Help with Bass Set-up

[Ricman]

Hi all,

My 12yr old son wants to take up playing the Bass. I've got a Japanese Bass that I have dusted off and just bought him a nice new set of Hybrid Slinky 45-105 strings. If he keeps it up I'll look round for a nice SUB for him.

What kind of measurements should there be on at the 12th fret (or any other for that matter), for a new player? I set up my own electric skinny string guitars, and usually do it by feel and checking whether it frets out. Any tips for Bass please? How can I measure and check without any special equipment?

Cheers.

 

[adouglas]

Well, at least there's some EBMM content in that query...

I'm sure you know the guidelines about limiting discussions to EBMM products. This isn't a general bass forum, so normally questions about off-brand Japanese basses would be referred to someplace like Talkbass.

That said, I think if you use the specs you'll find in the FAQ at music-man-basses | faq as a starting point, you'll be in good shape. These should apply regardless of brand of bass.

A useful tool is a machinist's rule, which you can find at any decent home improvement or hardware store for about five bucks. It's a small metal ruler graduated in 64ths of an inch. One end is flat, with the graduations extending all the way to the end. This is used to measure string height.

Some people like to use feeler gauges to check for relief (neck bow). Others use a business card. I use neither... the issue I see is that if you slide a feeler gauge under the string and it touches at all, it'll lift the string... so it's really not possible to get a truly accurate reading, right?

What I do to check relief is simple and requires no tools or gauges. Holding the bass in playing position, hold the string down at the first fret with your left hand. Take your right thumb and fret the string around the 15th fret or so. Holding your thumb there, stretch your right hand and tap the string over the 7th fret with your middle finger.

What I look for is the sound of the string tapping the fret (indicating that relief exists) but with as little visible movement as possible (indicating that it's very close to the fret). If the frets are in good shape and level, that will provide adequate relief.

I assume you know the following since you do your own setups, but it bears mentioning anyway: The bridge saddles are NOT the primary method for setting action height! The trussrod is.

Here's the sequence:

1) Set relief (bow).
2) Once it's correct, measure string height and adjust with bridge saddles if necessary. Then re-check relief, adjust, re-measure, adjust, rinse and repeat until you're there.
3) Adjust intonation if necessary. Then go back and re-check, adjust, re-check everything.
4) Adjust pickup height. Closer is not better. Stick to specs.

Once you've got the basic setup, you adjust playing height to suit by tweaking the trussrod just a bit. A quarter-turn has a major impact on string height.

Generally speaking, the bridge is left alone, but the trussrod is tweaked all the time as the weather changes.

I've never had to adjust the bridges on any of my Bongos other than to accommodate changes in string gauge.

 

[Ricman]

Thanks very much for the help Adouglas, the link is really helpful.

Sorry if my post is spurious. Mods feel free to delete if this shouldn't be here, but the board is labelled "Chat about Ernie Ball Strings", it doesn't mention Musicman, which is why I posted it here and not the EBMM board.

Thanks again for your help mate, much appreciated.

 

[beej]

Moved ... s'all good

(And for the record ... that's what I do too. Same on guitars and basses.)

 

[0DDJ0B]

just read the specs and i have one question about the p/u hieight. is it checked with the string freted at a certain fret or open.

i set up my guitars with the strings freted. still new to the bass.

 

[adouglas]

just read the specs and i have one question about the p/u hieight. is it checked with the string freted at a certain fret or open.

i set up my guitars with the strings freted. still new to the bass.

I believe it's open… never messed with them since they came from the factory correctly set.

 

[0DDJ0B]

I believe it's open… never messed with them since they came from the factory correctly set.

i guess i could measure it both ways and see which way is closer to the spec and take it from there

 

[oli@bass]

I believe it's open… never messed with them since they came from the factory correctly set.

I wondered the same thing. If it is with the string open, it would make less sense because then the distance may change considerably when the string is fretted. Recently I even ran into a situation where I had to lower the PU because the string was getting too close when fretted on the higher notes, and the magentic pull of the (neck) PU was interfering with the string vibration.