Set-up?

[David Houck]

It seems to me that how quickly the neck reacts to your adjustments is variable.  I think generally you might want to give it a day to settle in.

[bsee]

From my experience, don't try to adjust your truss rods to get the desired height.  At least, don't keep turning them until it gets where you want it to be.  Truss rod adjustments are basically bending wood.  You really should make small adjustments and give them some time to settle before making further adjustments.  
 
On other instruments, that has meant no more than one quarter turn or so.  I am not sure what Alembic might recommend.  The good news is that you shouldn't have to make big adjustments unless the bass has been badly mistreated to get very far out.
 
Oh, and no one has yet pointed this out, but there's some instruction from the factory right here: http://alembic.com/support/care.html.
 
-Bob

[mica]

Truss rods are usually the first thing to look at for adjusting setup, at least on an Alembic. Since James and Jon do such a fine job of setting up to begin with, about the only thing that will change is the neck in concert with changes in humidity.  
 
It's my opinion that you should not relax your tuning before adjusting - if you do, you'll only make it harder to find your proper bow. Your goal is to aim the strings between the pull of the strings and the pull of the truss rod.  
 
After you adjust the bow of the neck with the truss rods, you can evaluate if the overall string height is too high or too low for your tastes. Adjust this only at the bridge.
 
At first, you should only adjust in 1/4 or 1/2 turns and adjust both rods the same amount. Later as you gain experience, you'll know how much you'll need to turn just from playing.
 
Always test by playing, and not on your workbench - even a slight pressure on the back of the peghead will indicate bow falsely. Adjustments are immediate, but one adjustment may require another after you get used to the new settings - it's all about focusing in to your desired set up. Also, humidity can change on a daily basis, so if you're using extremely low action, you'll notice extremely small flexes of the neck and you'll need to adjust more often.  
 
What does settle in over time is the neck getting used to being a neck. Adjustments are more necessary in the first 2 years, decline some after that and usually only needed at the extreme shifts in humidity after 10 years.  
 
This is stuff you may not get overnight, But keep trying. Trust Joey and Dave, it is best to learn to do your own setups, because you're the one playing the bass.  
 
Of course, when it's your full time job to play, you get to hire a dedicated tech and teach them what you like.

[bob]

If your instrument has been in a stable environment for a while, and you are making a minor adjustment to the truss rods - 1/8 to 1/4 turn - then you should feel/hear most of it immediately.  
 
You can also help it along by applying some gentle pressure with your hands to bend the neck in the direction you are trying to move it. Just hold it in normal playing position, brace one arm against the body, and push or pull the neck a little with your fretting hand.  
 
For small adjustments like this, you may notice a little settling in over night and decide to tweak it a little more, but you'll see most of the effect right away.  
 
Again, that applies if the instrument has been living in the same general heat/humidity environment, you haven't made any major adjustments recently, and you're only changing it slightly. If you switch to a grossly different set of strings or the weather changes, requiring a larger adjustment, then you may need to check and adjust it over the course of a day or two.  
 
I also wouldn't be too paranoid about de-tuning. If you're loosening the truss rods a little, I wouldn't bother at all (unless to make it easier to get to the nuts); if I'm tightening, I just bend the neck a little at the same time I'm turning the nuts.  
 
I'm more likely to de-tune slightly if I want to raise the bridge 1/4 or 1/2 turn, though maybe not to lower it. Common sense works wonders here - if it feels hard to turn the screw or nut, then maybe you should loosen things so you don't risk stripping the threads, but if not then you're not going to hurt anything.
 
-----
Looks like Mica and I were writing at the same time, and I could have been working or something...
 
I'll just reinforce her comment about checking setup in normal playing position. If you measure stuff while it's laying on a table, even gravity pulling down on an unsupported neck is enough to throw off your measurements!
 
This stuff is neither voodoo, nor rocket science - it just takes a little practice with careful attention.
 
