I just bought my daughter a used upright bass. (hoping she will take an interest in it.....it's looking good right now)

The string height at the nut...(upper part) is almost touching the fret board, in fact the E string has a small piece of plastic under the string at the nut, probably to keep it from vibrating on the fret board.

I am totally ingorant about this (I'm a banjo player....LOL), and there are no other bluegrass players or bass players around me for 300 miles.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Gordon

Hi Gordon.

Here's hoping your daughter takes the bait. The world can use more bass players!

In my opinion the you can tell the strings are too low if you get a buzz. Pluck it hard (or if you're bowing, bow it hard. Do it with an open string and with the first several notes on the string. If the string buzzes against the finger board, there's a problem that needs to be fixed. Otherwise you're fine.

The only other issue I know of with low strings would be if you were playing slap bass and wanted to get under the string so you could pull it up and let it pop against the finger board, but she probably won't get to that stage for a while -- if ever.

If you are getting a buzz, the bad news is raising the nut height usually means replacing the nut. That can be a lot more expensive than adjusting the bridge. Find a good luthier to take a look at it and advise you about your options. In fact, finding a good luthier you can trust is a good idea even if you aren't getting a buzz.

Dale

Well, I'm hoping she enjoys it. She seems to be so far. She just got home from university this weekend, so I hope she'll put in some time on it.

She seems to be able to play it without buzzing, so hopefully it's alright. You can make it buzz without really trying.

Thanks for your reply.

--
Gordon