MTD Kingston Saratoga Deluxe 5 has fret buzz and high action?

[shadowsfal5656]

Hi, I have an MTD Kingston Saratoga Deluxe 5. I love the way the bass sounds, however, when I took it to get set up, my guitar technician had to raise the action significantly higher than the way it came from the factory to get rid of fret buzz. It still has a good amount of fret buzz on the lower frets, especially the B string, despite having the action been raised a good amount. This also surprises me since I have an MTD Kingston Z4 that has extremely low action with no fret buzz, and I've heard these basses should be able to get super low action because of their zero frets. I was also told there was a bow in the neck on the Saratoga from its original factory set up that my technician had to correct. I'm using Ernie ball 2824 Super Slinky 5-string bass strings. Do you guys have any ideas whats causing this, so I can lower the action?

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Also, I bought this bass new and for the most part it has not been used.

 

[KenD]

Did your tech mention if the frets are perfectly level? For example, one or more frets proud in relation to the others will cause buzz.

 

[shadowsfal5656]

He did not mention that, I'll ask him.

 

[KenD]

He did not mention that, I'll ask him.

Another thing to consider and examine is whether the zero fret is set in too low in relation to the others, such that it doesn't provide sufficient clearance on the others. particularly the first few frets.

 

[Chris Chong]

A bass of mine has some high fret buzz on the D string around 17-20th fret but not on the G string. Had to raise the overall string height, until I send it for fret levelling.

On another bass, it came with low riders with insane low action with minimal buzz. After trying out lower tension strings (super slinkies), had to raise the string height due to more buzz. Will go back to low riders for the next set.

 

[shadowsfal5656]

I took it in, it turns out the neck had bowed backwards a good amount within a short period of time after having it setup. It just needed to have the truss rod turned a bit.