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 Post subject: Short scale bass specs
PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:25 pm 
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Koa
Koa

Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:09 pm
Posts: 870
Location: Cowichan Valley, BC, Canada
First name: Conor
Last Name: Searl
City: Duncan
State: British Columbia
Zip/Postal Code: V9L 2E5
Country: Canada
Status: Semi-pro
I'm fighting a little but of an uphill battle on this one, but I've got a friend who's asked me to set up his Epiphone SG bass. Honestly the instrument is pretty terrible, the bottom of the neck pocket isn't even the same thickness all the way across, so the neck sits at a nice little angle with the bass side being higher than the treble.

Anyway, I haven't had much luck finding any suggestions about relief and action measurements for a short scale bass, and I haven't logged the same kind of hours as a player on the bass as I have on the guitar to intuitively sort it out, or to even have a good sense of what high action in this context is. Any help with some general targets would be much appreciated. Right now the relief is sitting at about .013, the action at the 17th fret is 3/32 on the E and 7/64 on the G (thanks to the wonky neck pocket). I'm not getting much buzzing, except around the middle of the neck on the low E, but only if I really dig in, it seems to me that at least some of that is just the nature of a short scale bass, but?


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 8:33 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:06 pm
Posts: 2739
Location: Magnolia DE
First name: Brian
Last Name: Howard
City: Magnolia
State: Delaware
Zip/Postal Code: 19962
Country: United States
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
Relief is maybe a bit much which can cause buzz in the center of the board. But I think the action is a bit low myself on the low E and high on the G. Typically looking to be about 8/64-5/64 for action.

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These users thanked the author B. Howard for the post: Conor_Searl (Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:22 pm)
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:33 am 
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Koa
Koa

Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 8:54 am
Posts: 854
State: Texas
Country: United States
Focus: Repair
Like Brian has stated, a little higher action results in better bass tone.

What it seems like too is that if the relief is too much and the fretboard has a bit of "ski-ramp" to it on the bass side it might be worth doing a fret level?



These users thanked the author DanKirkland for the post: Conor_Searl (Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:22 pm)
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