(Message edited by bob on August 02, 2004)

[palembic]

I learned one thing over the years: do it slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-owly. 1/4 at the time. Put the bass away and restart plying some time, than adjust one 1/4 more ...and wait again ...wait  ....wait ...
Hey buddies, the art of waiting is what it's all about in Alembic ...remember when you order the thing ...Aaaa!
 
Paul the bad one

[fungke]

Hi everyone,
 
Wow... look what happens when I go away for couple days. Thanks to everyone who has given advice. I really do appreciate it.
 
Well I gave it another try last night and got the set-up almost there. I need to sort out the pick-ups. When I move the balance fully to the P (it's a P/J configuration) it sounds pretty awful. The pick-ups are set very low so I was going to bring them up to see if that cleared up matters.
 
I'll have another play tonight but I'm now starting to get the hang of it.
 
Are there any golden rule for pick-up set-up?
 
Cheers, Andy.

[palembic]

There are some rules I learend from the time my PJ Alembic PU's were build into a Fender Light of a friend of mine.
The P's are louder than the J's.
So in theory the P's must be set LOWER than the J's: the closer you get the PU's the louder they sound.
Although ...it influences sound too.
The lower you set the PU's the lower they sound, I Mean, with a tendency to produce more low end. A high placed PU will pick up more high sounds (the fingertouch on the strings, stringnoise in general).
I don't know if on the PJ-set-up is a blend/balance between P and J. I think (HEY I AM NOT SURE OF THIS) that in that case there must be those tiny blue crews into the cavity were you can pre-set the mastervolume of each PU. So in that case the PU height you choose can be isloted only for tone purposes.
 
 
Paul the bad one
 
 
***sigh*** I hope this is clear ...I am not good in explaining this technical stuff.
 
 
 
 
PS: the PJ set-up I own has volume, blend, filter and Q-switch. You will soon hear more of it in my Frankenstein project ...come and see by the end of september!!!

[bigredbass]

Andy:
 
NEVER deTune your bass to adjust your action (or for any other reason I can think of).
 
You must remember that strings are pulled to a certain lbs/ft tension to achieve a given pitch.  The total of all the strings' tension induces the relief ('bow') in the neck/fingerboard.  
 
So, if you get the action just where you want it in a detuned state, when you inevitably must return to standard tuning (a gig, for instance), you will raise the tension on the neck as you tune up, and your action will change as the neck bends a little more aginst this higher tension.
 
If this sounds like splitting hairs, the real secret of all of this is that the location of the frets, the fret heights, ALL the dimensions involved in building a neck that correctly, are laid out in thousandths of an inch.  Bob was pointing in this direction in telling you that 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn is a BIG change.  I do my original setups of a new bass with feeler guages, because my brain/eyes aren't good enough to see the difference in .020 and .025.  
 
Mica in a previous post mentioned that the P Activator is MUCH louder than the J Activator, and they offer a circuit mod that can cedrease the difference in output.  Might want to check into it.  And of course the string is vibrating in a much narrower amplitude over the J back at the bridge, which doesn't help, but that's just the way it is.
 
J o e y

[bigredbass]

Andy:
 
I forgot one other thing:  Always do your adjustments with the bass IN PLAYING POSTION.  Never lay it flat on its back on a table to do this, as the weight will move the neck (see the ramble above about thousandths of an inch . . .).  I usually do it with the bass in my lap, seated.
 
J o e y

[fungke]

Cheers Joey.
 
I appreciate your advice. It's starting to all make a lot of sense now.
 
Typically when the bass arrived it was set-up quite well. The P activator, all be it loud, sounded real nice. Now it just sounds like big fuzzy sound with no definition.
 
A lot of this will have something to do with the lighter strings I guess.
 
Again, I will have another go when I get some free time.
 
Best Regards, Andy.

[effclef]

Fungke: fuzzy sound? Hmm, I wonder, is your 9V battery fresh? If not, replace it.
 
EffClef