High action

Gilly · January 2022

I’ve found this bass for sale locally. The seller says the neck is “slightly” bowed. I asked if he had tried adjusting the truss rod but he says he doesn’t have the right tool.

Does the action look so high that it’s beyond help even with a truss rod adjustment?

https://imgur.com/a/M89VCoL

TheMadMick · January 2022

Don't know about the truss rod but if it's a bolt on neck, it should be possible to raised or lower the whole neck. However, that assumes the neck itself is in good nick. Had a Washburn 5 string where the neck was so twisted and floppy nothing sensible could be done with it. (which was OK as I struggle with a 5 string).

poopot · January 2022

It does look high to be fair… but there doesn’t look to be an overly excessive forward bow in that pic…

Without having it in your hands you won’t know if the truss rod works… let’s assume it does and you can take some of the relief out from that pic it still looks as though it’ll be quite high…

what does the bridge look like? Could be the saddles are raised up…

providing the truss rod works and you can straighten the neck a bit and lower the a saddles you should be ok… at worst you may need to shim the neck a bit…

question is can you do the work? If not is the bass worth getting it sorted by someone who can?

Gilly · January 2022

poopot said:

It does look high to be fair… but there doesn’t look to be an overly excessive forward bow in that pic…

Without having it in your hands you won’t know if the truss rod works… let’s assume it does and you can take some of the relief out from that pic it still looks as though it’ll be quite high…

what does the bridge look like? Could be the saddles are raised up…

providing the truss rod works and you can straighten the neck a bit and lower the a saddles you should be ok… at worst you may need to shim the neck a bit…

question is can you do the work? If not is the bass worth getting it sorted by someone who can?

Thanks, that’s really useful. It’s hard to tell from the pics but the saddles do look a bit high. I can do basic set ups on guitars so I think I’d be able to have a go at it. It’s an Encore so probably not worth paying anyone to look at it. It’s just to get me started really. I’ll go and take a look at it. Thanks again for the advice.

Gilly · January 2022

TheMadMick said:

Don't know about the truss rod but if it's a bolt on neck, it should be possible to raised or lower the whole neck. However, that assumes the neck itself is in good nick. Had a Washburn 5 string where the neck was so twisted and floppy nothing sensible could be done with it. (which was OK as I struggle with a 5 string).

Thanks. Yes bolt on neck I believe. Will take go and take a look at it.

poopot · January 2022

Gilly said:

poopot said:

It does look high to be fair… but there doesn’t look to be an overly excessive forward bow in that pic…

Without having it in your hands you won’t know if the truss rod works… let’s assume it does and you can take some of the relief out from that pic it still looks as though it’ll be quite high…

what does the bridge look like? Could be the saddles are raised up…

providing the truss rod works and you can straighten the neck a bit and lower the a saddles you should be ok… at worst you may need to shim the neck a bit…

question is can you do the work? If not is the bass worth getting it sorted by someone who can?

Thanks, that’s really useful. It’s hard to tell from the pics but the saddles do look a bit high. I can do basic set ups on guitars so I think I’d be able to have a go at it. It’s an Encore so probably not worth paying anyone to look at it. It’s just to get me started really. I’ll go and take a look at it. Thanks again for the advice.

When you go and look… hold the down E at the first fret and also at the 14th fret… you should see a small gap between the top of the 7th fret and the string… if there’s a massive gap there’s too much relief and the truss rod needs tightening… if there’s no gap at all there’s no relief and the rod needs loosening…

have a look at the saddles and see if they can come down in height…

take a set of Allan keys and ask the guy if you can see if the truss rod works… don’t go mad, just see if it turns either way by a quarter of a turn…

Id be surprised if you can’t get that action lower…

Gilly · January 2022

poopot said:

Gilly said:

poopot said:

It does look high to be fair… but there doesn’t look to be an overly excessive forward bow in that pic…

Without having it in your hands you won’t know if the truss rod works… let’s assume it does and you can take some of the relief out from that pic it still looks as though it’ll be quite high…

what does the bridge look like? Could be the saddles are raised up…

providing the truss rod works and you can straighten the neck a bit and lower the a saddles you should be ok… at worst you may need to shim the neck a bit…

question is can you do the work? If not is the bass worth getting it sorted by someone who can?

Thanks, that’s really useful. It’s hard to tell from the pics but the saddles do look a bit high. I can do basic set ups on guitars so I think I’d be able to have a go at it. It’s an Encore so probably not worth paying anyone to look at it. It’s just to get me started really. I’ll go and take a look at it. Thanks again for the advice.

When you go and look… hold the down E at the first fret and also at the 14th fret… you should see a small gap between the top of the 7th fret and the string… if there’s a massive gap there’s too much relief and the truss rod needs tightening… if there’s no gap at all there’s no relief and the rod needs loosening…

have a look at the saddles and see if they can come down in height…

take a set of Allan keys and ask the guy if you can see if the truss rod works… don’t go mad, just see if it turns either way by a quarter of a turn…

Id be surprised if you can’t get that action lower…

Nice one thanks! I’ll do that.

