T-40 neck tilt

New owner of a natural 78 or 79 T-40 and it's great!

Any tips on adjusting neck tilt? Special tools, etc?
My neck is straight but the action is quite high.

Thanks!

Nevermind, found everything in the manual!

No special tools needed. Just the courage to do it. And Chip might say a can or two of liquid encouragement.

And welcome to the show!

Haha, thanks!

I also just ordered a torsion wrench to adjust the truss rod, 19 bux shipped!

Beers will be had

Hey I have a T-40 bass that I believe is around a 1982 based on the serial number and the action seems a bit high to me. I was trying to follow the manual and see that it gives some min and max heights for several things. The thing that doesn't seem too straight forward to me is that don't all of these adjustments interact with each other? If the truss rod is adjusted within specs but then if the neck tilt is raised, it seems that this would also now have a bearing on the truss rod measurement taken at the 8th fret. Throwing in the saddle height adjustment seems would also have a direct bearing and interact with the other settings. Hopefully I am making sense here.

I was wondering if there was a recommended starting point, like perhaps have the neck tilt all the way down and then only adjust it up if needed.

Also what kind of action have other members been able to get on their basses? Are you able to achieve the lower range of the measurements that Peavey recommends in their guide?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Man, wish I knew about that neck tilt adjustment sooner. A repair man at Guitar Center told me the neck needed to shimmed, had no idea you could adjust it. The shop they sent it out to is supposed to call me before doing any work, so I know they wont do anything without me knowing, but I could have saved a lot of time and money by doing that myself.

The truss rod adjustment is independent of all the other adjustments with the exception of tuning to pitch. Remember, the term "the neck is straight" is misleading, as the neck needs a few thousandths of concavity in the fretboard.
Chip

Got my T-40 back today, no shims, looks like they figured it out. They put on flat wounds, and I am quite surprised as to how much I am liking them. They are plenty bright, I feel they were specifically made for this bass.

chiptodd wrote:

The truss rod adjustment is independent of all the other adjustments with the exception of tuning to pitch. Remember, the term "the neck is straight" is misleading, as the neck needs a few thousandths of concavity in the fretboard.
Chip

Thanks for the info. I've played around a bit with trying to adjust my T-40, but I can't say that it's really any better. I think it would benefit if I could increase the concave bow in the neck. Right now with a capo on the first fret and holding down the low E string at the highest fret, I'm measuring about 1/16 from the top of the 8th fret to the bottom of the E string. This meets the minimum recommended in the Peavey guide, but if I try to lower the action either through a neck tilt adjustment or saddle adjustment, the strings start to buzz. The truss rod nut seems to go totally loose if I try to loosen it any more with no effect on the neck.

The clearance at the 12th fret to the bottom of the E string is about 6/32 which I think falls into the proper range in their guidelines, but it feels a bit high to me. It looks like for the T-40 they don't say anything in the manual about having the capo on for the 12th fret measurement of 1/16 to 1/4. The diagram does for the 8th fret (1/16 to 1/8 ). If I put the capo on and do the 12th fret measurement like the 8th, I'm getting about the same value of 1/16.

I'm wondering how this compares to other basses that have been properly setup.

1/16" is .0625" ; the bow should be around .010" to .014". I've become more adventuresome over the last 35 years and have found that the T-60 & T-40 necks hold the setup so well that I set the T-40 necks about .015" now. It's not rocket science, but it's better to have too much bow than too little.
Chip

chiptodd wrote:

1/16" is .0625" ; the bow should be around .010" to .014". I've become more adventuresome over the last 35 years and have found that the T-60 & T-40 necks hold the setup so well that I set the T-40 necks about .015" now. It's not rocket science, but it's better to have too much bow than too little.
Chip

Hey thanks for this info. Your numbers look similar to what Fender lists as the recommended bow rather than the numbers Peavey placed in their guide.

Just for comparison, what kind of clearance do you have between the bottom of your E string and the 12th fret?

Also is there any gap between the neck and body due to the neck tilt? I can see what looks to be close to about 3/32" gap on the G string side due to the neck tilt.