Ideal neck setup?

[Steve, eh?]

So - after fooling around with another bass (I know! Adultery!) I am
wondering what is the ideal curve for a neck. I know there is a lot of
personal preference prevalent. (Mmmmm..."p"s) If you want to have even
action across the neck should it be completely straight and have the bridge
keep the strings up just a little? Or should there be a little curve?

Thanks,

Steve

[Bud LeCompte]

You never want a neck perfectly flat. You always want a little relief when
it's under tension from the strings. I set mine up so it has a little back
bow in it when not strung. If you set a long straight edge on the frets
running the length of the neck, running down the center of the neck with the
straight edge set firmly against the frets closest to the body, you should
probably have less than 1/6" gap between the straight edge and the first
fret. That's usually the measurement I start at. Some necks will vary and
may require more back bow. Once the neck is under tension the strings will
cause the neck to bow in the oposite direction which folks call "relief".
If the neck is perfectly flat when strung and tuned you'll get a lot of
buzzing around the 4-8 fret area. YMMV.

--
Bud LeCompte

Steve, eh? <thelo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ALSN7.65065$T67.19...@news4.rdc1.on.home.com...

[Brian E Running]

There gots to be a little curve in there, otherwise, you'll get fret buzz
near the head end of the neck. Picture your bass's neck, viewed from the
side. Now picture a string being fretted at the fifteenth fret. It will
make a relatively steep angle from the fret up to the bridge. As you fret
the string closer and closer to the headstock, the angle between the string
and the tops of the frets becomes shallower and shallower, until you get
down to the first, second and third frets, where there's just a tiny
clearance between the string and the frets due to the shallow angle. Neck
relief adds a little more clearance -- picture the neck from the side again,
the "up" curve towards the headstock raise the strings away from the frets
that are in the "bowed" part of the neck.

Fret a string at the first and fifteenth frets simultaneously, and look at
the gap between string and fret at the midpoint between the two, around the
eighth and ninth frets. There should be just the smallest of gaps there, on
the order of 1/64". If the gap is too big, then tighten the truss rod, 1/4
turn at a time, until it comes down. Be sure to retune before each
measurement. If you get buzz then, raise the saddles a little until it goes
away.

If you get fret buzz at the body end of the neck, then you've got too much
relief in the neck and you need to straighten it out, and then raise the
saddles.

"Steve, eh?" <thelo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ALSN7.65065$T67.19...@news4.rdc1.on.home.com...

[Steve, eh?]

Very eloquently explained. Thanks.

Steve

"Brian E Running" <brun...@NOSPAMexecpc.com> wrote in message
news:3c0806a2$0$43571$272e...@news.execpc.com...

[JByers1044]

Last months Bassplayer magazine had a pretty good artical on neck adjustment.
Aloha, Jerry

[Timo Ruismäki]

This should help you:
http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/setupmanual.html

TR

[@#%$!*&]

Thank you Timo
This is a very helpful link!