Hi all. Just out of curiosity, I looked into what I would pay for a bass setup here. $100 at a guitar repair shop, $60-$70 at Guitar Center!!! Holy crap! I’m so glad I learned to do it myself!
Now I’m in the Seattle area where everything is expensive, so I’m curious what this costs in other places.
So where are you located, and what does a setup cost in your area?
I’m in Austin, the “Live Music Capitol of the World.”
The most difficult thing about getting a pro setup done here (GC doesn’t qualify) is the wait. Good techs, and especially luthiers, have long wait lists. Their turnaround times once they accept an axe are long, too.
Costs for a really pro setup (comprehensive inspection, setting, and cleaning/polishing of all mechanical and electronic components of an electric instrument) in Austin range from $60-$100.
Earlier this year when I bought my first bass, a “pro” setup at GC cost $125. Learning to do it early on was one of the best investments time wise I could have made imo. I keep my toolkit in a drawer in my practice space and tweak things as I see fit all the time now, and I feel like I know my likes and dislikes (and how to fix them) as far as where things sit on the bass far better than I could have if I’d paid someone to do it. I only do the full shebang a couple of times a year where I open everything up, clean it all out and tighten all of the nuts and screws but I do little maintenance things all the time.
No idea on the cost, I set up my instruments as well as my friends’ and family’s for free. 
$80-$100 seems like the going price.
I would not give 2 bits to Guitar center to touch or even look at my bass especially when they are not responsible for damaging your instrument.
I was looking at $80 to have a pro do it here in PA. George’s music gave me a price and I immediately ignored it so I’m not sure what the music guys charge.
I want to give it a shot but I can’t really figure out the string height gauge. I’ve set intonation fine but adjusting the truss rod is still a mystery to me.
I agree GC doesn’t count, I just included it out of curiosity to see how their prices vary by region as well (if they do).
Yeah I totally agree. I think every musician ideally should be able to do basic & routine maintenance on their instrument. It’s good to be independent.
I do the full setup 2-3 times a year as well, as the seasons change. Another nice thing about doing it myself, other than the hundreds of dollars I’ve saved, is I think I do it more often myself than it would get done if I had to take it somewhere and pay for it.
Josh’s video on doing a setup is pretty helpful, and there are even more detailed videos on YouTube.
In my case, the best instructions for setup I’ve found, and what I use, are actually from the manual for my bass (an Ibanez). They’re very detailed with images, and much easier to reference than a video.
Truss rod isn’t so bad. I think the important thing is to just take it slow. Like Josh says in the video, just 1/8 turn at a time, then retune and let sit for a few hours.
Intonation is the part I like the least. It’s so tedious!
I use MusicNomad toolkits. Their process is quick and easy. And I find setting intonation is a snap with my Petersen StroboStomp. 
Oh cool, I’ll have to check their stuff out. The only tool I have specific to bass is a set of neck radius gauges I got. Everything else is just from the normal tool box. 
Mine are mostly standard tools. I got a few music nomad pieces, like the wrench with the felt bottom so it won’t scratch the finish and the truss rod wrench on my Yamaha is pretty specific but mainly I wanted a separate toolkit that I can throw in the front pouch of a gig bag. I’m not really the type to buy tactical gear, so I got a few patches to throw on the kit that should make that pretty clear.
And here I thought I was fancy because I have a set of feeler gauges I use for measuring string height. 
I don’t even remember how or when I got them, but I’ve never once had to measure a spark plug gap, so they live in my bass case now. 
About 80 USD bucks here in FL! If you have your own hand tools and are handy, its easy. If you’re not handy, no shame, just get it done professionally.
Yeah for sure! It’s also ok to be afraid. I was always too afraid to try doing a setup on my electric or acoustic guitar.
When I started learning bass, I decided what the hell. It’s only a Squier Affinity I got on Amazon. Turns out, I didn’t hurt the bass at all, although I did find some really shoddy workmanship once I started poking around.
In my early days, I bought a setup for two different basses. Totally worth the money for the convenience, playability and peace of mind.
I’ve done all of my own setups since then. But picking up my basses from those two instances were experiences for the books. Made all the difference, and I was glad for them.
Yeah the first time I set up the Squier Affinity I got, it was a totally different instrument. Basically everything about the way it came was wrong. The action was crazy high, the truss rod was off, the strings were different volumes because the pickup heights weren’t right. The only thing that wasn’t totally off was the intonation. That was actually really close, if you can believe it. 
I paid for a setup on my acoustic bass as the action was way too high and I didn’t trust myself to dismantle and remove the bridge, file it and replace it correctly. But I have no recollection of how much I paid. It wasn’t much maybe around £40 and he wasn’t sure how much he could improve it but actually in the end he was well pleased as was I!
But it’s all a lot easier on an electric instrument with modern bridges, so I’ve done my two electrics myself. One thing I plan to do is do a fresh set up on one of mine and then take it to a luthier and pay them to do a setup and also give me a bit of a critique on how well I had set it up first. Could be interesting! Could also be humiliating!
With some shops it can depend upon the instrument but $60-$100 is pretty much the normal range. It can also depend on whether or not new strings are included.
When I have done it for others I’ve charged $40-$80 based primarily on my time spent at $40 per hour which is also my rate for lessons. More often than not it’s somewhere in the middle and dependent on how much work is needed to clean and polish frets and the fret board. Is there any work on the electronics that needs doing? Is there any hardware that needs to be replaced? What does the instrument need to make it as playable and tonally sound as it’s can possibly be?
I would also say that for most it pays to invest in some basic tools and learn how to do a proper setup yourself along with basic electronic repair and the replacement of hardware and tuners. One exception may be acoustic guitars that need things like a neck reset or a bridge or nut adjustment. Most of us don’t have the tools or the in depth know how to work on a costly acoustic beyond a simple truss rod tweak.
Never paid for one and don’t think I ever would. Unless you have a major issue, it’s really easy to just do it yourself once you’ve learnt how. I’m not sure I’d tackle fret or nut issues, but I don’t consider that a setup.
I got a new Fender Elite Strat about 4-5 years ago. It had too much fret buzz. I took it back to the shop I got it from and I’m 99% sure they made it worse and left me with flat frets instead of recrowning them. Should of tried to get my money back or got them to try to fix it properly, but the Elite was just about gone and was getting replaced by the Ultra and didn’t want to miss out as the colour was awesome and makes me want to play. I fixed it up a bit just by adding some neck relief (learnt how after the bad experience).