Rant - Music Store Bass Set-ups

[Treblefree]

Who sets up the bass guitars at music stores? Does the factory set them up prior to shipping? Is the store responsible for setting them up upon arrival? Does anyone know what they are doing?

Typically I adjust new basses to my liking and sometimes order online, but sometimes buy from the stores. I like to try to keep the brick and morter stuff going so i can actually play gear before buying, but...

I went to a large chain music store a little while back and saw this Squier for $450:

I was buying a guitar or bass that day. This fretboard really spoke to me and I thought this was a beautiful bass. I want a Fender or FSO P bass and this has to be the coolest looking bass to me with the best of both worlds; a jazz neck on a P bass. I would have bought this in a skinny minute and never even looked at anything else in the store, but I got it down to play it and unfortunately no matter how much I tried to talk myself into loving it, I just couldn't.

The setup was awful with string action running hard uphill from the bone to the bridge. I had a Squier many years ago and the action wasn't great but it was consistent while this one seemed to be warped as well as bad. And on top of that, I can't even imagine how with such a hard angle, but the A string buzzed while open leading me to believe the action couldn't be dropped. Maybe with some truss adjustment, etc, this could have been okay, but it was far too bad for me to take any chances on.

I bought a 6 string that day instead (ironically a Fender Newporter).

Anyway, I figured this Squier was the lower line so they must have really gone down-hill since I owned one many years ago. $450 would have been reasonable for a decent P-Bass and I'd have probably put in different pups sometime, but like I said, too far out for me.

Then I went to another shop a few days later and saw these two basses and just had to play them both:

These are top of the line basses, about $1550 for the Professional II P Bass and about $2100 for the American Ultra Jazz (the one I saw was a 4 string).

This was at a mom and pop type music store, but a pretty big one. I drooled over both of them because I've been getting Fender GAS lately (and they sound so so good). But unfortunately, the set up on both of them was really bad. I played the P bass first and won't knock the neck because it's chunkier than what I usually like. The problem was the action was absolutely horrible. Then I pulled down the Jazz and it had a tag on it saying it's the pick of the shop (and it probably would have been had it been set up properly), but it's action was probably worse than and P bass. I mean, I'm strong and could hardly even fret anything at 10 or above.

I bought an Ibanez Mikro from that same shop on a whim one day a few years ago and it felt like butter as it sat. Played wonderfully and still does (I've modded it to put in Aguilar PUPs and restrung it to BEAD). It's a regular player.

Anyway, how do they expect to sell $2k basses that play like crap in the store? Are we supposed to carry our own tools to the guitar stores to find out if we can get them play good for us or not? I was really shocked. I have bought $1500 basses before, but they played like a dream already and just needed very minor changes that I would make to any bass.

I am assuming either of the Fender basses can be set up properly and play like butter anywhere on the fret board, but I'm afraid to buy one at that price and take a chance. I think when I'm ready to lay down the cabbage on a nice one, I'm going to ask the store people to set it up or let me adjust it and see if I can get it set up properly. This is really ridiculous though.

 

[Warpeg]

Who sets them up? It depends on the store. I worked in a mom n' pop shop for several years; a very experienced technician set them up very well when them arrived on our dock. I then worked briefly at a Guitar Center; the set up process there might as well have been throwing them down a flight of steps and spitting on them before tossing them up on the display wall.

 

[mdogs]

That was a lot of writing, I got bored.

 

[nmiller]

1) Who sets up the bass guitars at music stores? 2) Does the factory set them up prior to shipping? 3) Is the store responsible for setting them up upon arrival? 4) Does anyone know what they are doing?

1) Depends on the store. 2) The factory usually does the minimum work to make the instrument playable. It would be pointless for them to do a full setup, since the bass may travel to a new climate and the factory doesn't know how the buyer will want it set up. 3) To a limited extent, yes. They're responsible for making sure that their instruments are playable. But they don't know how the buyers will want things set up, either. 4) This varies enormously from one store to another - even within a chain.

Anyway, I figured this Squier was the lower line so they must have really gone down-hill since I owned one many years ago.

I don't think it's fair to judge any brand based on the setup of one bass - or many basses, actually. Setup and build quality are not totally unrelated, but the link is tenuous. Almost all basses can be set up nicely if someone puts in the time.

