The best way to maintain setup after dismantle

Here's a longshot that I know is going to get alot of shrugs and rolling of the eyes, but here goes...

I recently started a thread asking about the best way to store a neck while detached for a refin. My main worry (an over complicated non-issue, as pointed out by some) was that the neck would somehow warp during storage as I refin'd the body. It was a pleasant surprise that after reattaching the neck and setting my bass up, that my action and relief were absolutely perfect for my preferences. The playability is superb and I don't think I could get it much better if I tried.

While I have been setting up my own basses for the last 8 yrs or so, I still find it to be a bit of a meticulous and redundant pain in the rear and a big time consumer. I like to set and forget while at the same time, I'm a little anal regarding how my ears correspond to what my fingers are feeling (insert joke here).

So the time will soon come where I will settle on a final color for my bass. I shot a coat of ReRanch fiesta red (the bass's original color) to kind of seal the raw wood until I could purchase the paint I decided on: View attachment 354009

As can be observed, I got a bit sand happy and ended up with my own version of a Roadworn. I kind of like it, but I'm not a relic type and have been longing for some classic DuPont pastel blue for a long time, namely Sonic Blue or Surf Green.

My question is as follows:
Since I am completely smitten with my current setup and unreasonably afraid of losing it during the next refin, what's the best way to maintain the setup while I re-spray? Should I just measure, measure and measure the saddle height and string height? Should I mark the spot where my truss is currently set with a pencil?

Playability is super important to me. It's currently my only bass and I feel like if I start pulling crap apart, I'm going to lose the beautiful setup I just so happened to stumble upon. It's really crazy how over the top I am concerning the setup on this bass, considering how many I've done and how second nature it has become, but it is what it is. Any help aside from "you're worrying too much" would be great...unless I'm worrying too much!

 

I guess it's because this bass took a bit longer to "settle" into what I'd call optimal to my preferences. When I finally nailed it I really didn't want to lose it. To be honest, this particular bass was kind of hard to get to play nice. Not saying its the case with this bass, but I've had more then a couple that went years without detectable neck fluctuations. My last 50's, I didn't touch the truss in the 3 or 4 yrs I had it but obviously that's an exception to the rule.

 

Thanks for the tips. I guess I was just looking to see if anyone had some tricks that could shave some time or steps from the process

 

I'll probably wind up doing this, in which case it will probably be the rare case where the neck stays put from season to season, lol. I'm making way too big a fuss about nothing here. It's just my only bass at the moment so I'm reluctant to fiddle. I'll just have to bite the bullet, measure and hope for the best when the time comes.

 

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It's hard to capture from the shots but I sanded up to 1500 grit in order to expose the grain. This was done with about half a can or ReRanch a friend had in hand and was more or less a testing ground for the final finish which will be surf green. I'm looking to achieve the same effect (sans exposed wood) with the final color where the grain is just visible under the finish. I was surprised to find a nice three piece alder body when I stripped it as opposed to the usual veneer/sandwich/veneer Fender usually reserves for their MIM solid colors. This is a Classic 50's though and they are known to be a step up from the standard line.

 

Point taken. I've invested way too much time into learning my own setups to trust paying someone else to do it as there is almost always something lost in translation regarding my definition of a good setup and someone else's. For example, I've learned to make sacrifices knowing that there are limitations to how any given bass can be setup. If some buzzing at the 14th through 20th fret means excellent playability with zero buzz everywhere else, I'm ok with that, although from a technical standpoint, someone could say it means I've got too much of a bow. Different strokes.

 

My point exactly, the limitations in this case being that those are services I don't deem crucial, nor in my budget, hence the term "sacrifice". So in this case, I respectfully disagree that yes, it has everything to do with different strokes...my "stroke" being that I'm willing to forego one thing for another.