Bass Guitar

I began playing bass guitar in the spring of 2010. I had wanted to play for some time and since I sing bass, I thought it would be a natural fit. I borrowed a bass guitar for a few months to make sure I would still like it after trying it out. I did like it, so bought a beginner bass guitar and practice amp. Online videos and various websites were very informative as I began to learn some technique. This page has some of the tips I picked up so far.

When I bought my first bass guitar, I realized that some adjustments needed to be made to the truss rod, action, intonation and pickups.

Adjusting the truss rod

The neck of the bass guitar has a slight curve which allows notes to be played without getting fret buzz. Checking the neck curvature requires a bit of coordination as three things need to happen at the same time. First, hold a string down at the first fret with your left hand. Then using your right elbow, push that string down until it touches the last fret. Finally, using a finger on your right hand, test the amount of action between these two points until the string touches the fretboard. The neck relief at the 8th fret should be around .012" but depends on playing style, etc.. The general idea is to make the neck of the guitar as straight as possible without running into problems with buzz.

If this distance is too far off you might need to adjust neck relief. This is done by turning the truss rod nut using an Allen key. This nut is located at one end of the neck and is sometimes covered by a plate or guard. If the gap is too big and you want to straighten the neck, turn the truss rod nut clockwise. If you need to increase the curvature, turn the truss rod nut counter-clockwise. It shouldn't take much turning to make a change. A quarter to a half turn is usually all you should make in a day. You may need to loosen the strings to get enough room to turn the nut. Re-tune the strings and check the action height again. Note that any adjustment to the truss rod may take several days to stabilize, so don't be surprised if you adjust everything to your liking and find out a few days later that it is no longer the way you want it.

Adjusting the action

Once the neck relief is adjusted it is time to move onto setting the saddle height. If the action is too close, the strings will buzz. If the action is too high, it will be difficult to play notes quickly. The fretboard is not perfectly flat, but has a slight convex curve from side to side. The radius of this arc usually ranges from 7.25" to 12" depending on the model of guitar. The string height above the fretboard should be consistent from string to string, so the string height should also follow this arc. Adjustments can be made at two locations - the nut or the bridge.

To test the string height at the nut you can hold down each string at the 3rd fret and test how high the string is above the first fret. There should be just a small space between the string and the first fret. If the strings are too low at the nut (and often buzzing when playing an open string, you may need to shim up the height of the nut. If the strings are too high at the nut, the slots can be carefully filed down to the correct height. Ideally the slots in the nut should be in a semi-circle shape so that half the thickness of the string is about the nut.

The string height at the bridge is adjusted by raising or lowering the saddle hex screws.. Once again the string heights should generally follow the radius of the fretboard, but the strings at the treble side will require less clearance than those at the bass side. Additionally, if you play with a light touch you will require less action height than if you play more aggressively. The distance between the bottom of the string and the top of the 17th fret should vary somewhere between 6/64" and 7/64" on the bass side to between 5/64" and 6/64" on the treble side.

Setting intonation

When you tune the open strings, you may find that the pitches you get from playing the fretted notes are not always in tune. You can change the intonation by the following steps:

• • using an electronic tuner, tune all open strings

  • starting with the open E string (top string) check the intonation by playing the note at the 12th fret (just toulch the string to the fret, don't press it all the way to the fretboard)

  • if that note is sharp, lengthen the string by moving the saddle backwards (tighten the intonation screw at the back of the bridge)

  • if that note is flat, shorten the string by moving the saddle closer (loosen the intonation screw)

  • re-tune the open note and recheck the note at the 12th fret

  • continue to repeat this cycle until the intonation is correct

  • repeat for all strings

Adjusting the pickups

To adjust the height of the pickups, press the strings at the last fret and measure the distance between the bottom of the strings and the pole piece. The distances should range from between 7/64" and 8/64" on the bass side to between 5/64" and 6/64" on the treble side.

Customization

My current bass guitar is a four-string Ibanez with active EQ. With my style of playing, I don't do much solo work on the highest string but enjoy the full sound of the lowest string, so I decided to modify the guitar. Instead of traditional E-A-D-G strings I have taken the heaviest strings from a 5-string flat-wound set so my strings are now B-E-A-D. For this to work I needed to make a custom nut (the part of the neck which touches the strings near the tuning pegs). I got a piece of cow shank bone from the local butcher, boiled it with detergent for a couple hours to remove all the fat, etc. and then cut, sanded and filed it to the proper shape. I used the original plastic nut as a template to mark the size and spacing. However, with the new strings, each groove needed to be a bit larger to accommodate the thicker strings. I adjusted the nut so that each string sits halfway into the nut and the height just barely clears the first fret (without buzz when it is plucked). I am quite happy with the end results.