Tuning/Setup question

[Bullet-Bob]

All:

Recently purchased a new custom guitar which has a Epiphone Thunderbird body, and a P-bass neck. The action on it is pretty high to compensate I think for the merging of the body and neck (it is a Fenderbird essentially).

One thing I have noticed is, I have roto-sound strings, and when I tune on the open strings it sounds fine at the nut, but as I progress down the neck towards the bridge, I find that, by the time I reach the twelfth fret, the guitar isn't in tune.

I am a very new bass player (in comparison) and my knowledge of tuning etc. is pretty limited. I am looking for help on what I should do to address this issue.

Thanks in advance,
Sincerely
Bob

[KeiBau]

An adjustment at the bridge likely needs to be made. Tune the instrument at open string, then check again by pressing at the twelfth fret. They should both be in tune but at the twelfth fret, an octave higher. If not in tune, adjust according to the following link.

http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass...ntonation.html

[Bullet-Bob]

Thank you, this is exactly the help I was looking for. I love this place.

[walterw]

good luck, as there's no guarantee that the fender neck and the epi body are remotely compatible with each other. you might find that you'd need to adjust the bridge saddles way beyond the location of the bridge to get it right, in which case, you've been had by whoever sold you that bass.

also, the high action serves to make intonation worse as well. it might be worth a trip to a good tech to see if it's even possible to make this thing right.