Setup Question

[Glassmoon]

Hello fellow low enders,

I play a Yamaha TRB6JP 6-string which is incredibly to say the least, but I
am still not entirely happy with the set-up. The local chaps here are
booked solidly for weeks, and I have a gig coming up where I would prefer a
slightly easier action.

Style: I play in a prog rock band (http://welcome.to/titus) and incorporate
a lot of two handed multi-fingered tapping into my playing. I have no
problems at the moment, but I jammed on a friends bass recently and it was
sooooo easy. His action is way lower than mine. I've tried lowering the
bridge saddles and adjusting the truss, but I still get fret buzz. What the
heck am I doing wrong? Don't get me wrong, the action is cool, but I would
prefer something a little easier, especially considering that my hands are
small, and the TRB6 neck is as wide as an interstate!

Help.

__________________________________
Desperate measures for desperate times
Purest aggression, for desolate lives

Julian Thorpe-Fairall
glas...@mail.com
http://welcome.to/glassmoon

[Brian E Running]

With any set-up question, you've got to begin with proper neck relief. You
said you adjusted the truss rod -- since you had fret buzz, I assume you
dialed in more relief, not less. Too much relief can cause the problems
you describe, too. What happens is that you put so much bow in the neck
that the strings are raised from the fingerboard at the neck end, as
opposed to the bridge end. Then, you find that no matter how low you set
your saddles, you can't get the action low enough. What you end up with
looks from the side like an archery bow, low on both ends but high in the
middle. If you can picture it in your mind, you'll see that lowering the
saddles will only lower the strings at the extreme body end of the neck,
but not in the middle of the neck.

Check relief by depressing the string at the first fret and at about the
seventeenth. Look at the distance between the string a fret at exactly the
midpoint -- it should be very small, maybe 1/32". If it's greater than
that, then straighten out your neck. By doing that, you lower the strings
from the head end. You may find that you need to raise the saddles at that
point.

If your relief is correct and you're getting buzz before the action is as
low as you want it, then you may have uneven frets or even a warped neck.