I should do my own setups from now on

[Garret Graves]

I took it in two quarter turn steps with re-tuning between.



I sighted down the neck looking for deviations and didn't see anything. Its a new Spector Euro but the initial set up was really bad, I don't know if that was Sweetwater or Spector. I'm so close to having it the way I want it. I think I will have someone experienced handle any permanent adjustments like the frets or nut.

Wood moves, especially over seasons and geographic location shifts where the humidity is drastically different. You can’t say a bass in your hand has the factory set up, or ‘this is Sweetwaters set up’, when it’s been months down the road- the wood has shifted- that’s why these things are adjustable. The only reason I mention this, is because I’ve seen many similar comments before, and there seems to be a misconception floating around about ‘factory set ups’ and store front set ups, as though they are supposed to be permanent somehow.

 

[scottfeldstein]

I wonder what causes an ostensibly pretty decent instrument to show up at my door looking like I could knock an arrow on it and fell a trophy buck with it. I bought it as used on Ebay, but when it arrived it had clearly never left the music store where it lived. It still had the plastic guards around the knob area. My guess is that no one bought it because the string height was so unplayable. And rather than fixing it, the store put it up on Ebay to make it someone else's problem. And here I am.

 

[scottfeldstein]

I just had to post this for posterity: I think I've done it.

A few days back I had an initial go at doing the setup on the Warwick. It was late and it's dark in my apartment so I couldn't really measure things well. But it improved a bit and at least I knew the truss rod functions and how the bridge on this guitar works.

So this afternoon I decide to get serious. I straighten the neck such that when I capo the first fret and play the 17th...the .014 feeler gauge barely slides under the strings at the 7th fret. So it's straight. or as straight as it's gonna be.

Then the nut action. It's way too high, you can tell that the second you pick it up. Here' Dave and Warwick disagree on how to do this. Warwick wants you to fret the string at the third fret and slide a business card under the first fret. Dave doesn't want you to fret anything, just slide a .020 feeler gauge under the first fret and adjust until it just slides under, give or take 2 thousandths. I chose Dave's method.

At this stage, the action is slinky. Like the low action of my dreams. But there's fret buzz. A lot of it. Low on the B string and high on the G string and some spots in the middle too. So it's on to the bridge for some string height settings.

I did this the pure Warwick way. First, you have to unlock the bridge and also unlock each saddle. Then you lower the two outer strings until they are "just resting on the bridge." I think I know what this means and I get it pretty close, but not really "resting" on it. Then they have you lower the entire bridge until the two outer strings are slightly touching the fingerboard. Then you lower the other saddles so that they are too. This is supposed to make sure that they are all arced in accordance with your fingerboard radius or something. Finally Warwick says raise the bridge such that the B string is 2.5 mm above the highest fret and the G string is about 2 mm above the highest fret. Then I locked everything down again and tuned it up.

All I can say is wow. It's not the playability of my dreams. It's not even my Ibanez Soundgear SR505. But it's not bad! It's like a normal bass. This is miles better than the monstrosity I received from Ebay. And the guy at my local music store should be ashamed. He told me it wasn't possible to set this bass up properly. He didn't even try.

Not only do I feel like I got a much more playable bass out of this adventure, I also learned a great deal on how to do this stuff. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this discussion. I'm not even going to look at the intonation today. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[JimmyM]

Good job, Scott! Just remember that manufacturers guidelines are only guidelines and you can always do some tweaking to make them more to your liking. But they are a good basis to start from. A little surprised you took on the nut, but I don't like high-cut nuts either, so I don't blame you. I'm not quite Entwistle where I liked the strings on the other side of the frets but I do like low action

 

[Calvinc4s]

Then the nut action. It's way too high, you can tell that the second you pick it up. Here' Dave and Warwick disagree on how to do this. Warwick wants you to fret the string at the third fret and slide a business card under the second fret. Dave doesn't want you to fret anything, just slide a .020 feeler gauge under the first fret and adjust until it just slides under, give or take 2 thousandths. I chose Dave's method.

What I have learned recently is that some bass manufacturers intentionally leave the first fret high, crown, level and polish 2nd up. That may be why Warwick wants you to fret the 3rd and measure the 2nd.

 

[scottfeldstein]

Good job, Scott! Just remember that manufacturers guidelines are only guidelines and you can always do some tweaking to make them more to your liking. But they are a good basis to start from. A little surprised you took on the nut, but I don't like high-cut nuts either, so I don't blame you. I'm not quite Entwistle where I liked the strings on the other side of the frets but I do like low action

Ah, I didn't mention that the Warwick has a mechanical nut! You adjust it with two set screws, one on the treble end and one on the bass end. Piece of cake!

 

[JW56789]

All right ! Now you're getting there. Good for you. A few random thoughts:

As Warwick quotes, the strings will run a bit higher on the bass side than the treble side (the 2.5 and 2mm targets they recommend) as obviously the big strings make bigger arcs and need a bit more room for this. And you want to visualize these heights taper down as you go across: Think along the lines of 2.5, then 2.4, then 2.2, then 2, something like that.

And remember that once we're down to measuring this in thousandths of an inch, as you tighten the truss rods and the fingerboard flattens, this lowers the strings as well aside from the bridge saddle height adjustment, so sometimes you will have to allow for that as well.

You basically work in this order: Truss rod (relief), then action adjustment (your bridge saddle / height over the last fret), then intonation (by far best done with NEW strings).

And on a bass that has not been adjusted in quite a while, don't be surprised if it creeps a little from where you left it, and may require a bit of touch-up to get it back to those exact numbers again in a few days, some basses will do this, some won't.

IF you're shooting for very low action, listen for string buzz unplugged that does not carry thru the pickups: Once you're to that point, you've basically got all you're going to get.

Good on Ya !

 

[JimmyM]

Ah, I didn't mention that the Warwick has a mechanical nut! You adjust it with two set screws, one on the treble end and one on the bass end. Piece of cake!

That's right, forgot about that. Even still, sometimes those nuts can use a file. I'd be paranoid to do it on a metal nut because I'd probably leave a burr that would break a string. Plus I'm way too cheap to buy a whole bunch of nut files and all I have is a set of Jewelers files.

 

[JoeWPgh]

That's right, forgot about that. Even still, sometimes those nuts can use a file. I'd be paranoid to do it on a metal nut because I'd probably leave a burr that would break a string. Plus I'm way too cheap to buy a whole bunch of nut files and all I have is a set of Jewelers files.

Dude. Proper nut files are one of the greatest investments I ever made. I've found that outside of a Sadowsky or similar, almost every bass nut on planet Earth can go lower with no ill effect - other than to make the instrument easier to play. Any extra height at the nut does nothing for sound but presents a drag on ergonomics