Raising the Action

[charlyg]

I got my 4-2-5 back from Qwezi who lowered the action a whole bunch. In trying to raise it back up to my liking, it seems like I need to shim the nut also. Is there a spec for the string height at the nut? And also, what do you folks use for shims? I have had the flu almost all week, so I'm not into searching the archives....I'd fall asleep during the search! Thanks!

[jingle_jangle]

I usually put a new nut on rather than shimming. But sometimes I do shim. I use something that's roughly the same hardness as the nut--a scrap piece of celluloid or plexiglas, superglued onto the back, and then sanded to the correct thickness after it's glued.

You can buy acetate in .010" and .020" thicknesses very cheap.

Actual string height at the nut does vary; the factory-slotted nuts bought as raw parts are too high, to allow for trimming, I suppose.

[charlyg]

Thanks Paul. I will see if Qwezi wanders by and see if/how much he filed. I will be seeing Dane shortly and I can get his input. He has files, etc. It just seems a bit high at the bridge end when I get rid of all of the fret slap.

[qwezirider]

Charly, I apologize for not stopping by here sooner. I just don't manage to drop in unless I screw up something apparently. Did you get this solved? The only things I did to the bass were to eliminate as much relief as I could and adjust the bridge. So if you put the relief back in that you had prior to me handing the bass, you should be back to where you started. No nuts were ground or filed in the altering of the neck.

I am so sorry for not spotting this sooner.

[scott_s]

When setting up my guitars, I fret the string at the 1st fret, measure the action over the 2nd, add 0.002-0.003", and use that for the string height over the 1st fret. Makes for some very slick playability -- the F barre chord is no trouble on my Strat, and it's strung 0.013-0.056!

HTH,
- Scott

P.S. It's good to get the neck relief and 12th fret action dialed in before doing the above!

[qwezirider]

I think what Charly was shooting at is that he had a fair amount of relief in the neck when I got the bass from him. Silly me, I dead flat the sucker as best I can, set the bridge suitably, and go to town. So when he got the bass back from me, he was wondering if I had altered the nut, I think. He was just wanting to get it back to where he had it prior.

Charly and I just seem to like polar opposite ends of the relief spectrum. But he does make a mean batch of ribs and chili, so I can't razz him too much about that.