Anyway, how do they expect to sell $2k basses that play like crap in the store?

This is a totally valid point. But again, the question should be asked of the store rather than the manufacturer. If it's a good store to deal with, and they're not swamped with customers that moment, chances are they'll do a bit of setup work if you're willing to wait a few minutes. Keeping up with the action on a whole inventory takes a lot of time and I can understand finding a couple of instruments that have been overlooked, but lots of sales folk will rectify really bad action if you politely point it out.

 

[Treblefree]

I don't think it's fair to judge any brand based on the setup of one bass - or many basses, actually. Setup and build quality are not totally unrelated, but the link is tenuous. Almost all basses can be set up nicely if someone puts in the time.

Very fair comment. I really wanted this bass, but the neck looked warped on top of the bad setup. If it had just been a straight up action issue and the bass wasn't buzzing on the A string, I would have bought it. I guess I was just disappointed in my last two visits to music stores.

 

[rickdog]

I've had the same experience of playing a bass in a store and getting a really bad impression of it because the setup was so bad. Like the OP, I left puzzled how the store could expect to sell an instrument that played so poorly. This wasn't a corporate chain store, it was an independent store in a fair-size city - a big enough store to have a guitar tech on staff, but not so big that the volume of instruments moving through would overwhelm them.

C'mon, I can do a "good enough" setup on a bass in under an hour, and I bet an experienced tech could manage it in about 15 minutes ("good enough" means it plays well enough that you can tell there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, and it can be fine-tuned to a player's preference). Having inventory hang on the wall instead of moving costs the store money - a small investment in basic setup would avoid losing sales they might have made if the instrument played decently.

A badly set up bass just screams "we don't care." Is that the kind of place anyone wants to do business?

Yeah, I'm ranting too. I've been carrying this pet peeve around for years, thanks for letting me put it down.

 

[JW56789]

Here's the real story here:

To have at least a competent guitar tech setup every bass in a given store is simply going to add to the selling price, or on the other hand rob them of some maneuvering room on the price as they've added to their cost, when they know damn good and well you or anybody else may very well come in, play it for an hour, tie up a salesman, then go buy it online for 10 bucks less and tell all your friends how that first store was charging way too much.

Then get on TalkBass and moan and groan that the online seller should have done a setup, and 'should I return it?'. Then wonder where all the local music stores went . . . .

Get a grip.

This is where I consider it VITAL to learn to do your own setups.

I've been pleasantly surprised that all three Squiers I've bought have come in reasonably set up. I never expect to buy a bass, and after living with it for a while,not begin to reel it in to exactly like I like it. These things were made in sunny, tropical Indonesia, most likely with barely aged wood in a 110% humidity environment on mostly warm days. Then an ocean voyage in a container for who knows how long. I'd not surprised if Fender QC does much more than check 1 or 2 out of a batch just to be sure they're in the ballpark. I'm impressed they were as close as they were, and have given me no problems getting them dialed in.

And yet, their more expensive American cousins seemed to have not fared much better, did they? For two or three or four times the price. Much better everything, more time spent in building, and made domestically. Hmmm . . . . .

This is the nature of mass production with a material as variable as wood. It's never going to be completely controllable and repeatable, whether you've aged wood for years like Alembic does, or a few months like Squier.

Most everything I try in stores is usually in the ballpark setup wise, and I check to see if there's room to fine-tune it to suit me, and there always is. I'd be very pleasantly surprised if I found one exactly as I'd set it up for me, but if I never find one, that's fine, I always expect and actually look forward to living with the new one and getting it just like I want it . . . because I know how.

Not to mention if you have these skills, evaluating a used bass is now a far easier and reliable exercise.

For me, it's invaluable for so many reasons, plus I never have to take it to someone else. You can tell even a great chef how you want your steak grilled, but it's never quite the same as doing it yourself. Plus, you can grill it yourself . . . . on his day off.

 

[BarqsBitMe]

Who sets up the bass guitars at music stores? Does the factory set them up prior to shipping? Is the store responsible for setting them up upon arrival? Does anyone know what they are doing?

Typically I adjust new basses to my liking and sometimes order online, but sometimes buy from the stores. I like to try to keep the brick and morter stuff going so i can actually play gear before buying, but...

