Atom Setup Question

[Sixx]

I am trying to dial in my Atom just to my liking and wanted to a little bit of guidance.

I set all of my guitars up with 42-9s. I like the action very low. I call it the low shredder set up even though I am not a shredder. I can't stand necks with lot's of relief.

When I got my Atom, I switched from 9s to 10s. The neck had a bit to much relief so I straightened it just a hair. I also lowered the two bridge posts just a bit. The action is nice and low from the first through twelveth fret and then it seems to get a bit high. There also seems to be more string tension than I would anticipate from a short scale guitar.

I am trying to duplicate the setup I have on my Pro Am. I am getting close.

My hypothesis is that the combination of the tilt back neck a pig tail tail piece just set-up differently.

Thoughts???

[tom]

the tilt neck should not affect the ability to get the action the way you want it, but just the nature of the neck hanging on you differently will effect the way it feels when playing. sounds like maybe you still need to make the neck a bit straighter. sounds like you're comfortable with this stuff, so just try adjusting the neck and then recheck the bridge height.

[tom]

another thought, mahogany necks are more lively, so strings can have a bit bigger excursion when you hit them making fret slap happen a little sooner with super low action.

[sylvanshine]

Bert-

It took me a while to get the action on my Atom dialed in as well. I wrote about it in a post about 4-5 months ago. The bridge height seems to effect the 12th fret and up and the truss rod really effects the bottom half. I had to kind of adjust both until I got what I wanted.

There is something visual that happens (to my eye anyway) on the Atom. The action looks higher than my Pro Am T, but when you measure they are identical at 2/32" at the 12th fret. Might be the angled neck of the Atom.

I think you will find that the Atom really plays better with a tad higher action than you normally would. And by tad, for me that means you can see the 2/32" mark on the Atom and not on my Pro Am (the string is covering it).