Alembic Spoiler String height

[mario_farufyno]

It seems there is too much neck relief on your Bass. A neck where the strings got too high after the 12th fret seems bent forward to me.

[mario_farufyno]

My basic test before starting to set my Basses is holding a string at the Body (like around the 20/21th fret) and by the 1st fret. At the middle of that String (around the 11th fret) you should expect little or close to zero clearence. It will be Zero in a perfect straight Neck but it can also happens in a back bow Neck. The difference is that the string is chocked dead in a back bow Neck and you have some amount of fret buzz in a straight Neck depending on how high is your Bass action (Bridge hight).

I always reach for the lowest action in the straightest Neck that I can set, but don't have any measurement to give you. In my Rogue I can barely pass a personal card below the string at the 11th fret with the string held at 1st and 20th fret. *(I'm not talking about credit card, I'm talking about those business presentation card... sorry I'm brazilian, don't speak english frequently, hope you get me).

Only after geting that straightness to the Neck that I start seting string hight. I don't measure it either, I lower them to taste. In my case, I avoid fret chocking but accept some string buzz. I aim for no buzzing when playing softly and a clicking, almost like a Slaping (or chick picking) tone, when hiting them hard.

[mario_farufyno]

* I don't measure because what matters to me is the "feel", the right amount of stiffness/flexibility balancing with tone. Different Basses and mostly different String sets can produce tottaly different feellings to the same setings, so seems a little awkard talking about measurements.

I bend strings a lot and like playing light strings, most of my friends say they fell too floppy to them, though. I play Samba fingerstyle softly, they rock hard with pick. It is obvious we would never use the same setings on our basses.

[bassvibes]

My basic test before starting to set my Basses is holding a string at the Body (like around the 20/21th fret) and by the 1st fret. At the middle of that String (around the 11th fret) you should expect little or close to zero clearence. It will be Zero in a perfect straight Neck but it can also happens in a back bow Neck. The difference is that the string is chocked dead in a back bow Neck and you have some amount of fret buzz in a straight Neck depending on how high is your Bass action (Bridge hight).

I always reach for the lowest action in the straightest Neck that I can set, but don't have any measurement to give you. In my Rogue I can barely pass a personal card below the string at the 11th fret with the string held at 1st and 20th fret. *(I'm not talking about credit card, I'm talking about those business presentation card... sorry I'm brazilian, don't speak english frequently, hope you get me).

Only after geting that straightness to the Neck that I start seting string hight. I don't measure it either, I lower them to taste. In my case, I avoid fret chocking but accept some string buzz. I aim for no buzzing when playing softly and a clicking, almost like a Slaping (or chick picking) tone, when hiting them hard.

So, just double checked again and the neck is spot on, just a little clink when I tap at the middle of the board.  This conundrum is beyond me why the action is so high after the 12th fret. This is my only Alembic so I am not familiar with them as I am Fender and Rics. 

[el8ed]

I’ve been reading through the thread but haven’t seen anyone mention the nut height on your bass. A too high nut will compound the string height the higher you go up on the fretboard. I set mine as low as possible while the open string just does not buzz at regular playing intensity.
Also, have you played around with adjusting bridge height? Both nut and bridge are so easily adjustable on Alembics that I always keep an appropriate hex key around.
Good luck sorting it out. Part of the fun playing these hi-performance instruments.
Cheers,
Oliver

[bigredbass]

I've learned the hard way it's impossible to diagnose issues sight unseen over the web.  The clearances you cite are VERY high, and the fact it took a heat-press to get there is concerning.  This would tend to tell me the bass was not maintained with regular adjustments in its time before it got to you, and your tech felt this is what it would need to 'reel it back in'.

My method was a general 'field maintenance' for regular player axes in relatively good shape:  No huge fret ruts or high frets, no big twist or deep relief, etc.  The numbers I quote were a basic starter set, with the imprimatur to take them as a starting point to find your own personal setup numbers.  There's a lot of BS out there, and my thought was to put setup method in terms of repeatable numbers, the same way the manufacturers and good techs do it.  But it's for axes in the state I mentioned, and is NO replacement for a qualified tech for more serious concerns that this can't address.

