Good setups - science, art, or both?

[Daveypoo]

I've been playing bad for about 35 years at this point and I've always struggled with setting up my bass. I've known how to do it, done it many many times, replaced pickups, bridges, tuners, etc. I've fixed problems while on the road, super-glued in a nut that slipped out... You know the drill.

The problem is that while my setups have been passable, fine, solid in a pinch, they've never been great. I've always gotten better results from taking it to a good repair guy or luthier. No matter how much I tried, I could never get things just right.

So about a year or so ago I decided to get the right tools and figure this whole thing out. One would think that the majority of a setup is science, right? I can measure things. I can work a screwdriver. While my solder jobs aren't the cleanest, that's just a matter of practice. I'm a fairly intelligent dude - I should be able to figure this out.

So far it's been OK - I'm definitely better than I was. But there's still some mystery artform that I'm lacking. Do. I just need more practice? What are your guys' and gals' secrets to a good setup? And secret sauce you'd care to share?

 

[J Wilson]

Pros like @ turnaround and the real pros could give you a good answer, but to me, every bass is different in many subtle ways, and while the science part of it is fairly straightforward, knowing WHAT this or that bass will do would to me is the art, partly intuition coupled with a deep understanding and a lot of experience.

When I was in my stoopid-low-action days, I'd take them just to the point there was audible, unplugged fret rattle, but not enough to be heard through the pickups: That's when I knew I got all I was going to get. And across the five five-strings I owned in those days, the relief, string heights, etc. measured afterwards were all in tiny fractions of an inch different, yet they all felt very similar.

Like I said, the real professionals would be authoritative about this. But this was my experience: Just because you had the setup numbers, some could do better, some settle right to them, and some wouldn't play well unless they were a little over.

Pro repair guys would eliminate a lot of not all of that variance.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

When it comes to setup, there's a LOT of things that are interconnected on a bass...saddle height, nut slot width, neck relief, bridge intonation, etc.

I think experience is not to be understated, but patience is a very pivotal skill as well. There's also something to be said for the foundation that you build upon. I've been fortunate with my Ibbys and have some pretty comfy setups on them, but the best I've ever played were a USA Spector and a Prestige Ibanez SR. Zero buzz and you could barely fit a human hair under the strings.

 

[Turnaround]

I wish I could give a simple answer, but it's complicated. Generally when you read about setups, all the basics are covered, things like relief, string height, sut height, intonation, fret levelness, etc. Those things are quantifiable to a point. But to make it all work takes understanding of how strings vibrate, how the substrate affect the vibration patterns, how difference materials have an effect on the string's vibration, and on an on. That's one reason why you can't just do a setup by the numbers and expect it to ge great. And of course the other key element is how the musician plays the instrument, and that's not just light touch vs heavy touch, but also attack angle, where the plucking is being done, the way the bas is hung if on a strap, use of fingernails, picks, etc.

It's hard to teach this stuff. As many others have done I can teach the basics, but that part of my work which is intuition is not teachable. That "intuition" is really the years of experience leading me subconsciously in a certain directions during the setup process. There's a lot of accumulated knowledge that guides the setup work I do. I wouldn't call it art. And there's no secret to it. But I would say it took better than twenty years of hands-on experience and guidance from many sources before I got to be really good at it.

 

[DJmtd]

It's absolutely a mix of both but I would argue it's more science than art. Just like soldering, it's a matter of practice. I can setup a Kingston to factory spec in like 5 minutes if the intonation is already alright. I just have it in my bones at this point that the rod will need x amount of tweaking based on the relief it currently has from doing it over and over and over. For the saddle heights, I just use a ruler and blast em out. But the key here is that we have a spec - knowing is half the battle. Having rough numbers of how you like things will make achieving that so much easier. When you really nail it, or if you play someone else's bass that you love, find out what the relief and the string height at the last fret are.

Of course every instrument is unique and sometimes I end up re-adjusting after I got it 'right' or in spec. Repetition and relative fearlessness are the name of the game. Short of breaking your rod or neck, there isn't much you can't undo on a bass.

Some things you might want to consider are a little outside the scope of a 'normal setup.' You could be getting your action/relief/everything where you want 'em, but the little extra sauce from an experienced tech might be something as simple as cleaning the board with a certain product or sanding/polishing the frets or adjusting pickup height. That kinda stuff can go a long way.

I would encourage anyone doing their own work to get a fretbar, a z-file or equivalent and a fret end dressing file. These tools take a lot of the mystery out of fretwork and doing it yourself opens up a whole new dimension of how you can alter the way your basses feel. Just because your frets aren't beat to hell doesn't mean they're level or nicely crowned. Once you have a great fret level/crown/dressing, your setups will become way easier.

 

[2saddleslab]

When I started out 4 decades ago I did my own setups by feel alone. And that worked out pretty well. Well enough that others asked me to setup theirs. Occasionally I'd have a bass that didn't setup so easily. A few years ago I started using the John Carruthers videos, 4 in all, that have worked out really well, using actual measuring tools. I use these as a general guide and make small adjustments to taste, depending on the instrument.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

It's really easy, it's science and practice, simple as that.

 

[Daveypoo]

When I started out 4 decades ago I did my own setups by feel alone. And that worked out pretty well. Well enough that others asked me to setup theirs. Occasionally I'd have a bass that didn't setup so easily. A few years ago I started using the John Carruthers videos, 4 in all, that have worked out really well, using actual measuring tools. I use these as a general guide and make small adjustments to taste, depending on the instrument.

I'll have to check those out - thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Turnaround]

I can setup a Kingston to factory spec in like 5 minutes if the intonation is already alright.

This is in part what I was trying to say in my earlier post. Setting up any instrument to factory spect is a simple mechanical process. It's getting it from there to optimum where it gets more complicated.

 

[Goatrope]

This is in part what I was trying to say in my earlier post. Setting up any instrument to factory spect is a simple mechanical process. It's getting it from there to optimum where it gets more complicated.

Yes! Specs and numbers to start. From there it's a developed skill.

Learning how each step interacts with the others is key to not working against yourself in an interative process.

 

[31HZ]

Part of the recipe for my secret sauce includes getting the nut slots to 1) be as low as they can be without being problematic, and 2) have enough "fall" away from the witness point edge so as to not touch the nut behind that point. It's complicated because the witness point shouldn't be a knife edge, but shouldn't be a whole lot deeper than that. (I also use a next-size-up-ish file to open up the back section of the nut slot, just a little bit.) Also, the string shouldn't be buried in the wall of the slot.

Having a low nut slot with good fall facilitates ease of playing/feel at the nut end of the neck, tuning stability, intonation consistency, and perhaps even tone.

In my experience, very few instruments come with nuts slots that need no attention out of the box, and many need a fair bit of filing and correction.

This is the best explanation I've found (although I don't agree 100%, I'm pretty close to it): Nuts - how to cut the slots

 

[Zooberwerx]

Science! It’s poetry in motion…

If you want art, go talk to my wife.