Lowering action.

[scottReederstoenail]

As it says really.Ive scoured the site and was wondering if ive missed a guide?The action on my Aria is very high and i want to lower it a tad.I know how to do it in theory as my bands guitarist told me how but id appreciate a muppets guide.T.I.A.

[waynepunkdude]

Try here

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=58511"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=58511[/url]

[paul h]

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooo!

First of all there could be a couple of reasons why the action is too high. It may just be that the bridge saddles are too high. So nothing fancy required there, just use the right size allen key and lower the saddles until you get the action you want, or you get too much fret buzz.

Also, it might be a neck relief issue. Or both. So after you have lowered your bridge saddles, if your action is still too high you might need to adjust the relief. The best guide for that (IMHO) is here...

[url="http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/setupmanual.html"]http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassm...etupmanual.html[/url]

If you are still struggling to get your perfect action you might need to look at dressing the frets....but that's another story.

One important thing to remember is that any adjustment to the string height will affect intonation so you will have to look at that too.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I'd check the relief first before diddling with the bridge. Most basses need a truss rod tweak twice a year when the seasons change. I can't remember when I last tweaked my short scales though, but the long scales certainly change with the weather.