These folks are called luthiers, however, you may or may not be successful at finding them if you use that to google.
Setups can be done at any guitar shop, however, a good setup - well, you may be doing some experimenting.
Guitar center does them - but I would avoid. High turnover, minimal training and experience can vary quality.
If you go into Google maps and search for ‘guitar store’ and ‘music store’ you should find any/all near you that might (some music stores might not sell guitars or basses etc). I have found some guitar stores don’t keyword themselves properly in Google so I search for both.
Generally (and this is very general) shops that build guitars/basses are better, but will cost more, etc. That does not mean that you will always get better setups at a higher end place though. You may have to shop around or call around and ask a few questions and see how they answer them. Some guys can be very dismissive, etc. Some have looooong lead times, some will do it on the spot, etc. Ask if they do a lot of basses or just guitars, etc.
I always say instrument repair and setup is one of those areas where you really need to know a little before going in, just like the doctor’s office, so you know they solved the problem coming out. When you are a beginner, you don’t know how you like your setup much, takes time to sort that out. But, and here is the secret bonus special part of playing the awesome bass….(shh don’t tell the luthiers)…setups are EASY. I had my first couple setups done by a luthier and then said “I can do that!”. Turns out anyone can, with better results. When you go to a luthier and don’t know how you like it set up, or are a beginner, they tend to set it up for a beginner. It will be fine but may not be to your liking (again, you may not know what your liking is yet anyway). Once you do though, its a lot easier and cheaper to do it yourself.
So I took one of my basses and followed along to a few different videos online until I knew what I was doing, took notes, and do all my own work now. It seems a bit daunting in the beginning but it isn’t.
Here is a thread with a ton of good videos…
I am partial to the Sadowski video for a few reasons.
- He goes slow
- There is an online document to go along with it
- He does not use ‘feel’ to set up his bass - once you know what you are doing, you can do most/all setup work by feel, but when you are beginning, it might be easier to measure things so you can establish what feel means, etc. IMO the ‘feel’ guys confuse beginners a little more than they need. My only tip that is not in every single video is ‘measure everything first, so you know where you were before you start, and go slow with minor adjustments vs. large step changes’. A few inexpensive items makes the job easier, and cheaper than going to a luthier once, let alone twice.
- The nut - don’t worry about the nut, just yet anyway. Most videos skip over this part for a reason. The nut is the one part that takes some more skill and maybe more costly tools (there are other ways to do, but need more skill). Of all the setup steps the nut is of the least concern unless it is really badly cut to begin with. There are videos for this and if you are handy it also is fairly easy (and even reversible) but does take a bit more skill for a beginner (I do my own nut work too).
During the year you will need to adjust your truss rod a little to compensate for humidity changes - so getting used to adjusting things is a necessary thing anyway.
Net/net - learning to do this stuff by yourself, with some minimal investment in a few items, will save you the $40-$80 setup fees charged, and, allow you to know its setup the way you want it. At some point, you can do it all be feel (if you do it enough or are a quick study, I still do both but I’m an engineer and like things measured precisely) and will wonder why you evert paid anyone to do something so easy.