I went to a large chain music store a little while back and saw this Squier for $450:
View attachment 4520921
I was buying a guitar or bass that day. This fretboard really spoke to me and I thought this was a beautiful bass. I want a Fender or FSO P bass and this has to be the coolest looking bass to me with the best of both worlds; a jazz neck on a P bass. I would have bought this in a skinny minute and never even looked at anything else in the store, but I got it down to play it and unfortunately no matter how much I tried to talk myself into loving it, I just couldn't.

The setup was awful with string action running hard uphill from the bone to the bridge. I had a Squier many years ago and the action wasn't great but it was consistent while this one seemed to be warped as well as bad. And on top of that, I can't even imagine how with such a hard angle, but the A string buzzed while open leading me to believe the action couldn't be dropped. Maybe with some truss adjustment, etc, this could have been okay, but it was far too bad for me to take any chances on.

I bought a 6 string that day instead (ironically a Fender Newporter).

Anyway, I figured this Squier was the lower line so they must have really gone down-hill since I owned one many years ago. $450 would have been reasonable for a decent P-Bass and I'd have probably put in different pups sometime, but like I said, too far out for me.

Then I went to another shop a few days later and saw these two basses and just had to play them both:
View attachment 4520922
View attachment 4520923
These are top of the line basses, about $1550 for the Professional II P Bass and about $2100 for the American Ultra Jazz (the one I saw was a 4 string).

This was at a mom and pop type music store, but a pretty big one. I drooled over both of them because I've been getting Fender GAS lately (and they sound so so good). But unfortunately, the set up on both of them was really bad. I played the P bass first and won't knock the neck because it's chunkier than what I usually like. The problem was the action was absolutely horrible. Then I pulled down the Jazz and it had a tag on it saying it's the pick of the shop (and it probably would have been had it been set up properly), but it's action was probably worse than and P bass. I mean, I'm strong and could hardly even fret anything at 10 or above.

I bought an Ibanez Mikro from that same shop on a whim one day a few years ago and it felt like butter as it sat. Played wonderfully and still does (I've modded it to put in Aguilar PUPs and restrung it to BEAD). It's a regular player.

Anyway, how do they expect to sell $2k basses that play like crap in the store? Are we supposed to carry our own tools to the guitar stores to find out if we can get them play good for us or not? I was really shocked. I have bought $1500 basses before, but they played like a dream already and just needed very minor changes that I would make to any bass.

I am assuming either of the Fender basses can be set up properly and play like butter anywhere on the fret board, but I'm afraid to buy one at that price and take a chance. I think when I'm ready to lay down the cabbage on a nice one, I'm going to ask the store people to set it up or let me adjust it and see if I can get it set up properly. This is really ridiculous though.

Some business owners take pride in their work while others care about nothing but the bottom line. Some shops are owned and operated by professionals who are passionate about what they do. Other shops are basically Walmart for guitars and basses...and probably make most of their money selling $150 pieces of trash to unknowledgeable parents. It's analogous to buying a bike. Buy from a local bike shop with a good reputation and you will almost certainly end up with a bike that has been properly set up. Buy it from Walmart and you will have a dangerous bicycle-shaped-object that was "set up" by some random overworked employee who knows nothing about bikes.

 

[luciens]

I think it's deliberate, to keep the neighborhood kids from coming in and turning their new basses into used basses by them sitting back there playing them all day for free. I suspect they max the saddles out as high as they'll go and let the neck warp on every bass before they put them on the rack. That way, you can't play more than a few bars on them before they start to break your arm.

Easier and less confrontational than having to make a scene running the hours-and-hours guys out of the store 10 times a day.

Besides that, how much does one have to play a Fender P or J bass to try it out? They've been on the market for 70+ years so the chances are 99% the customer knows what a P or J sounds and plays like. Kind of like having to study the menu at McDonalds.

It's gotta be that, anyway. There's never been a big box store where every new bass in there had the action 1/4" high and the neck was almost warped past where it could be adjusted out with the truss rod.

And the ones that are playable always have the "ask for assistance" sign stuck through the strings....

That's my theory....

