Messing with the action and what not

Hey, I've got a Fender J Bass ( Squire ), and for some reason the strings are kind of high off the fret board. They are definitely higher than when I got the bass. I was thinking of lowering them by messing with the bridge and lowering the little things the strings go over after the holes ( sorry for not knowing what they are ). If I was to do this would I have to mess with the truss rod or anything else?
I know a lot of people say take it to a professional,and he can fix it! If I keep doing that I'll never learn how. Plus the near by guitar shop owner just says " you don't need to know, just bring em' back here and I'll fix em' up"!

messing with the action shouldnt really affect the truss rod.
all that it messes with is the tuning (slightly) so just adjust the action and retune and ur good to go XD

the things that you need to move down are called saddles btw

the way i do it is this:
i set the action on my lowest string as low as i can go without having fret buzz.
then i set the action of the other strings so i get an arch that follow the fretboard radius (if that makes sense)

if it doesnt make sense (very likely) then tell me and ill make sum pictures to explain it better or find you a website that explains it XD

HE SHOOTS! HE SCORES! Nice answer max. +1 for that. Also, you may not like your action at the lowest setting possible. Experiment.

http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/



I wouldn't go playing around with the truss rod, unless you're confident enough. The first time I adjusted the truss rod on my bass, was when I had a new one & wasn't too bothered if things didn't work out on the old one. To start, it did actually make it worse, but eventually I ended up settling for what I started with pretty much.

I measure fret buzz etc. at the 12th fret - hit the 12th fret - if you've got no fret buzz, try lowering the strings using the two screws in the saddles. If you do have fret buzz, you'll need to raise them up.

It is something that is very useful to learn how to do etc., but if it's your only bass & it's fine as it is, I don't think it's worth experimenting too much with. Adjusting the saddles is fine, as they can be put back to how they were but the truss rod can take a few hours (up to 24) to properly adjust to the change, and can prove to be a nightmare...

Thanks Max, and Smaz. I wasn't entirely sure, and just wanted to make sure I wouldn't screw things up. I've heard people can really mess their basses up by messing with the Truss Rod. I've actually thought about getting a cheap 50$ just to experiment with.

I set my strings to all be exactly the same distance from the fretboard, by placing the allen key for the saddle screws on top of the 24th fret and lowering the strings just so it touches it.
So my strings are only the width of that little allen key from the fretboard, i love a low action

Actually, Rushfan, your truss rod might be the problem. If it arches back, you get more action.
Check if it's totally straight, then adjust the action

Smaz wrote:http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/

omg smaz u read my mind XD
thats the website i used to set up my bass properly