In the last few days I’ve started playing a bit of music. For the first time in, well, what must be at least a couple – poss’ longer – of years!
I wrote a song, on the ol’ classical guitar, which was a dustier than a dust storm in a dust bowl. That was a few days ago, now. And yesterday I got out the electric guitars: Squier Strat and Squier Jazz bass.
I even got out my ol’ pedal board, and worked on a loop of the Kool & The Gang number, ‘Summer Madness’. I’m rustier than the wreck of the Titanic. But at least I’m getting back into it.
Considering what a big part of my life music has always been, I think this a good thing. I was considering just jacking it all in. But I think that was depression speaking. We shall see, I s’pose?
BASS ACTION
So, I can’t believe I’ve owned this bass for many years, and only now have I gotten around to lowering the action!
There are at least two aspects to lowering the action, at the bridge end. Initially I just used a 1.5mm Allen key to lover the saddles on the pairs of ‘vertical’ grub-screws. But that wasn’t sufficient.
So I had to really loosen off the strings, such that I could fully access, and flip, or rotate the saddles, using the long ‘horizontal’ Phillips head screws. As the saddle moves away from the bridge, as it’s Ona slight downward incline, the action is lowered.
So it took a combo’, of both moving inwards, and downwards, to achieve the degree of lowered action I was aiming for. I wanted to photograph the process with a metal rule, to gauge the change in height. But I could’nae find one. So, needs must, it wound up being a sawn-off lolly-stick!
Lowering the action makes the bass a lot easier to play. And I’m not getting any unwanted side-effects, like fret buzz. So I’m very pleased with the outcome. Having not played at all for a good number of years, and even longer in terms of regular playing, unsurprisingly I’m very rusty!
FOOTNOTE – Web Knowledge
You can’t believe everything you read on’t internet. My Squier Jazz Bass requires 1.5mm Allen keys.