I thought relief was the key to low string height, few buzzes and a comfortable action.
 

Well yes and no (again) because by having your trussrod adjusted to keep the bow of the neck at a given curve, is usually forcing the neck into a certain shape. When you lessen that force, e.g loosen the rod to allow more curve caused by the string's exerting pressure on the neck and thereby raise the nut a little. Your taking pressure off the neck that would have been exerted by the rod and not allowing the rod to perform to the best of its ability. In other words your hampering the ability for the rod to stop the neck warping.

If ever you get the chance take a look at the Danelectro guitars. They had a I beam running the length of the neck. They apparently stay straight (yep perfectly straight) forever They must stagger the frettops down to allow good playability. A very good system that never got the recognition it deserved in my book. Modern German budget builder Harley Benton do the same thing. My bands bassist has a violin bass of theres with that system in a carbon fibre neck. It does feel really nice on the hand. Sorry I digress, that is the easiest way of seeing what a trussrod's job is. It anchors the neck wood into a set shape. Now ok fenders rod is adjustable but the principle is the same. The string pressure causes bow, the rod anchored into the neckwood helps combat that. The fact that its been adjustable since eons ago is a miraculous thing in my book, a really good design. After all look at how much we'd have to pay for fretwork if all we had were these perfectly straight necks.

_________________
No no and no

Relief is about putting a very slight front bow into the neck to accommodate the fact that the strings vibrate in a wider arc in the middle than at their ends. That's all it's for.

People who like a moderately high action don't need any relief at all because that vibrational arc won't bring the string into contact with the frets. And there is a theory that a completely straight neck is more rigid, delivers vibration around the system more efficiently and so contributes to better sustain. I don't claim to be able to hear that though. Old ears, maybe.

Anyway. Set the relief to a slight front bow if that's how you like it (most of us do) and then leave it. Address buzz issues with the action set at the saddles.

People treat this stuff like it's a black art - but it ain't. It is a series of simple, logical mechanical adjustments.

Cheers - C

Ha! Or Hagstrom's patented trussrod system. This thing ain't gonna warp, twist, bow or anything else - EVER!!!:


Cheers - C

My Bassist will be very pleased to know that. He's just bought a Hagstrom HB4. Ceri do you know much about bridge sections for double basses, mainly what is the preffered wood to use? He's going to get me to cut him a load soon.

_________________
No no and no

Hell-fire - you don't let anything hold you back, do you?

Hard maple is the thing. Note how the grain works on this example:



But man, they're so cheap I'd think twice about bothering to make them:

http://www.janika.co.uk/FULL-SIZE-SIZE- ... BRIDGE.php

And you know this site. These start even cheaper (boy, I hate the price enquiry system on this website):

http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/ttwp16.html

Enter "double bass tonewood" into Google for a whole world of suppliers that you and I are probably not familiar with.

BTW: I love the internet. Here is a website entirely devoted to violin bridges. No double bass ones here unfortunately, but I just thought I'd mention it for the sheer obsessive nuttiness of such a site :

http://www.violinbridges.co.uk/

This one's fairly wacky too. Check out the prices of the "quality" instruments. Not "top quality" mind - they won't even tell us the prices of those. And folks here complain about the cost of Strats!!!:

http://www.contrabass.co.uk/home.htm

Good luck - and please show us pictures if you do it!

Cheers - C

EDIT: oh, here's another nice website that anyone interested in string instrument bridges needs to know about. I've selected a page at random...:

http://shop.violinbridges.co.uk/index.p ... _3400_3410

more maple!

I'm sick of the stuff. The whole thing is made of maple. Quite the beast. He's suggested using another wood to colour the sound a little differently. Still I can see I'm going to have to invest in a lot of coping blades.

BTW take a look at this local girl. I think you've been giving her lessons.
Susan Johnson

_________________
No no and no

Note the edit I just added to my last post. Options...


Feck - she's good! And local you say? Interesting - thanks!!!

Cheers - C

When all frets are dressed evenly and the string height is correctly set and the nut height is set to clear the first fret adequately - does relief eliminate first few frets buzzing?
 

No, theres no buzz because the action is set correctly at the saddles and nut.

_________________
No no and no

First few frets - from which end?

Low end fret buzz is addressed by getting the nut right. Upper end fret buzz is done with the action, from the saddles.

There may also be an issue of the neck tilting back slightly, causing the high frets to interfere with the strings. Rare - and for that you'd need to reverse shim - a shim placed at the nut end of the neck pocket. Though in real life this problem generally only occurs on Strats where folks have done a normal shim when they didn't need to. Like the "tech" quoted in the first post on this thread. In which case, just remove the shim.

Many people seem to believe you should be able to have ultra low action with the strings about half a mil above the frets, and yet have no buzz. It ain't going to happen. That string has to vibrate, which means it moves about. It needs space for that.

People would do well to learn to play with a bit of action to the strings. More toneful, more musical - more manly!

Cheers - C

The first few frets in the lower register. Sounds like both you guys have never come across that when setting a low action.

Same thing happens at the high end of the fretboard (unless there is fall away) at the last few frets.

Anyway I'll keep setting my relief to reduce lower register and elliptical string buzz and set my string height at the saddles from there. All my guitars play great so hopefully it will continue to work.