I've been set up!

[CraigG]

Hard to believe, after more than 30 years of playing I never had a professional set-up done on any of my basses. The reason has been that I've always been quite satisfied with the action and intonation on my basses (guess I've just been lucky - or I'm naturally adaptable!) and never really thought there could be enough difference to make it worth the additional expense.

I took my primary bass, a Cort Curbow 5 which I bought off e-bay about two years ago, in for a set-up last week. I thought it might be nice to see if the action could be lowered a bit and I was noticing that, when soloing high, the intonnation was slightly out. I had no idea what I have been missing all these years! Honestly, my bass plays like a new bass. No... better than that, it plays like one of the boutique basses I have tried at the bass specialty shop. My rather inexpensive but sexy little Cort Curbow 5 with the Aguilar OBP-3 and Bart MK5 upgrades is now more fun to play than I ever imagined and it sounds and plays like basses costing 3-4 times as much.

To those, like me, who haven't really thought their bass needed a professional set-up, give it a try. It can make a decent bass play like a high-quality bass. Likely one of the best investments you can make in your instrument!

[202dy]

Originally Posted by CraigG

Hard to believe, after more than 30 years of playing I never had a professional set-up done on any of my basses. The reason has been that I've always been quite satisfied with the action and intonation on my basses (guess I've just been lucky - or I'm naturally adaptable!) and never really thought there could be enough difference to make it worth the additional expense.

I took my primary bass, a Cort Curbow 5 which I bought off e-bay about two years ago, in for a set-up last week. I thought it might be nice to see if the action could be lowered a bit and I was noticing that, when soloing high, the intonnation was slightly out. I had no idea what I have been missing all these years! Honestly, my bass plays like a new bass. No... better than that, it plays like one of the boutique basses I have tried at the bass specialty shop. My rather inexpensive but sexy little Cort Curbow 5 with the Aguilar OBP-3 and Bart MK5 upgrades is now more fun to play than I ever imagined and it sounds and plays like basses costing 3-4 times as much.

To those, like me, who haven't really thought their bass needed a professional set-up, give it a try. It can make a decent bass play like a high-quality bass. Likely one of the best investments you can make in your instrument!

What is so unusual about your post is that almost no one tells players that their new instrument is already in their case. Most players are not aware that their instruments can be adjusted to play better or the way they want them to play, with the caveat that the professional is limited by geometry and physics. What is really unfortunate is that many people, who could become great players, quit because they think that playing guitar is "hard" when all it would take is a set up for it to become "easy". Thank you for spreading the word.

Enjoy your new set up.

[kevinmoore73]

Originally Posted by CraigG

Hard to believe, after more than 30 years of playing I never had a professional set-up done on any of my basses. The reason has been that I've always been quite satisfied with the action and intonation on my basses (guess I've just been lucky - or I'm naturally adaptable!) and never really thought there could be enough difference to make it worth the additional expense.

I'm curious if you ever adjusted the truss rod, string height, and intonation on your bass yourself, of if you just played it straight out of the box (or off the rack)?

What was performed as part of the setup you had done?

I'm asking because I feel fairly competent at adjusting the things I mentioned above, but am willing to acknowledge that a pro might be able to do a better job.

[tr68gt]

I just posted this in another thread the other day:

"My teacher told me to bring my bass in a little early one night and he'd tweak it for me. So I did. I asked him if I'd be able to tell the difference after he got done adjusting everything. Wow! What a difference it made. That thing almost plays itself now. I might add that it's not an expensive bass either (Ibanez GSR200), but it sure plays like one now"

There is a huge difference, clearer notes, cleaner transitions, you name it.

I watched him do the work, he adjusted the truss rod first, then tuned, then string height, then tuned, then the truss rod again, then tuned, then played a few notes to check everything.

[kevinmoore73]

Originally Posted by tr68gt

I watched him do the work, he adjusted the truss rod first, then tuned, then string height, then tuned, then the truss rod again, then tuned, then played a few notes to check everything.

That's cool. I believe I'm doing a pretty good job at this myself. I'm unsure what a pro is going to do that I can't do already.

[202dy]

Originally Posted by Joshua

In my experience, it is the bolded part above that is most common. Most players I run into are quite happy if the bass simply plays on a (no pun intended) basic level, and to an extent I think that is a good thing. No sense being completely obsessed.

That said however, a proper setup (or more specifically setting the bass up for one's personal preferences) can be an eye opening experience for sure...

It is interesting that the degree to which a player demands an exacting set up is often inversely proportional to level at which the player performs. Very few pro players have requested lower action after 6 and 5 set up. More than a few have asked to have it raised a bit.

[meev992]

I recently modded a bass, B-E-A-D, and was unsure of, on a professionals level, the quality of my work/ setup-job. I took it in and asked Tony to take a look for me. He said that I did everything perfectly, just the way he would've done it

WOW, what a compliment, that really made my day

[CraigG]

Originally Posted by kevinmoore73

I'm curious if you ever adjusted the truss rod, string height, and intonation on your bass yourself, of if you just played it straight out of the box (or off the rack)?

What was performed as part of the setup you had done?

I'm asking because I feel fairly competent at adjusting the things I mentioned above, but am willing to acknowledge that a pro might be able to do a better job.

I had played it straight out of the shipping carton from the guy I bought it from. I did eventually try playing with the truss adjustment a bit, but just couldn't get it the way I felt I wanted it. I also had my guitar player adjust a bit. He has done a lot of adjustments on his electrics and acoustics - roughly 27 guitars - because it would cost too much to have a shop do it. He's good at adjusting guitars, but his set up on my bass left me with more fret buzz than I preferred. So we went back to square one.

My local shop conditioned the fretboard, poloished the frets, adjusted the neck and saddle height and intonated.