L

 

[Pings Bass]

Big box: they don't care, they just do volume with factory setups
Mom and pop: YMMV depending on their knowledge and interest

 

[jdh3000]

Normally the store should set them up. Some brands like roll out of the factory with a decent setup and don’t require much when they reach the vender.

Most are set up with a general playable job, though may not be to your personal liking. I find many stock setups to have the action too high for my tastes, but this is an easier all around job to avoid fret buzz without having to spend much time on it.

Always figure in a setup when buying.

 

[arbiterusa]

Who sets up the bass guitars at music stores? Does the factory set them up prior to shipping? Is the store responsible for setting them up upon arrival?

As a person who's worked four music stores, one distributor and two manufacturers, I can tell you this; while there are no "rules" about this, the idea (and it's usually in a sales agreement with the distributor) is that the instrument gets loaded onto the ship from the factory set up and ready to go.

I can also tell you, from having the music store experience, that this is ludicrous and will never work. But that's been the way "things have been done" for over 30 years now. The stores absolutely DO NOT want to do setups and won't (see more below). The distributors aren't usually set up for doing massive numbers of setups or repairs, so that leaves the factory.

*Most repair folks do not work at the store they're working out of, they are independent contractors. The store doesn't want to pay them anything beyond giving them a space to work in. Doing setups cost the store money, and with most smaller stores/chains, it's money they don't really have. Nor do the repair guys want to do a bunch of cut-rate work for the store when they can be doing full-price setups for end users. It's a vicious messed-up cycle of wanting to avoid costs, expenses and responsibility and I don't know how or if it can be fixed.

EDIT: I can also say this. Fender nowadays is one of the worst offenders. Squier to top of the line, they are all terrible. Not sure why that would be. Those Sterling basses, the cheap ones that are about a hundred bucks less than the Squiers, I haven't played a bad one yet. It's not MY kind of setup but it's a great, middle of the road setup that will appeal to most buyers. And Fender wasn't always like this; my first music store job, we got in over the course of a year a couple of hundred Squier Strats - Japanese. I never had to set one up either in store or for a customer. My only regret was that we didn't order ten containers worth.

 

[JRA]

Who sets up the bass guitars at music stores? Does the factory set them up prior to shipping? Is the store responsible for setting them up upon arrival? Does anyone know what they are doing? Typically I adjust new basses to my liking and sometimes order online, but sometimes buy from the stores. I like to try to keep the brick and morter stuff going so i can actually play gear before buying, but... I went to a large chain music store a little while back and saw this Squier for $450:
View attachment 4520921
I was buying a guitar or bass that day. This fretboard really spoke to me and I thought this was a beautiful bass. I want a Fender or FSO P bass and this has to be the coolest looking bass to me with the best of both worlds; a jazz neck on a P bass. I would have bought this in a skinny minute and never even looked at anything else in the store, but I got it down to play it and unfortunately no matter how much I tried to talk myself into loving it, I just couldn't. The setup was awful with string action running hard uphill from the bone to the bridge. I had a Squier many years ago and the action wasn't great but it was consistent while this one seemed to be warped as well as bad. And on top of that, I can't even imagine how with such a hard angle, but the A string buzzed while open leading me to believe the action couldn't be dropped. Maybe with some truss adjustment, etc, this could have been okay, but it was far too bad for me to take any chances on.
I bought a 6 string that day instead (ironically a Fender Newporter). Anyway, I figured this Squier was the lower line so they must have really gone down-hill since I owned one many years ago. $450 would have been reasonable for a decent P-Bass and I'd have probably put in different pups sometime, but like I said, too far out for me. Then I went to another shop a few days later and saw these two basses and just had to play them both:
View attachment 4520922
View attachment 4520923
These are top of the line basses, about $1550 for the Professional II P Bass and about $2100 for the American Ultra Jazz (the one I saw was a 4 string). This was at a mom and pop type music store, but a pretty big one. I drooled over both of them because I've been getting Fender GAS lately (and they sound so so good). But unfortunately, the set up on both of them was really bad. I played the P bass first and won't knock the neck because it's chunkier than what I usually like. The problem was the action was absolutely horrible. Then I pulled down the Jazz and it had a tag on it saying it's the pick of the shop (and it probably would have been had it been set up properly), but it's action was probably worse than and P bass. I mean, I'm strong and could hardly even fret anything at 10 or above. I bought an Ibanez Mikro from that same shop on a whim one day a few years ago and it felt like butter as it sat. Played wonderfully and still does (I've modded it to put in Aguilar PUPs and restrung it to BEAD). It's a regular player. Anyway, how do they expect to sell $2k basses that play like crap in the store? Are we supposed to carry our own tools to the guitar stores to find out if we can get them play good for us or not? I was really shocked. I have bought $1500 basses before, but they played like a dream already and just needed very minor changes that I would make to any bass. I am assuming either of the Fender basses can be set up properly and play like butter anywhere on the fret board, but I'm afraid to buy one at that price and take a chance. I think when I'm ready to lay down the cabbage on a nice one, I'm going to ask the store people to set it up or let me adjust it and see if I can get it set up properly. This is really ridiculous though.