I'd think a bass that required a heat-press would be outside of that situation, IF you're dealing with a qualified repair person.  I'd be surprised if with a heat press, the neck could not be brought to a dead-straight relief state with the strings off, the frets leveled and re-crowned if required, then re-strung and set to suit.  However I can easily see where the neck through would make it far more difficult to get all the neck as opposed to say, a Fender neck that can be removed completely.  But again, this bass is not in front of me, nor do I know the experience and rep of your repair person.  Sometimes, a guitar or bass is just not going to come back, time and wood have had their way too long to be brought back but it's rare.

Generally a 'neck reset' is referring to acoustics or electric guitars with a glued-in neck:  The neck joint is generally warmed or steamed to loosen the glue, then you pull the neck out of the dovetail joint.  This is not uncommon on some acoustics where you've run out of bridge saddle height and the neck angle needs to increase slightly, the same idea as shimming a Fender-type screw-on neck.  You do some slight sanding on the tenon on the neck to lower the head end slightly, glue and reset,  and now you have more 'maneuvering room' at the saddle or bridge, and you're on your way.

Heat Treatment on the other hand is taking the neck (either removed or in place on a neck-through), supporting the neck at both ends, then applying a heated bar to the fingerboard/ frets with a strategically-placed vice to push the neck straight with the truss rod relaxed.  After a certain period of time, you kill the heat, leave everything vised up until everything comes back to room temp. IF everything went as hoped (it doesn't always . . .  .), it will now stay straight, level the frets if necessary, then re-install, re-string, and the string load will introduce some relief that hopefully now the truss rod can bring to just right.

Again, I'm not there, but I'd continue to work with your tech to resolve this, or if necessary, get a 2nd opinion.

[bassvibes]

Just to reiterate the main issue I have is the higher end of the fretboard.  I don't see that heat treatment would affect that.

I know it's difficult to assess remotely but maybe a few pictures may help illustrate this.

[JimmyJ]

Thanks for the pics.  But as Joey said, it's almost impossible for us to offer much in the way of suggestions without being able to really see the axe in person.  Because to me, that 21st fret action looks pretty low. 

I'll offer this though ... As Oliver suggests above, my preference for the adjustable nut is to make it like a zero fret.  In other words, if you finger a low-F on the E-string, then observe the clearance the string has over the 2nd fret, I want that same clearance over the 1st fret when I play the open string. If the nut is higher than it needs to be it directly effects the entire action.

Jimmy J

[adriaan]

The nut seems unusually high, and the bottom of the nut appears to be resting on top of the screw head (of the outer two screws) where  i would expect the screw head to disappear in the nut. Perhaps someone replaced those screws with ones with a wider head, not knowing how the adjustability is supposed to work.

[BeenDown139]

that nut/hardware is definitely not right.  somebody's jacked with it.  hopefully those counter-sink head screws weren't used to do some kind of funky repair.  i would definitely disassemble that whole mess and do an assessment.

[bassvibes]

I just pulled it apart.  It does screw all the way down ok but the screws are not particularly sunk into the nut body?

See pics

[el8ed]

Another way to assess the nut height is to fret the second fret and look for string clearance over the 1st fret. There should only be a tiny bit of space. Almost too little to see, more like to be felt and heard as a small ping when the string hits the fret. Anything higher than that will make playing the bass harder than it needs to be.
Luckily your bass has the adjustable nut, so as soon as you restore it to its intended working ways it will be easy to set the height correctly. Maybe the owner’s manual can shed some light on its operation.

[el8ed]

From these photos the nut actually looks fine, just have at it with finding the height that works for you. Good luck!

[adriaan]

I got a little confused with the bits showing in the opening between the base and the nut - definitely the right parts in the right places.

The two outer screws adjust to set the height, but the middle one needs to be loose, because it locks the nut in place when you tighten it. Not sure how to go about it with everything apart, but should be fairly easy.

Don't forget to lower the pickups next (see Joey's post again about how they must be adjusted), and finally lower the bridge (which is also sitting pretty high).

[bassvibes]

Strangely as soon as I loosened the strings it was straight into a back bow.  That truss rod is struggling