There are a lot of beginners here. You have a long history of playing and feel is well established. Some folks like by feel. Some don’t. It’s a per user thing. Some like recipes. Some throw stuff in a pan. There is no wrong answer here. However, since a lot of folks here seem afraid of doing this work the more logical approach is to be able to measure and note setups until a feel system works (if ever). I think we have to be careful here to remember a lot of the audience here is just starting out.
To be clear I don’t think there is anything wrong with buying tools if you want. What I am pointing out is you don’t need them. I think a lot of people get hung up on the idea that setups are this difficult complicated thing. You see this all the time - people reluctant to do their own setup because they think they will break the bass. And it’s just not that way. And the idea that you need special tools to do it is just adding to that barrier to entry, IMO.
Tools are fine and good. But you don’t need them, and the lack of them should not prevent someone from improving the playability of their instrument, or make them afraid to do so.
I learned to do it by feel the first time from watching Marcello’s video. Fast, easy, and a fun watch.
Agree that there are a lot of beginners on the forum @John_E…. And although I may have a long history of playing stringed instruments, that has nothing to do with my ability to perform adjustment on any of them…. There are many professional musicians that don’t (and probably don’t really know how to) perform their own set ups and have others that they trust do it for them. All I can say is that there are some of us here that have always done our own setups by feel and that’s what works for us, using only tools we have at hand…. Some of us had to learn this way early on because we may not have had the resources available to acquire special tooling or to pay anyone to do it for us at the time. We learned by feel…. Not a bad thing….
Here’s a good case for learning to do your own set ups.
About a month ago I purchased a banjo and case for $1,000.00.
It was supposed to have been checked and set up by the in-store luthier.
The intonation was never 100% but not knowing how to do that on a banjo I just put it down to a bad bridge. Today I discovered that when banjos are shipped the bridge is laid flat on the head and has to be stood up, obviously. I also discovered that the bridge is asymmetrical, ie from the base one side is at right angles and the other side compensates for the string break. Well as it turns out the bridge was installed backwards on mine and that was the cause of the intonation issues. I also discovered the head tension was not even and was 5-10 units low, depending on where on the circumference you took a measurement with a drum dial.
I do not blame the manufacturer because in most cases everything is usually loosened up for shipping purposes on a lot of stringed instruments. I know my TRBX504 was shipped with the string tension backed off and the truss rod set to neutral.
God only knows what they would do to a new Bass or Guitar setup.
The nice thing about this Banjo is that it comes with a zero fret which I have always thought all manufacturers of Guitars, Ukes and Basses should use.
Anyways, it’s all sorted now but I just wanted to let beginners know how important it is to understand the mechanics of their instruments.
I guess this is as good a place as any. I found a shop out in CA that has inexpensive notched straight edges in assorted scale lengths:
For bass, they do a 34/35 and a 30/30.5 (which should work on you people with the Gretsch shorties).
Caveat, I have no experience with them, but I plan to try one and then get 2-3 more in other scales… I may see if they would be willing to make a 25.5"/27" for me, as I have no interest in ever playing a Gibson length guitar or a 26.5" baritone.
I have a few of their tools. I have a bass and a guitar notched straight edge (4 scale lengths), a rocker and fret leveling file. All decent tools I just wish the edges were not so sharp. Easy to scratch finishes with them
I also have their crowning tool but I would not recommend it. I found the interchanable Australian Luthier Tool much better for crowning.
I also have a Japanese fret end file I got from Lee Valley to be very useful.
My favorite first timer step by slow clearly articulated step without skipping anything setup videos are the ones from Fodera. People tend to leave out information and this guy gives every micro step and explanation by using measuring devices. I felt comfortable following his instructions when I had never done a setup before.
After doing it in detailed steps, I starting liking the Roger Sadowski video because he doesn’t measure as much and talks more about the just by feel approach.
I like the neck pretty flat so I don’t use the feeler gages anymore when adjusting the truss rod. It’s enough for me that the check is pressing down so there’s any gap at all. I crank the truss rod until there’s no gap and then back off a quarter turn until there is the slightest. Not backbowed is the right gap for me.
For action height I crank it low until fretting the highest four frets produces an unwantable amount of buzz and then turn them a half turn to raise until they don’t have buzz for how hard I’m plucking or choose to accept the buzz.
Yeah that’s more or less what I do too. No need to measure for me; that gives me the feel I want. The bonus is it automatically follows the fretboard radius when you do this too - except even better than you could do with just a radius tool, because it’s automatically accounting for the differing string thickness as well.
I use his method 100%.
This video compresses much longer videos and adds in all the little tricks a lot of folks forget or don’t discuss completely.
They did a great job on this one, but forgot the one thing he normally says and a great tip, which is tighten the neck bolts once the strings are off. You would be amazed at how loose some of these can become.
Recently, I purchased a SBMM and it comes with no manuals like most basses. So I wrote to Sterling asking about the electrical diagram and setup measures since after researching I found the EBMM have specific configuration on their website specially for the distance of the strings and pickups.
I got a quick response from them with the electrical diagram picture and a link for a YouTube playlist of 4 videos to do a proper setup. Here is the link for it. I hope it helps
I picked up the Music Nomad tools and although I found them to be of great quality, had I seen this video prior, I may have stocked up on business cards instead
Beginner here. I am glad everything went well eventually. You mentioned a zero fret, but most basses I saw from several manufacturers don’t have it, even on high-end models. What are the pros of having one?
I’m a big fan of zero frets as well and currently GASsing for Sandbergs which feature them.
With a zero fret, the nut becomes something to just keep the strings in line, it doesn’t factor into string height. The zero fret is the same height as the rest of your frets, so string height is perfect. Open strings are essentially “fretted” at the zero fret. It’s the same material as your other frets so no tonal difference.
A @fennario said ‘With a zero fret, the nut becomes something to just keep the strings in line, it doesn’t factor into string height. The zero fret is the same height as the rest of your frets, so string height is perfect. Open strings are essentially “fretted” at the zero fret’.
