arrive today from GAK. The action is gaining height as you move up the neck re like a ramp.

 

Would I be right in thinking a quick truss tod adjustment clockwise to straighten the neck will solve this or may it be something more sinister

 

Wonderful bass hence I hope it is just the neck needs a slight tightening 

[PaulThePlug]

Some pics may help...

[Baloney Balderdash]

Truss rod is for setting neck relief, nothing else, if your neck relief is good don't touch the truss rod.

 

Also it is perfectly normal that the string action increases slightly as you move up the neck, in fact it needs to, as that is how you avoid strings resting on the next fret in line when you fret a note.

 

However the angle at which it does so might be unreasonably steep, which is actually not that uncommon either, and which is usually fixed by adding a thin shim (we are talking factions of a mm thick) to the back of the neck pocket (obviously by detaching the neck and subsequently reattaching it again once the shim has been inserted).

 

Another possibility is that you just need to lower the bridge saddles if your string action is overall too high, a good starting point is about 2mm or so string action measured from top of 12th fret to bottom of low E string and slightly lower for high G string.

 

Pictures would help immensely to properly assess what needs to be done, if anything.

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Doctor J]

Check the relief, before you do anything else.

 

Hold a string down at the first fret and the last fret. Check the gap between the top of the 8th or 9th fret and the bottom of the string. If there is more than the width of a business card of space, you have too much relief and you need to tighten the truss rod a little. If the string sits on the frets, you have too little.

 

Once you get the relief right, you can then worry about the rest of the setup, but relief must be first.