dansouth Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 How do you like your action set? As low as possible? High? Somewhere in the middle? Does it depend on the bass and the strings you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornbread_medhotmail.com Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I like a medium action because I like to dig in and yank the string and with it too low I get a lot of fret buzz, but I also like to do some fast walks and trills, so too high would virtually cease that because, although I have very strong hands, they're not that strong. I play an aggressive rock style with a lot of movement, a la Steve Harris and Billy Sheehan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Addicott Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I just sat in on a bass with low action, and I hated it! I guess for me, digging in is part of the fun. I can't stand it when I try to coax out a decent quarter note and they're all choked off with fret buzz. I like the extra dynamic range and the full, round notes that medium action allows. Too high, though, and things become more cumbersome that they need to be. I'm very intrigued with how other people manage with, and even prefer, setups that seem crazy to me. (I remember trying out an Alembic Stanley Clarke model with insanely low action, and while I didn't feel like taking it to my gig, I did notice that all those fancy slapping and tapping tricks I could never get to work on my bass suddenly became very feasible!) ------------------ Jeff Addicott http://www.jeffnet.org/~addicott/bass.html Jeff Addicott http://www.jeffnet.org/~addicott/bass.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Thorne Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I seem to like a medium low action. "Digging in" seems to result in gutting the tone out of the note for me. Plus, since my left (picking) hand doesn't work 100%, my approach is to turn up and play a little light, which yields me more control. Also, in playing guitar I've discovered that tension in one part of the body will result in tension elsewhere in the body, so if I'm tightening up to bear down or dig in I tighten all up and can't play for doggy poop. My new J-Bass has just the right action for me, and came to me that way. I'm a happy guy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Capasso Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I am a low to medium guy. I thought I was a low guy, because the action on my short scale always seemed tighter than Fenders that I would pick up in a store. Then one day I played a Peavey Cirrus that I had to pluck oh so gently, because the action was so low - too low for me. I don't tap or do much slapping, but I don't want to prove my muscles every time I play (like the import P copy I learned on). Tom www.stoneflyrocks.com Acoustic Color Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground. - Theodore Roosevelt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benthic Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 I'm all for high action. I like to be able to dig in as well as play softly, and I'm thinking of putting flatwounds on my bass because of the high tension and low fret noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 15, 2001 Share Posted June 15, 2001 Low to medium. As low as I can get and still have some dynamics. With my Fernandes G4, if I set it up exactly the way the factory manual says, it is just right. So maybe that's really medium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfunku Posted June 16, 2001 Share Posted June 16, 2001 low, But not so low that you get string buzzz near the 1st couple frets. You don't have to play so hard(physicaly) when you have a low action with light gauges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzzz Posted June 16, 2001 Share Posted June 16, 2001 I like a medium action.The bad I'm in right now tunes down to "d" quite often:with the action low iI get a lot of fret buzz>I also play hard and dig in a bit especially when slapping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim T. Posted June 16, 2001 Share Posted June 16, 2001 I like really low action. It's important for people trying this for the first time to understand that even if the bass buzzes on frets annoyingly while playing acoustically, once you play through an amp it can add an attractive growl to your playing. Sort of a fretless growl. I have tendonitus and playing softly with the amp volume way up helps a LOT. Gary Willis plays this way (on a fretless) and so does Matt Garrison (on fretted.) I always thought that you "weren't supposed to allow any fret buzz" but when I tried Matt's bass during a lesson and asked him "doesn't it buzz?" he replied, "So what?" it sounds great. It opened my mind to checking it out. In his case.... he's definitely right. I would try it in a band/jam situation before deciding if you like it or not. Ultra low action DOES make it a little harder to practice unobtrusively/silently in the presence of a spouse. even with headphone amps. (It can get a little "clanky".) It's worth checking out- 15 minutes of adjustments and you're back where you started from! "When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have." Edgar Watson Howe "Don't play what's there. Play what's not there" Miles Davis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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