Morning All,
Joined up last night so thought I'd best jump straight in. My Hohner B2A is the only bass I have owned - just love the style! I had it set up properly for the first time in it's life last year - full fret dress etc. and I thought it would play like a dream, but it's still a bit hard going. The action just doesn't seem (to me) to be low enough. Now I'm wondering whether the zero fret is too high and needs to be lowered. If I put a capo on the first fret it plays great and is a massive improvement. I've searched all over the interweb and there doesn't seem to be very much about zero frets and the bass. Anyone out there got any advice on best way to take down the fret height and what clearance I should be looking at at the first fret. For guitar, I'd be taking the nut slots down so that I get 0.3mm clearance at the 1st fret - that makes a massive difference to the playability. Obviously bass strings are that bit heftier, so I don't know if 0.3 would be too low. I'm thinking maybe some careful sanding with 400 grit and then recrowning and a polish.
I've got my feeler guages at the ready!