Finally..

[pete rallis]

I have always had GAS, always. Have for 50 years..and I live a long way from any Music Stores, so just trying a bass or guitar is not really a possibility....so after buying higher end basses, just good basses and everything in between, and trying every one I could, I found a deal on a SR300e...yes, a lower end Ibanez..it was perfect, and looked unplayed..spent several hours setting it up, and through both my Carvin and my Ampeg, this thing plays as well as anything I ever played, and the tones are dead on for my taste..now I have 5 other basses that are probably going to get ignored.

 

[toprekoms]

Several hours doing a set-up?

 

[Spidey2112]

Several hours doing a set-up?

Venturing to say he has kids...

... no pics, no bass...

 

[pete rallis]

Yes, several hours..interference from minions..

 

[Toolmybass]

What high end basses do you have that will be ignored? Would you be posting these for sale?

Congrats on you finding "the one"!!

 

[mikeoso]

Let me know when you need a tax deduction. My parrots love a good bass groove.

 

[KeithAlanK]

Several hours doing a set-up?

Actually, a really good and lasting setup ought to take several days when the truss rod is involved, and it almost always is.
Wood has a mind of it's own, and will take it's sweet time to settle into a final position after cranking on a truss rod, so often a setup will be great when the customer picks it up, but will soon go past where it needed to be, or fight back against what you did.
It's best to make small adjustments, let it settle for a day or two, then make another if needed, etc, etc, etc.

I prefer to keep guitars and basses for at least a week when doing a full setup. That way nobody comes back crying or badmouths me around town, but most importantly their instrument is working correctly and they are happy.

 

[Bass V]

congrats on getting something I keep passing on and then kick myself again!

 

[mmon77]

Congrats!

I played one of those not too long ago and thought it was a very nice bass, not even just for the price, but overall.

 

[Pirate Captain]

let's revisit this is a few months, shall we. This all sounds eerily familiar.

 

[Wfrance3]

I had a 305FR (Fretless) that i really liked, far as touch and feel were concerned. It had a compound radius, i think yours does too. I liked the action on that bass painfully low. weather changes would cause fingerboard noise low...

In my journey of discovering i didn't really dig fretless that much i always thought to myself that this must be what it was like owning a Ferrari; cool when it was in working shape, but always in the shop...

I hope yours works for you and you stay liking it. To this day, the good memories of my ibanez are some of the best. I had it with an east UK preamp and barts. it definitely sounded sweet!!

 

[Toolmybass]

Actually, a really good and lasting setup ought to take several days when the truss rod is involved, and it almost always is.
Wood has a mind of it's own, and will take it's sweet time to settle into a final position after cranking on a truss rod, so often a setup will be great when the customer picks it up, but will soon go past where it needed to be, or fight back against what you did.
It's best to make small adjustments, let it settle for a day or two, then make another if needed, etc, etc, etc.

I prefer to keep guitars and basses for at least a week when doing a full setup. That way nobody comes back crying or badmouths me around town, but most importantly their instrument is working correctly and they are happy.

THIS! ^^

Very good info here. IF! the person who sets it up has a similar environment as where the bass lives.
My environment where I do set-ups for my customers is 50-52% humidity. If I'm doing a setup from a bass in a very dry house (ie:not having a humidifier or a dehumidifier) it is best to get it done as fast as possible and back into its environment (that way there is less chance of having to re-adjust). If I were to let it acclimate to my house and set-it up for a week, then only to sit in a dry environment once home, it changes...and not for the good.

Once a neck is set properly it's kinda rare to keep having to adjust the neck on setups. Unless your doing crazy string guage changes.
I had to re-adjust on a neck only a couple times on the nine basses that I own....and max 5% of my customers needing a truss adj. (if I was the last one to set it.) YRMV

 

[KeithAlanK]

Toolmybass--great point about the environment being a big factor when doing set ups.
I had forgotten what things were like when I was in New York.

AC is everywhere here in South Texas, so temp/humidity stay in a narrow range.
Guitars DO get wonky at long outdoor shows.

And to the OP--I've always been an Ibanez guy, and their lower # stuff just keeps getting better and better.
The SR300 series is a great value for an instrument of surprising quality.
Enjoy.

 

[Toolmybass]

Toolmybass--great point about the environment being a big factor when doing set ups.
I had forgotten what things were like when I was in New York.

AC is everywhere here in South Texas, so temp/humidity stay in a narrow range.
Guitars DO get wonky at long outdoor shows.

And to the OP--I've always been an Ibanez guy, and their lower # stuff just keeps getting better and better.
The SR300 series is a great value for an instrument of surprising quality.
Enjoy.

I also should have mentioned this is more of a factor the farther north you go. Even within my own house the basement can be 7% difference. Season changes mess with it even more. I have to have a humidifier and a hygrometer within every case. :-( Then every 2 weeks i pull them all out and check them. Maybe one reason i dont have to touch my necks is they are in a controlled environment and they dont leave the house.
My neighbor, who is also my supervisor at work, is being forced to temporarily relocate to Texas to train people on how to run and auto and pool vinyl manufacturing plant. That way they can move orders from us to down there, pay less money to workers and then layoff workers up here. Its happening allover the place. Its sad.
But by his FB posts it looks like he is having a good time and golfing alot.

 

[Paulabass]

Several hours doing a set-up?

Every bass I've ever owned has taken a couple hours. I have a Brubaker that had to be re-engineered from the ground up, with frets installed by a syphlitic monkey, to my Alembic which required getting it to my spec, just tweeking. My newest bass, a Mustang PJ, took about five hours- Shielding, frets, replace Made-in-Borneo switch, roll fingerboard edges.
In my opinion, if you didn't spend some time on a new bass, it's not playing anywhere near it's capability.

 

[LYNCHMAN]

Actually, a really good and lasting setup ought to take several days when the truss rod is involved, and it almost always is.
Wood has a mind of it's own, and will take it's sweet time to settle into a final position after cranking on a truss rod, so often a setup will be great when the customer picks it up, but will soon go past where it needed to be, or fight back against what you did.
It's best to make small adjustments, let it settle for a day or two, then make another if needed, etc, etc, etc.

I prefer to keep guitars and basses for at least a week when doing a full setup. That way nobody comes back crying or badmouths me around town, but most importantly their instrument is working correctly and they are happy.

***************

i was about to say when i do a setup it usually take a few days to complete...not becuz of interruptions but rather becuz of the need to let it sit over nite before i proceed after some steps in the setup ...

 

[lz4005]

I have a low end Ibanez that took hours of work to reach its full potential too. I think the confusion is what people think "setup" means.

Intonation, string height and neck relief took under 30 minutes. The time consuming part was fixing fret sprout, reshaping the control cavity cover so it would come out without a crowbar, tightening literally every nut and screw on the instrument so the pots didn't spin around and the neck didn't shift, tracking down and fixing an intermittent short in the electronics, and a host of other issues.