I've just bought a bass, a £150 Johnson.  Sounds good to me, but I've
got a bit of buzz on the top string at the low frets.

I'm guessing this is about the frets being a bit skew-whiff themselves
and not action or truss rod stuff.  As harebrained as it might sound,
in the past on guitars I've sanded and smoothed a bit of the trouble
frets to put paid to this, maybe that's what i'm needing ot do now?
I've raised the action all round a little bit, first to get rid of
some buzzing on the bottom string, again at the low frets; the action
is still comfortable.  I can get a credit card under the 7th fret with
the first and body fret held down so it shouldn't be a truss rod
issue, should it?

I'm not massively bothered as I'll hardly touch that string and I've
just bought this bass to do slightly more elaborate, purely hobbyist
home recordings, but if there's something simple to do I'll do it.

Lastly, I did lower the nuts slots a bit as they were madly high.
I've set them a bit higher than I would my acoustic guitars, assuming
that to be normal for the arc of vibration of the thicker strings, but
I would think I shouldn't put them any lower as then I'd get all that
ting ting noise from behind the fret I'm fretting.

Thanks in advance.

"poachedeggs"  wrote in message 
news:16c401ef-9c13-4265-a584-5f1c97329936@z34g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
> I've just bought a bass, a £150 Johnson.  Sounds good to me, but I've
> got a bit of buzz on the top string at the low frets.
[snips stuff]

If you've already lifted the action, it sounds like the truss rod needs a 
little bit of a tweak.
Usual warning: Only attempt this if you know what you are doing.

These days, I wouldn't have thought that the frets need dressing on a new 
instrument, whatever the make
(With the usual exception of those horrible Chinese fakes)

poachedeggs wrote:
> I've just bought a bass, a £150 Johnson.  Sounds good to me, but I've
> got a bit of buzz on the top string at the low frets.
> 
> I'm guessing this is about the frets being a bit skew-whiff themselves
> and not action or truss rod stuff.  As harebrained as it might sound,
> in the past on guitars I've sanded and smoothed a bit of the trouble
> frets to put paid to this, maybe that's what i'm needing ot do now?
> I've raised the action all round a little bit, first to get rid of
> some buzzing on the bottom string, again at the low frets; the action
> is still comfortable.  I can get a credit card under the 7th fret with
> the first and body fret held down so it shouldn't be a truss rod
> issue, should it?
> 
> I'm not massively bothered as I'll hardly touch that string and I've
> just bought this bass to do slightly more elaborate, purely hobbyist
> home recordings, but if there's something simple to do I'll do it.
> 
> Lastly, I did lower the nuts slots a bit as they were madly high.
> I've set them a bit higher than I would my acoustic guitars, assuming
> that to be normal for the arc of vibration of the thicker strings, but
> I would think I shouldn't put them any lower as then I'd get all that
> ting ting noise from behind the fret I'm fretting.
> 
> Thanks in advance.

Does the buzzing happen with that string played open?

Whether it buzzes open or not, on which frets does the string buzz?

If the problem is a fret or two which have lifted at the treble end, tapping 
the offending part down *gently* with a non-metallic hammer (eg, the butt end 
of a large plastic-handled screwdriver) often cures the problem.

On Sep 28, 4:32 pm, JNugent  wrote:
> poachedeggs wrote:
> > I've just bought a bass, a £150 Johnson.  Sounds good to me, but I've
> > got a bit of buzz on the top string at the low frets.
>
> > I'm guessing this is about the frets being a bit skew-whiff themselves
> > and not action or truss rod stuff.  As harebrained as it might sound,
> > in the past on guitars I've sanded and smoothed a bit of the trouble
> > frets to put paid to this, maybe that's what i'm needing ot do now?
> > I've raised the action all round a little bit, first to get rid of
> > some buzzing on the bottom string, again at the low frets; the action
> > is still comfortable.  I can get a credit card under the 7th fret with
> > the first and body fret held down so it shouldn't be a truss rod
> > issue, should it?
>
> > I'm not massively bothered as I'll hardly touch that string and I've
> > just bought this bass to do slightly more elaborate, purely hobbyist
> > home recordings, but if there's something simple to do I'll do it.
>
> > Lastly, I did lower the nuts slots a bit as they were madly high.
> > I've set them a bit higher than I would my acoustic guitars, assuming
> > that to be normal for the arc of vibration of the thicker strings, but
> > I would think I shouldn't put them any lower as then I'd get all that
> > ting ting noise from behind the fret I'm fretting.
>
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> Does the buzzing happen with that string played open?
>
> Whether it buzzes open or not, on which frets does the string buzz?
>
> If the problem is a fret or two which have lifted at the treble end, tapping
> the offending part down *gently* with a non-metallic hammer (eg, the butt end
> of a large plastic-handled screwdriver) often cures the problem.

No, there's no buzzing with the open string or I'd be cursing myself
for botching the nut slot.  I'm going to put a slight turn in the
truss rod but I don't want to go too far with it as it seems right as
it is.

There is certainly less buzz as you go up the neck, suggesting the
action was right even before I raised it - I think I read somewhere
that buzzing at low frets is a truss rod issue but I felt convinced it
couldn't be because it already looks right; that and fear of warping
the neck myself.  I know what I'm doing physically, I've got quite
good at a lot of maintenance stuff, but I wanted to get advice first
before actually doing it, especially being new to bass.