How’d it work on the U-bass? I’ve never actually set one up.
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There isn’t much to set up on a U-Bass other than the truss rod. Ever since I got it, the action seemed high. I re-played the video as a refresher and a confidence booster that I can adjust the truss rod without breaking anything. The bridge is non-adjustable, so no intonation or action height changes. I adjusted the truss rod and it is lowered the action a bit so it’s much easier to play now.
Thanks Josh!
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I have run out of intonation adjustment on my A string and the 12th fret is still flat. Any Suggestions? I have already brought the Bass to the local Music store.
It is a Cort C4 Plus
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That sounds odd. Just to confirm you have moved the saddle all the way forward?
Could be you have a bad string. You can get a longer saddle screw if needed.
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Just a note: When dealing with a fretless bass, it’s pretty much the same process but you need to do all your fretting on the markers themselves instead of just behind them like you would with a normal fretboard. This has a HUGE effect when you’re trying to get the intonation correct. Holy hell tweaking intonation on a fretless takes forever. You gotta shoot for more of a “close enough for government work” instead of perfection otherwise you’re going to drive yourself insane.
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Try pushing down on the string just past the saddle, insuring that the string is coming off the saddle at the right angle. Pushing down in this spot on all strings is a much missed step in bass setups and generally will show itself on the E string running out of intonation room, but can happen on any string.
If it is still a problem, check the saddle slot to insure the string is landing and coming off the saddle properly, also check that the string is in the nut properly (hey, you never know, check everything).
Short of that, you may just have a bum string.
If they are the strings that came on the bass, I would suggest replacing them (I always do this first thing with a newly purchased bass).
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If I had to replace the strings what type should I get? This is my first Bass.
Halfway through the Beginner to Badass lessons right now.
Are those saddle screws generic or do you have to get it from the MFG?
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That bass comes with D’addario EXL 165 strings. That is a really good string. You can probably purchase a longer screw online or a hardware store. You just have to make sure it’s the same diameter and thread but longer.
I would suggest taking the bass to another store, or even better a luthier if you have one around you.
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In which direction are you running out of intonation?
Are you too sharp (need to go back further but no more room left) or too flat (cannot go towards the neck any further)?
Even if the bass has good strings they could have been sitting on it a long long time.
Check with the mfg specs on the 165s to insure you get the same gauge strings if you replace.
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Double and triple check your truss rod. I had a similar problem and it turns out I adjusted the truss rod incorrectly. Re-adjusted that and the intonation changed completely and I was able to get it proper with plenty of room to spare on the saddles. I was quite surprised how much that slight change to the neck affected the intonation config.
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I am too flat.
I am going to loosen the string completely tonight and move the screw on the bridge back to center and try again.
I will make sure the string is seated in the bridge correctly by pushing down on it at the bridge.
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I will check this out tonight as well.
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So I tried to adjust the intonation last night and the screws are too short. The screw are all the way loosened and still flat on the 12th fret. The A string is the worst and the screw was out of the bridge saddle. When I tried to push on the string the saddle tilted. I tried going to home Depot and lowes last night but neither of them had that size screw that would fit in the saddle. At this point I am not sure what the screw size is but I am guessing it is smaller than a M4 metric screw. I tried emailing Cort but not sure if the message when through.
I checked the truss rod string gap per Josh’s instruction at the 7th fret and I can barely get a business card in on the E string. At this point I don’t have a lot of confidence in the local guitar shop that I paid to do the set up so not sure what to do now.
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The next step is to change the geometry. Since it is flat the string needs to be shorter. To do this you could try loosening the truss rod a little to allow a little bow in the neck.
If that doesn’t help, next up is changing the strings.
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Hey,
Do you know what was the 1000$ bass from the video ?
Is nut adjsutement that complicated ? Mine is probably 1mm too high
I’m tempted to try (as I understand it’s pretty cheap to buy spares in case i fxxxx up
What do you think ?
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It seems to me that you might be able to fix this by top-loading the strings instead of feeding them through the body.
Nut work is not hard, especially if it is uniformly high. In that case all you need is sandpaper. Loosen the strings, pop the nut out, and sand the bottom of the nut a little, by placing the sandpaper flat on the table and sanding the nut’s flat bottom on it. Pop it back in and check how it’s doing. Repeat until the height is right. Very very easy, just take it slow and sand just a little at a time.
If only some of the strings are too high, then it’s also easy to file the slots. You don’t need expensive luthier files for this; any simple small round diamond file will work fine. Again, pop the nut out, file a bit, pop back in and test, repeat. Again, go slow.
It is, very cheap. This is a good route too, buy a nut spare and work on it, keeping your original as insurance 
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Sounds like for starters you need some now in your neck like @howard suggests as you should be able to slide a card in. This will shorten the overall length.
Next, the A saddle is not as far extended as the others and if you are saying you need more adjustment it could be a crappy screw. You won’t find these anywhere like Home Depot. You will at Stew Mac or other bass specialty shops on reverb or even Amazon. I’d take all the screws out and see if they are different lengths and put the shortest in the E, longest in the G etc or just measure and get longer across the board.
If this doesn’t resolve I’d also get a new set of strings and try again. Only replace the A and see what happens.
Also sounds like your local shop ain’t the best. I’ve experienced this too, they are not all good.
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This is sooooo smart ! I love it
it’s a good way to leverage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
Many thanks @howard
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An update to my issue with intonation. I did find that if I loosened the Truss Rod the shorter string show’d up in the tuning at the 12th Fret to the “Sharp Side”.
I have not finished this yet. I did however find that some of the saddle screws were M3x20 and some were M3x25. After I get done adjusting the Truss Rod to no more than “2 business Cards” , lol, I will see what the saddle screw adjustment situation looks like. If I had to say today what do I need, probably M3x30 saddle screws to make it to the A and G strings where the intonation is worse.
Thanks for all the input, I see light at the end of the tunnel.
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