A friend of mine asked for my opinion on this recently, he's got an old '80's Yamaha bass (it was his dad's) that he wants to get the neck perfectly flat with no neck relief. The truss rod works to a point, but he says that he can't seem to completely adjust the relief/upbow out of it. Right now, he's got the lightest strings on it that he can find (I think he said they're D'Addario nickel XLs in a 40-95 'Super Light Gauge'), and he said this did help some, but that there is still a little relief left on the neck. He says that he has the truss rod adjusted as tight as he dares, I've played this bass and the action seems OK to me, but I'm a hack bass player...as long as the strings aren't so high that they look/play like overhead power lines, I'll give it a go. I told him to be thankful that the neck isn't backbowed, and it's still playable.
So, the question...is a little neck relief OK, or even desirable, on a bass guitar? Or should the neck be as flat as Kansas? Or is it simply a matter of taste, depending on playing style, string gauge, or whatever else could factor into it? What's the consensus for setting the action/adjusting the neck on a fretted electric bass? A Google search on the topic didn't seem to be much help. Also, would loosening the truss rod and manually 'adjusting' the neck to taste, then retightening the truss rod (like they used to have to do on old '60's/'70's Rickenbacker basses) work? TIA!
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crunchee
A friend of mine asked for my opinion on this recently, he's got an old '80's Yamaha bass (it was his dad's) that he wants to get the neck perfectly flat with no neck relief. The truss rod works to a point, but he says that he can't seem to completely adjust the relief/upbow out of it. Right now, he's got the lightest strings on it that he can find (I think he said they're D'Addario nickel XLs in a 40-95 'Super Light Gauge'), and he said this did help some, but that there is still a little relief left on the neck. He says that he has the truss rod adjusted as tight as he dares, I've played this bass and the action seems OK to me, but I'm a hack bass player...as long as the strings aren't so high that they look/play like overhead power lines, I'll give it a go. I told him to be thankful that the neck isn't backbowed, and it's still playable.
So, the question...is a little neck relief OK, or even desirable, on a bass guitar? Or should the neck be as flat as Kansas? Or is it simply a matter of taste, depending on playing style, string gauge, or whatever else could factor into it? What's the consensus for setting the action/adjusting the neck on a fretted electric bass? A Google search on the topic didn't seem to be much help. Also, would loosening the truss rod and manually 'adjusting' the neck to taste, then retightening the truss rod (like they used to have to do on old '60's/'70's Rickenbacker basses) work? TIA!
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