D string seems "off" after neck adjustment?

[glassmoon]

Hi all,

 

I recently adjusted the neck on my Sadowsky MetroExpress - straightened it out a little - and dropped the string height to what I prefer.

I play with a light touch so it's low, but not quite Rizla paper low.  I don't have any excessive buzzing or any fretted out notes.

Oddly though, the D string seems to be off whack... almost like it's not aligned to the pickups any longer, or has "died" on me... it's noticeably software too.

 

Any ideas?

 

Kind regards

Julian aka Glassmoon

[Acebassmusic]

Not quite sure what you mean by "seems to be  off whack"....not aligned with something?.... doesnt sound right? If it the sound thats a problem, how close are your pickups to the treble side of the strings? maybe with straightening the neck and droppig the action the strings are being pulled on by the pickup magnets? Also maybe the string has got twisted (along its length) when doing all the adjusting? 🤷‍♂️

[glassmoon]

Not sure... I did 2 1/2 turns, as Roger Sadowsky says on the "how-to" YT clip - the neck is straight, but not arrow straight... 

And I dropped the strings down a smidge - they were and are all still at the same height (i.e. no one string stands proud from the rest).

I adjusted such a little that the tuning after was marginally out!

 

I just don't know

[Acebassmusic]

Whats the distance between the top of your pickups to the bottom of your strings? From the Sadowsky Set Up Guide it gives dimensions which I would start with as a minumum distance.

 

 

[glassmoon]

I'll need to check when I get in - my missus has one of those metal technical rulers somewhere - many thanks for the chart - that is awesome!!

[Baloney Balderdash]

I hate when my strings gets noticeably software too... 

 

 

Also your string action should ideally follow the arc of the fretboard radius, but tilting slightly downwards towards the highest/thinnest string, and not be dead straight, otherwise the middle strings will have considerably lower string action relatively to the frets that the outer ones.

 

And strings will feel somewhat softer to fret with straighter neck and lower action.

 

Edited July 3, 2024 by Baloney Balderdash

[Acebassmusic]

47 minutes ago, glassmoon said:

And I dropped the strings down a smidge - they were and are all still at the same height (i.e. no one string stands proud from the rest).

 

Does this mean your strings are flat across from B to G and dont follow the radius of the neck? Here's an article giving a more in depth rational etc. but the first diagram shows what it should look similar to (looking from the bridge end, along the neck.

 

[glassmoon]

Interesting points here. I'm going to "measure" shortly. The Sadowsky neck is quite flat, but there is an arc, so I'll start by playing with the heights. 

Interesting that the A and G strings are pretty much equal volume, but not the D? 

 

Must be a software issue 😂😁😂

[Doctor J]

Try a different string.

[glassmoon]

So I put on a new set of strings and checked the balance and it looks all fine... but to be fair, I've adjusted it back to where I think it was before
What perplexes me, is that it was one string... and it didn't look out of sorts with the rest.

But hey ho... in for a penny!

 

Thanks all!!