Just purchased a new Jackson Spectre JS2, tobacco burst colour. Once I got it home I noticed the laurel fretboard was very dry looking; to the point of I believe I have to oil it already. Wondering if anyone has purchased one of these and experienced the same thing. As well, the relief was horribly concave to the point of the space between the strings being half an inch…found it odd they didn’t adjust anything at the factory…imo. Thoughts?
I have no experience with a Jackson, but it’s reasonable to expect that any new bass will need a setup.
How much of a setup varies per particular instrument as some will need more or less tweaking to play well, but it is an accepted rule of thumb.
Also, take the opportunity to change strings. That way, with fresh strings and a proper setup, you’ll be guaranteed to have an optimal playing experience. Good luck.
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The Jackson Spectre JS2 (in metallic blue) was my first bass, I didn’t have either of those issues… At least not the relief issue, I probably wouldn’t have noticed a dry fretboard.
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In my experience it’s not uncommon to have a direct from the factory instrument with a dry fretboard out of the box. I just a new guitar and it was manufactured sometime in 2022. That’s a long time to sit in a box.
As far as neck relief, I let mine sit a day or two before thinking about the truss. They generally ship with no tension on the strings, let it get used to the tension and acclimate to local conditions and then I do the setup. YMMV
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Dry fretboard is very common. Just oil it. I’ve had instruments that required two or three passes with the oil when new.Just remember to use very light coats of oil each time.
And as Mike says, great time to swap the strings if you didn’t like the originals.
As for the neck relief, also common. It’s rare that instruments arrive perfectly set up unless the shop does it before putting them on display (and many good ones do).
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