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.
new sadowsky setup video (98% applies to any bass):
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
This was incredibly straightforward.
THANK YOU!
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 
Yeah you really don’t need any special tools.
Hi folks,
I followed some of the above videos to do my own setup, which was a bit intimidating but I’m pretty confident I’ve got it down almost perfectly.
I know that I will likely need to do some work on the nut to lower the E string but that’s about it.
I have noticed that it all feels very clanky. I can’t say there’s any buzzing except when I left my fingers to mute with my left hand.
My question is: are there audio cues (aside from buzzing when fretting) that I should be aiming for?
The cues given in the video tend to be more visual/measurement based.
I’m VERY new to setups and bass as a whole.
Sorry, for context I have a Players P Bass and new Dunlop Nickelwound strings
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.
Zero frets are an easy retrofit as well.
Pam had done one a few years back with ease and posted here on how to do it yourself.
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’.