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Getting ready to glue in the neck of my bass, with the neck flat in the pocket the strings were sitting 7mm off the 20th fret, so I made a shim. Now the strings are sitting at a much better 2mm, but its fretting out everywhere. Is my shim too high?
Since I've only got 2 strings on, roughly tuned, I haven't touched the truss rod since I levelled the frets, so there's no relief in the neck. The nut is miles high and the bridge is set about half way up.
It does take a bit of mucking around to get it right, especially with a set neck.
Grab a six inch long chunk of 4 mm flat bar and clamp it across the neck in a way that allows you to fully string up and tune. This will give you a better idea as to all relevent heights....
Can be a real pain getting setties right...
Thanks DB, I'll give that a go. I'm really taking a hit to my confidence levels on this build. Second guessing everything I do.
Hey Pablo, are you going to glue the shim in first, let it dry, then the neck ? Thats how I've done a guitar set neck shim to make sure you have a solid pocket to glue the neck to and less chance of the shim moving if you do it at the same time. Think DB's tips are good to set up the neck best you can before its glued to get an idea of 20th fret action. How much height play have you got with the bridge ?
Remember if the nut is too high that will affect the setup.
There is a bit of guesstomation involved, you just have to try minimise it.
I've never built a set neck bass they have all been bolt ons. Best of luck mate and don't rush it !
Yeah, I think gluing it in first is a solid idea. Trying really hard not to rush, which I have a bad habit of doing at this stage and it always ends in stuffing something up.