Truss Rod Adjustment Procedure: Attaining Lower Action

[John McGuire]

Ken, Bram, and Tim:

Thank you much for the advice. Especially since it was Christmas and you made the time!

Well, I gave it a go with the truss rod adjustments per Kens advice. The bass is now perfect to my liking! Approximately 1/16" relief when holding the B and E's down on the 1st and 15th frets respectfully. The bridge adjustments took me some time since I'm not 100% experienced with the KS bass tweaks yet, however after several hours taking my bass apart and tinkering it's now perfect and I have a good initial understanding of the various temperments. I really feel every bass player should learn to set-up their own basses. When I first starting playing I would take my bass in for a "professional set-up" and pay the $40 and many times take home a bass that played worst than before. I started working on all my own guitars and basses about 10 years ago and I can now set up to exactly what's in my head and fingers.

I have some technical questions for you guys:

1). I'm using the stainless steel Smith taper core strings (that's what I put on during this set-up), I'm kind of worried about premature fret wear?

Just curious, what alloy are the frets made out of? Are they hardened/heat treated? I'm assuming the strings are a 304 stainless? As a metallurgical engineer I'm always curious! I'm playing with the idea of looking into a better alloy development & heat treat for fret wire.

2). Also, another metal related question. Why is the bridge made from brass? Ken, when you were developing the bass design, did you experiment with other metal choices. I did some experimenting on an old rickenbacker bass with bridges made from zinc, aluminum, and brass, and each changed the tone significatly.

3). I'm going to experiment with the inside DIP switchs. Does anyone have any experience with the various combinations. Does it really change the tone that much?

J.P.

[Bram Schoonderbeek]

Originally Posted by John McGuire

Ken, Bram, and Tim:

Thank you much for the advice. Especially since it was Christmas and you made the time!

Nice to hear you got things changed for the better there man!
Cheers on that ofcourse
Happy playing!

Best regards

Bram