Funkfingers · January 2022

The neck bow is excessive. This could be due to incorrect truss rod adjustment. It could be due to excessive string tension. It could be due to poor quality construction materials.

What brand is that bass guitar?

mart · January 2022

If a seller advertizes that the neck is bowed, and makes a lame excuse for why they haven't adjusted the truss rod to resolve this, I would assume that the truss rod does not work, and they know it. Steer well clear.

Cirrus · January 2022

Action's very high over the body end of the fretboard. Truss rod will only fix that if it pulls the neck back quite substantially - it's possible tightening the truss rod might not really move the headstock, but just hump the middle of the fretboard up towards the strings a bit.

Without getting it and seeing what actually happens, it's hard to tell what combination of neck relief, bridge height and possible neck shimming will be needed to make it playable, but there's nothing there that in principle can't be fixed. It's possible of course that once it's fixed other problems become apparent like uneven frets or a twist etc etc.

Reggaebass · January 2022

That’s excessively high but to me it looks like something is not right, the neck doesn’t look that bowed, it looks like it’s the wrong angle to the body, personally I’d steer clear, and from previous experience I’d say the seller knows what’s going on

ICBM · January 2022

Gilly said:

I’ve found this bass for sale locally. The seller says the neck is “slightly” bowed. I asked if he had tried adjusting the truss rod but he says he doesn’t have the right tool.

Does the action look so high that it’s beyond help even with a truss rod adjustment?

https://imgur.com/a/M89VCoL

It is very high, but that could be due to excess relief, excess bridge saddle height, or the neck pocket needing a shim because it's too deep, routed unevenly or there's finish build-up over the outer lip - all these can be issues, the latter ones especially on a cheaper instrument. You'll only know if the neck is bowed if you accurately assess it as poopot described.

TheMadMick said:

Had a Washburn 5 string where the neck was so twisted and floppy nothing sensible could be done with it. (which was OK as I struggle with a 5 string).

I was given a Washburn 5-string to work on once, which the owner had tuned EADGC with the stock strings! The action was literally half an inch high in the middle. Once I'd explained to him what the correct tuning was, tuned it down and adjusted the rod, it was absolutely fine...

They do vary, of course

.

Ossyrocks · February 2022

The Squire P-Bass I bought a couple of months ago had an action higher than that.

Four and half turns on the truss rod sorted it, but it was squeaky bum time doing it. I thought the rod would break towards the end. The saddles on mine were also very high. No wonder the poor bloke I bought it off gave up learning bass.
It ended up playing great though.

Rob

Gilly · February 2022

Just to update, I went to have a look at it and was going to walk away but then the guy said he just wanted rid of it and I could have it for £20!

The good news is that the truss rod works although it’s stiff. I tightened it as much as I dared and lowered the saddles. Relief was still a bit high so I put a shim in the neck pocket. Now I had to raise the saddles but I’ve managed to get the low E down to 3mm at the 12th fret with no buzzes. Happy with that. I think the neck might be slightly twisted but the intonation seems fine.

Electrics weren’t working but all they needed was a wire resoldering to the jack socket.

Gave it a good clean and polished the frets and I think I’ve ended up with a pretty decent bass. I spent a vey enjoyable 2 hours playing some soul and funk bass lines from a TrueFire course. I never realised how fun playing bass is! The only problem is my guitar feels very weird now.

So thanks to everyone who commented, especially Poopot who convinced me I could have a go at the set up. Result!

Reggaebass · February 2022

Nice one, for £20 it’s definitely worth a go

ICBM · February 2022

Gilly said:

Just to update, I went to have a look at it and was going to walk away but then the guy said he just wanted rid of it and I could have it for £20!

The good news is that the truss rod works although it’s stiff. I tightened it as much as I dared and lowered the saddles. Relief was still a bit high so I put a shim in the neck pocket. Now I had to raise the saddles but I’ve managed to get the low E down to 3mm at the 12th fret with no buzzes. Happy with that. I think the neck might be slightly twisted but the intonation seems fine.

£20 is a bargain if it's even playable at all really.

3mm on the low E is quite a respectable action for a cheap bass - if you can get the G down to 2mm that's even better. It sounds like it could do with the rod tightened even more - and possibly no shim - but I would leave it to settle down for a while before you have another go at it, especially if (as I think is nearly certain!) it's been sitting for some time as it was.

Gilly said:

I spent a vey enjoyable 2 hours playing some soul and funk bass lines from a TrueFire course. I never realised how fun playing bass is! The only problem is my guitar feels very weird now.

lol

You have been assimilated, resistance is futile

.

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