Bass Guitar Setup Guide (5 Easy Steps To Setting It Up Right)

Do you know what would be nice?

If you could buy a new bass guitar, bring it home, and start playing it.

Sometimes that is possible.

Most of the time, the bass guitar setup won’t be ideal.

Even if the store did set up the instrument, you’ll probably want to adjust the setup to your preferences.

And if the store did not do any kind of set up, the bass may not even be playable.

You can, of curse, have a professional set it up. I do that once a year as part of my standard bass guitar maintenance and care routine. But it is also good to know how to set up a bass guitar on your own. The bass guitar setup guide below will get you there.

 

Bass Guitar Setup

Follow the steps below to get your bass guitar set up correctly. You’ll see that making the adjustments is easy. The hard part if finding the sweet spot for the action, because it is different for everyone.

 

Step 1: Basic Inspection

I once bought a brand-new guitar directly from the store that makes them and didn’t even bother to check if it had any dents or dings on the surface. Spoiler alert: it did and I did not notice until it was too late.

My point is, don’t assume that the guitar is in good condition just because it’s marketed as new.

Even if you’re a beginner and know very little about bass guitar anatomy and construction, you should still inspect its body, head, neck, sides, and back for visible damage. You can overlook small scratches, but depending on where they are, you may have to do some repairs.

Completely unstring your instrument and slide your fingers across the entire bass guitar. Start from the fretboard and see if there are any holes in the frets or the nut slot. Move on to the neck and pay attention to the joints.

When inspecting the bass guitar’s head, check if the machine heads operate smoothly. If not, order a replacement set. They don’t cost much.

Check the saddle and the pickups. They should not move when lightly pressed. Take notes of the parts that may require additional fine-tuning, and let’s move on to the next step.

This check may also be a good time to clean your instrument, if it arrived dirty or you bought one second-hand. Our article on how to clean a bass guitar will help.

 

Step 2: Tighten The Screws

Most bass guitars feature a dozen or so screws and bolts in several positions, including the neck, the pickups, and the saddle. This step is especially important for instruments equipped with a bolt-on neck.

Use a screwdriver to tighten the screws and change heads when needed. If you own a second-hand bass, don’t be surprised if some of the screws won’t budge. In that case, remove problematic screws and replace them with identically-sized ones.

Don’t go overboard. If you over-tighten the screws, you may damage the guitar’s wood or the hardware parts. The main goal of this step is to firmly affix the parts in place so they don’t dangle or move.

 

Step 3: Adjust The Truss Rod

The truss rod affects the neck’s stability and is primarily used to change the bass guitar’s action. More specifically, this part affects the neck’s forward curvature. You should adjust it if the neck is bent.

The main problem I had with truss rod adjustments was learning when to tighten and when to loosen it. The easiest way to determine this is to press the first 3 frets on your bass (one at a time).

If the frets are buzzing, you’ll need to loosen the truss rod. If you feel as if the intonation isn’t holding up right after you tuned the bass, you should tighten the truss rod.

When I bought my Warwick Corvette, I received a complementary Allen key that fit the truss rod perfectly. However, I didn’t get one with any of my previous bass guitars, so I had to test a few different sizes.

Unstring your guitar so that you can easily access the truss rod. In most cases, it’s right above the nut slot on the headstock; certain guitar models have their truss rods above the neck pickup. To tighten the truss rod, turn the key clockwise. Turn it counter-clockwise to loosen it.

 

Step 4: Set Bass Guitar Action To Your Preferences

There’s no “right” way to set the action on a bass guitar, since every player has different preferences. I prefer playing bass guitars with lower action, since I usually play in lower tunings (C Standard mostly).

The first thing you should know about your bass guitar’s action is that the higher it is, the more force you’ll need to apply to press the frets, since the strings will be further away from the fretboard.

A low bass guitar action allows you to press the strings more easily, but it often lowers the intonation stability a bit. To counter this little problem, I installed locking tuners on my Warwick Corvette and don’t have to worry about falling out of tune ever again.

The default action on bass guitars is somewhere in the middle, meaning that you probably won’t like it, but you also won’t be hindered by it. To set the action to your liking, you’ll need to adjust the bridge screws similar to the way you adjusted the truss rod (clockwise to tighten, counter-clockwise to loosen).

The tricky part is finding the golden spot. If you set the action too high, you’ll likely hurt your fingers while playing. If it’s too low, the strings will be too floppy and you’ll have a hard time playing accurately.

See how difficult it is to press a fret, and slowly loosen the adjusters if you want to lower the action. Stop when you can press the frets with light pressure.

If you want to raise the action to a comfortable level, play a simple bass scale on all four strings and keep slightly raising the adjusters, as long as you can maintain the same playing speed.

 

Step 5: Tune Your Guitar

The bass guitar tuning process is something you’ll want to perform every day. Even if your bass guitar is in pitch-perfect tune, it never hurts to check. And the process only takes a couple of minutes.

There are two ways to tune any instrument: by ear, or by using a tuner. Even if you’re immensely confident in your sense of hearing, I still recommend using a tuner just to stay on the safe side.

Assuming you want to tune your bass in the default Standard E tuning, your strings should be tuned in the following order: E, A, D, and G for 4-string basses, or E, A, D, G, B for 5-string basses.

Plug your guitar into the tuner pedal, or attach the tuner to the headstock if you’re using a clip-on tuner. You’ll be using the machine heads in the same way you used the truss rod and action adjusters (clockwise tightens, counter-clockwise loosens).

Pluck the low E string every few seconds with enough force that the tuner can register it, but don’t go overboard. Watch the tuner’s arrow move, and stop turning the peg when it’s in the dead center. Repeat the same process for the other strings.

After tuning all strings, go back to the E string and double-check if each string is in tune. If not, you may have set the action too low or your guitar’s neck is too curved. In that case, revisit the previous steps and make the corresponding adjustments.

 

How To Set Up A Bass Guitar: Final Thoughts

Bass guitar setup is pretty straightforward, oinm terms of the actions you need to take. Simply follow the step-by-step guide above and it will take you through the entire process.

What makes knowing how to set up a bass guitar hard is adjusting the action of the strings to the correct, because the “correct” height is different for everyone. As a beginner, you don’t really know yet which string height is best for you.

I’d just keep it in the middle somewhere (or keep it the way it came from the store, assuming they did a full set up) for now. As you play your bass more, you’ll start to get a feel for where you like the action to be.