Many people scoff and gulp at the idea of setting up their guitar or bass. I have found through my experience however, that learning to do so will save you money and aggrevation. When I was new to the bass, I took it to shops to get set up. The shop were I bought my first bass did a good set-up but ripped me on my bass. When I got wise to how he ripped me I boycotted his shop. Basically he sold me a $289.00 Fernandez for $600.00 . At that time American Jazz basses were going for $659.00 .  Back to the set-up thing. The other shops were ripping me on the set-ups. They would say they did all these things like cleaned and polished the fret board, straightened the neck, cut the nut, adjusted string height, and intonation. But upon getting home one day and calling the techies bluff, I plugged into a tuner and checked the intonation; it was off by two cents! and the action was still not to my liking. Thats when I decided to do it myself.  It is not hard and the process is simple.

First step Neck: hold your axe by the body and raise it up to eye level. Look down the neck as you would a pool cue to see if it is straight, there should be a very slight amount of relief. If there is too much you have to tweak the rod. Remove truss rod cover and insert the proper size hex wrench. Turn clockwise to straighten and counterclockwise to add relief. Make sure you remove strings or remove all string tension. Don't let people tell you that by removing your stings or all tension that your neck will move. Uhh, isin't that what we are trying to do in the first place? By taking all tension and pressure off the neck your adjustment time will be about ten minutes instead of ten days. The object here is to get the neck as straight as possible while eliminating fret buzzes.

That is the trickiest part. If you get the neck just right, everything else falls into place. Restring or tune up and check if you still need to adjust it repeat the first steps. Next set your string height. This is a personal preference so do as you like. Techies often screw this one up.  Use the right size hex wrench and insert in saddle hole. To the right raises, to the left lowers. Once you have this the way you want adjust the intonation. Tune your axe to pitch and using a tuner play all your strings open and at the twelfth fret { one at a time}, if the notes match it is intonated. If not it needs adjustment. To do this use a screwdriver.  If the twelfth fret note is sharp, turn intonation screw to the right moving the saddle back. {Make sure you unwind the string and remove tension while doing this because if you don't you will not move your saddle much and you will strip out the saddle adjustment screw. } If it is flat move the saddle forward { turn screwdriver to the left}. Retune string and check again. Repeat this process until all strings match when played open and at the twelfth fret. If you have a problem getting a string to intonate, you probably need to readjust the neck. Remember, if the neck is adjusted properly everything else will fall into place. I know this sounds like a long process but once mastered it is quite enjoyable. Only you know how you want your axe to feel so why pay someone else to do it especially when they seldom get it right for you. Do It Yourself!

P.S. Don't worry about cutting the nut unless your action is extremly high and uncomfortable in the first position. An overcut nut will cause your strings to be wobbly and will create buzzes.

The Hammer.

VENI, VIDI, VICI.

Underestimate No One.

SoulMan,

All good points. I do my own setups as well. Rather than sighting the neck, get a 2' rafter square place it on the neck and look for releif at the 8th fret.

Tools needed :

A)small machinist ruler in 1/64" increments

B) Feeler guages .010, .011, .012

C) 2' Rafter square or straight edge

The way I do all my setups is as follows:

1) Check string height at the 17th fret low "E" and high "E" on Les Paul syle bridges the height should be 5/64" low "E" and 4/64" high "E" side 

*** On Fender style where the saddles are individual you need to set each saddle to the proper height E,A,D 5/64" and G,B,E 4/64"

Retune guitar if needed

2) Next capo the first fret and hold the low E at the last fret, measure the distance between the low E and the 8th fret .010 it you are a light picker .011 or .012 if you play hard.

adjust truss rod as needed **** keep in mind most truss rods are single action, but some most newer guitars that are coming out have dual action truss rods meaning they can correct forward (Concave) and Back (convex) bow in a neck. DO NOT TURN THE TRUSS ROD MORE THAN 1/4 TURN IN 24 HOURS.****

Retune the guitar

Hope this helps, these are the actual steps as written in both the Fender and Gibson service manuals for set ups.

Another neat trick you can do is when you change all you strings if you take them off all at once is get a piece of light guage plastic and  hold it against the end of the neck where it meets the guitar body, take a scribe or pencil and set it on top of the neck and trace the radius. Then cut the plastic on the line. You can use this as a guide after you restring the guitar to set the individual saddles exactly to the neck radius of the frets.  

Liqour drinkin' dope smokin' mother ****in' Bluesman.

www.billchristyproject.com

The Hammer.

VENI, VIDI, VICI.

Underestimate No One.