Hello all! I have a Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazz Bass, which has a neck made of Mapple (and fingerboard material is Indian Laurel).
I’m wondering how much necks made of different woods are affected by changes in relative air humidity, and how often do you need to adjust the truss rod.
At least my bass seems to react quite a lot. But then again, changes in humidity have been high after our winter. I live in Finland, and we have central heating, which dries the air during the winter. The coldest the winter is, the drier the air indoors. This spring when I bought my bass guitar the air humidity was around 30 to 35%. Then the summer started, but it has been a very rainy summer so far. At some point the humidity was 48%, and the A on the 2nd fret of the G string rattled like crazy. Josh advised me to loose a little the trussrod (he has a very good video on YouTube about setting up a bass guitar). I did that, and it helped a lot. Adjusting the trussrod was very easy (what took most of the time was loosing the A and D strings such that I could move them out of the way to get to the trussrod screw, and then having to tune them back. I think it took me 30 minutes tuning them and the other strings, and then those strings again. The tension of the neck and strings change.
Well, it was worth it. But… now the humidity is higher again (between 54 and 60%), and the rattle on the G string is back. I’m dreading having to do it all again so soon, because maybe in less than a week the weather changes and then I will have to do it all again.
I’m wondering how different neck materials and bass guitar models react to humidity and how often does one need to do these adjustments. Has anyone here noticed how different kinds of wood react? I know many people here have lots of bass guitars, so you probably notice which ones need more or less trussrod adjustments. Are there differences between basses of different price range?
I’m not planning on buying a new bass any time soon, but eventually I might want to buy a precision bass or a better jazz bass, but for the moment my Squier is the only one.
I hate the G string rattle, specially if I play a song that has a lot of A notes on that 2nd fret. But how often is it worth going through all the adjusting and tuning and waiting and then tuning again. Soon the humidity might change again. At least it is easy to do these adjustments myself.
But if anyone has noticed differences on how necks of different materials react to humidity, I would like to know about it. Thanks!