How to Set Up a Bass

To set up your bass guitar, you have to think big: big sound, big tone, big volume. This also means big sound waves and big string vibrations. With this in mind, you have to approach your setup in a way that compensates for all of this and your playing style. Are you a jazz player with a light touch and lightning-fast licks, or do you jackhammer funk riffs with thumb slaps and finger pops? Here are a few tips and tricks that should get you in the right direction to dialing in the perfect bass guitar setup.

Tools You’ll Need:

Phillips/large flathead screwdriver or spanner wrenchAllen wrenches or socket wrench6″ ruler graduated in 1/32″ and 1/64″ increments (0.5mm increments)Electronic TunerNeck rest to secure the guitarCapo (optional)A good set of eyes and ears

A good tool kit is quite helpful for maintaining your instrument. We recommend the Musician’s Tool Kit from Ernie Ball.

Adjusting the Truss Rod

The first step to dialing in your bass guitar’s setup is tuning your bass to pitch and setting your neck to the proper relief. This refers to the amount your neck bows away from the strings. If your strings are old, not staying in tune, or have lost their mojo, you’ll want to install a new set first. (I know, we bass players have to shell out more money than the other guys in our band, but dig deep in your pockets and get it out of the way now.)

Step One: Checking your neck relief

Install a capo on the first fret. (If you don’t have a capo, your finger will work just fine.)Fret the lowest string (in pitch) where the neck joins the body.

What you’ve done is create a perfectly straight line across the length of the fretboard. Take a look at the gap between the top of the 7th fret and the bottom of the string. If you have a feeler gauge, you’ll want to measure that and make a note of it. It’s actually a good thing to have a slight gap there, because a perfectly straight neck will cause a lot of buzzing issues. Your strings must have enough clearance to do their vibrational pattern. Picture yourself dropping a pebble into a pond. Wait… this is a bass. Picture yourself dropping a boulder into a pond. Those waves that emanate from the splash are what your bass strings are doing when you play, and you have to get the frets out of the way. Some target relief measurements are anywhere from 0.008″ to 0.014″.

Step Two: Adjusting your neck relief

If you have no relief or the neck is bowed toward the strings (backbow), you’ll want to turn your truss rod counterclockwise. You’ll recognize this right away because the straight line you created in step one will cause the bottom of the string to rest against the top of the 7th fret. This will cause excess fret buzz on open strings and in the middle of the fretboard.If you have too much relief, you’ll want to tighten your truss rod by turning it clockwise. Too much bow away from the strings will cause unnecessarily high action, intonation problems, and buzzing toward the end of the fretboard.

Pro Tips:

Only make about a ¼-turn adjustment at a time.Always tune your guitar back to pitch before checking any measurements.Do not overtighten your truss rod or make any adjustments you aren’t comfortable with.If your truss rod reaches the end of its travel before the proper adjustment is made, take your guitar to a reputable luthier or technician.

Setting the Action

Once your truss rod is properly set, you’ll want to raise or lower the distance your string has to travel to the frets. This is what is referred to as action. Do you remember the boulder that we tossed into the pond? Well, that boulder is your finger, pick, thumb, or whatever you’re using to beat up your strings. Proper bass guitar action is completely subjective and will depend mostly on your playing style. Remember, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” (I think John Entwistle said that.) If you play a lot of slap bass or have a really strong pick attack, you’ll want to compensate that by raising your action and allowing the string enough room to circulate.

If you’re more laid back in your approach to the bottom end or have a lighter touch with your fingers, you can likely get away with a lower action that’s going to result in easier playability. A good bass setup is all about compromise, and as a guitar technician, you always have to find the best balance between playability and the most amount of fret buzz that you’re willing to tolerate. Some common action measurements on a bass guitar are around 5/64″ up to about 7/64″.

Step One: Measuring the action

Some luthiers prefer to install a capo at the first fret to take nut height out of the equation. If you don’t have one, don’t let that stop you.With your ruler, measure the distance from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of your lowest string. We typically use small increments in order to be as accurate as possible. A ruler that’s graduated in 64ths of an inch is a great tool to keep in your gig bag or case.

You’ll want to play the bass and determine what action adjustments need to be made. If it feels and sounds great, don’t mess with a good thing. If you find that your bass is clunky to play and your fingers feel like they’ve been run over by a truck at the end of a gig, you’ll probably want a lower action.

Fret buzz and loss of sustain are typically symptoms of an action that is too low. If your bass just isn’t handling the beating you’re dishing out or you feel a loss of clarity in your notes, a higher action is probably going to be your next course of action.

Step Two: Raising and lowering your action

Raise or lower your saddle or the bass side of the bridge about a quarter of a turn.Retune the bass to pitch, and take another measurement to get an idea of how much farther up or down you’ll need to go.Make more adjustments if you need to and always remember to retune the instrument before you take into account any measurements.You’ll want to repeat these steps for the rest of your strings and the treble side of the bridge. A good rule of thumb is that you can get away with about 1/64 of an inch lower action on the highest-pitched string than what you’ve set your lowest pitched string to. This is because the smaller the string gauge, the tighter the vibrational pattern. (Keep this in mind the next time your guitar player whines about how high their action is, then calmly and rationally explain why they have it so much easier than we bass players.)

Measuring and checking the action.

Pro Tips:

The lower your action, the more your bass will buzz.Fret buzz will often not translate through an amplifier. If fret buzz is a deal breaker for you, be sure you’re checking to see if it’s really going to be heard through your bass rig.Don’t set up your bass without getting a good idea of what it’s going to sound like when it’s plugged in.Your ruler is your best friend. A good guitar technician will measure action all over the fretboard to take into account the big picture. After all, we don’t just play in one spot.Measure your action at the 3rd and 17th fret also.Your fretboard has a radius, and you’ll want your string height to follow that radius. If you have a 2-post bridge, you shouldn’t have to worry about it because your saddles will be pre-slotted. If you are adjusting individual saddles, you’ll need to maintain that radius by cascading down your measurements from the lowest-pitched string to highest or making the proper adjustments against a radius gauge.

These are the basics of a bass guitar setup. A good setup is not all about measurements. It’s about the way your instrument sounds and plays and is a very personal thing that varies from one player to the next. But these are some good references to get you on the right track to dialing in the perfect bass setup for you.

Now that you’ve mastered adjusting your bass guitar’s truss rod and action, you’ll want to make sure that you dial in your intonation so that your instrument is playing in tune.

If you need to set up the intonation on your electric guitar, check out this article: “How to Set Your Electric Guitar’s Intonation”.

We hope this has helped you learn a little more about setting up your bass. As always, feel free to contact our SweetCare team for any specific questions you may have, or visit our Knowledge Base, which has over 20,000 articles that may help you resolve an issue quickly!
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