Checking the setup of a guitar or bass

[markthemd]

There is an order to this .If you change it ......Start over.

This was hammered into me first by Brian Carman who was the head of checkout and assembly when I started at Electro String Corp in 1972.
Again in 1977 at Don Wehr's Music City in SanFrancisco when Klaus Heyne did the same thing .He learned this in Germany .

Here it is .

1- Tune the instrument to the pitch that you will use 90% of the time.If you use multiple tunings then the rod(s) need to be set for the lowest tuning that you use .Don't try changing this adjustment everytime you drop the tuning ...only if you keep it there for any length of time.

2- check the truss rod(s) adjust if necessary

3-set bridge height

4- if the strings are old and have worn spots on the bottom sides of the wound strings ...change them.Pick a gauge and then stay with it.If you change the gauge ,you change the tension on the neck.So then readjust the truss rod(s).

5- check the nut slot depth
you do this by measuring the gap of the strings at the second fret while at the same time pressing down the string at the 3rd fret.You might use a capo to do this .For beginners it makes it easier.

6-Assuming that all those items are fine and/or adjusted ,now time for intonation.

If the polepieces of the pickups are in fact the magnet ,you will get a clearer image if you lower or remove them physically from the string area and use only the bridge pickup .I also turn off the tone control to narrow the view that the tuner has even more .This helps to get the clearest picture.

Reassemble .

If there was a fret problem ,then that needs to be address but after those frets are 'fixed' then re-adjust the trussrod(s) and proceed from step 2.