New to the forums and I have Sabre troubles

[rhythmCity944]

Firstly, I've been watching these forums for about a year but never really made an attempt to post anything

Secondly, I own a '79 Musicman Sabre and it is awesome except for the fact I cannot set up the bass comfortably for tuning 1/2 and the bass string a further step for a C# G# C# F# tuning with my band. To get anything to work well at that tuning the strings will be like a 1/2 inch off the fret board and I cannot stand that. The neck just will not hold stright and will twist. I've been playing this bass in standard tuning for a church band I play in for the past 4 years and it has worked great for that. I recently had the neck supurbly plained and refreted. I just really like the deep tones this bass produces and would like to play it with my original band but nothing seems to work set-up wise. I also have a 2002 Stingray which is set up for playing with my band and works great. Low and fast action with no buzzing. I currently use 45, 65,85,105 strings on both basses.

Are there any tricks to get the Sabre playing like the Stingray? I've thought about a graphite neck and so I would not have to make new holes in this old instrument.

 

[Caca de Kick]

I also have a '80 Sabre (same thing), and my band also detunes 1/2 step (D#/G#/C#/F#), and also alot of drop-tuning to low C# just like your band. I have no problems with my Sabre doing this, but there certainly was more trick to getting the 3-bolt tilt-neck setup properly overall. I handed the Sabre (as I do all my basses) to my local favorite tech for good setup job, as he sets mine up to my detuned state rather than setup at standard 440 state and trying to play it detuned from there. Same gauge 45-105 strings...and I use stainless.

I dunno what to say about graphite necks other than they have a much different sound I generally dislike, but could be your thing.