Just got this one last night. Was on a gig with drummer Andre Beasley and he mentioned he was having some issues with his bass and was wondering if I knew anybody who could look at it. I said me obviously! Luckily he had it on the gig with him, so I grabbed it and brought it home. He said the action was too low especially in the first few frets and there was a crackling noise from the electronics. So first thing I looked at was the setup issues. As I suspected the nut was cut too low. To confirm it I put a little aluminum foil under the E string (which was the worst) and restrung it. Helped significantly. So I figured this would be a great candidate for a nut shim. First thing was to pop off the nut. Then I grabbed some maple veneer I had laying around and rough cut out a shim piece with a razor blade.
Then I cleaned up the shape and glued the shim into place. Waited a bit for the glue to dry and then carved out the truss rod access area with my exacto knife.
Then glued the nut back on and re strung the bass up. Huge difference. Lower notes were playing much better. Gave the bass a setup all around and cleaned it and gave the fretboard a little rub down with some Howards.
I plugged it in and played it for awhile and no buzzing or crackling. Opened up the cavity and took a look at the preamp. This thing actually had a circuit board in the control cavity (old school!). Everything looked normal but to be honest, this kind of electronic setup is a little out of my comfort range. So if it keeps making noise I will refer Andre to my good buddy Carl Pedigo.
7. Andre's Ibanez GT 4 string
- Shimmed Nut
- Setup
- Cleaned
No comments:
Post a Comment