Get a grip.

 

[GodPlayedBass]

The basses are shipped with the action high because the neck will most likely move during shipping. Also most music stores dont hire luthiers or guitar techs. Just customer service people

 

[LBS-bass]

Who sets them up? It depends on the store. I worked in a mom n' pop shop for several years; a very experienced technician set them up very well when them arrived on our dock. I then worked briefly at a Guitar Center; the set up process there might as well have been throwing them down a flight of steps and spitting on them before tossing them up on the display wall.

Same here except I never worked at GC, just have friends who do. Your big box stores just put stock on the wall without much fanfare but they pay minimum wage and you pretty much get what you get when everyone is seeking rock bottom pricing.

The store I worked at had a luthier on hand who did setups and repairs, so everything went to him first. Big difference. But the store had to pay that guy, and people didn't really want to pay the premium that goes along with that level of service, so that store ultimately folded.

Bottom line is we get what we're willing to pay for. People are still buying guitars, often sight unseen, so why should the stores care?

 

[Bunk McNulty]

I must be living on a different planet. Last time I bought a bass from my local shop, I complained—mildly—that I thought the action was a bit high. The guy I was talking to took it, asked me to wait a few minutes, put it on the bench and did a new setup on the spot. I’m a long-time customer, but even so…

 

[HelpImaRock]

No setup. Take the instrument out of the box, wipe it down, and put it on the wall. Customers will tune them and complain about instruments that need to be worked on. At that point, if the store has a tech, they may actually work on it there, if not, customer is on their own. This is especially true of instruments in the price range in the OP.

 

[LBS-bass]

I must be living on a different planet. Last time I bought a bass from my local shop, I complained—mildly—that I thought the action was a bit high. The guy I was talking to took it, asked me to wait a few minutes, put it on the bench and did a new setup on the spot. I’m a long-time customer, but even so…

If you're lucky you get a person in the box store who is capable of that. The last time I asked someone in a GC to set up a bass for me I ended up with a huge ski-jump at the neck joint. Maybe I just have bad luck with these things.

 

[grizzly59]

I've bought 2 guitars and 1 bass used, original owner, reason for selling? Unplayable, maybe you can fix this this thing. So the price is right, and if the neck checks out, truss rod working, I buy it. 30 mins on a proper setup, and plays great. A PRS had strings wound the wrong way around 2 pegs, bridge way high. Bad setup = plus for me.

 

[iiipopes]

I must be living on a different planet. Last time I bought a bass from my local shop, I complained—mildly—that I thought the action was a bit high. The guy I was talking to took it, asked me to wait a few minutes, put it on the bench and did a new setup on the spot. I’m a long-time customer, but even so…

Ah, the good ole' days.... I learned to do my own setups many, many, many, moons ago, because of all the above: shipping and humidity/temperature variables, each person having a singular way of playing - one size does not fit all, vagaries of how different stores approach what they think is a set up, and so forth.

Unfortunately, purchasing a musical instrument is no different than buying a suit of clothes. Years ago, I could go to a store, pull a suit in my size off the rack, have the open legs of the pants hemmed (Would you like cuffs with that, sir?), pick it up two or three days later, and that was that. Now, each manufacturer has their own idea of what they think a particular number size is, and if I like the suit, I have to have the pants hemmed, the sleeves shortened, and sometimes (or, ever more so as I get older), have the waist let out. Welcome to 21st century retail.