do basses need better setups than guitars?

[Step]

I never see or hear the guitarists I play with bother with setups, truss rods, pickup height or anything like that, while it's constantly in the back of my head

are we bassists just picky or do our setups need more care than a guitarists?

if we need more care, why?

[Thunderthumbs73]

No.

They just don't have the cool forum to talk about it like we do.

Plus, probably not something for either a guitarist or bassist to do while everyone's getting together (like at a gig or practice), and should be done before/afterhand anyways.

[musicelectronix]

Originally Posted by Step

I never see or hear the guitarists I play with bother with setups, truss rods, pickup height or anything like that, while it's constantly in the back of my head

are we bassists just picky or do our setups need more care than a guitarists?

if we need more care, why?

That may be a limited experience based on the guitards you know. In my experience, guitars are harder to setup (especially ones with tremolos) and shows intonation problems more vividly. So most guitards I know check their setups frequently.

[therex]

well i think you are right, but also i think i know why, it could be because if a guitar is not setup properly, it isnt very hard to play it, but if you have your bass with a wrong setup, play is really dificult

[machine gewehr]

I have a crappy guitar too and it doesn't need setting up as often as my basses.I guess it's about the tension bass strings put upon the neck.

My guitarist friend almost never needs a setup.
It may be because its really hard to set up a guitar with a tremolo though.

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by machine gewehr

I have a crappy guitar too and it doesn't need setting up as often as my basses.I guess it's about the tension bass strings put upon the neck.

I think this may be right. All I know is that when I played guitar, once the instrument was set up, it was set up.

My necks of my bass guitars seem more susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity, so they require occasional truss rod adjustments. Since I play with rather low action, I'm working within a pretty tight tolerance.

After a day or two of especially arid weather, the neck's front bow often raises my strings high enough off the board to bring them out of my playing comfort zone. And after a day or two of very humid weather, my strings are sometimes lying almost right on the board...

MM

[PilbaraBass]

face it...bassists are just plain picky...

I'm picky about my guitars, too...

maybe because I'm a bassist

but, why not play under optimum conditions?

[(b)Assman]

I fiddle around electric and play acoustic pretty often and I have to say I've never even thought about needing to adjust one of them out of the box.

[scottbass]

I agree guitars are harder to set up - at least for me. Everything is so stinkin' tiny! Plus stuff seems to be more symbiotic than on a bass - a little tweak on a guitar's intonation seems more likely to induce fret buzz, requiring a truss rod adjustment, which in turn requires adjusting the action, which then throws the intonation out again, etc. A nasty, six-stringed, never-ending vicious cycle, if you ask me! I find that if I do a bass setup in the correct order, it almost never requires a second round of compensation.

[Beej]

I don't think there's straight answer to this, its more about the individual instruments themselves. My old EB0 almost never needed a setup, it was solid as a rock for years on end. I'd do it anyway after changing strings, but it hardly needed anything. OTOH, My MIM Jazz needs a tweak after almost every practice to stay perfect. In my guitar corner, my old Les Paul deluxe keeps the peace very well and rarely needs any work, whereas my brother's Les Paul studio, while quieter than my deluxe, needs tweaking monthly. My old Silvertone guitar needs a setup before and after you play it, dang near every time...

[santucci218]

I setup basses and guitars...i think they both are equal.

[All_¥our_Bass]

Originally Posted by Thunderthumbs73

They just don't have the cool forum to talk about it like we do.

Yeah they do!! Check out sevenstring.org , tons of guitarists on there talking about setup/action/intonation and the whole nine yards.

On the one bass and one guitar that I own, once I got them setup they didn't any fixin' for a loooong time.

[therex]

i am always seting up my bass, while with my guitar i have no problems

[kyral210]

Guitarists like the whole "im cool, screw setup because im a rebel, im cool" thing. Bassists care more about tone in general.