New Fender Woes

[dmccombe7]

I've had to tweak most of my basses over the years except for my 89 Warwick Thumb from Sound Control which still has same set up since buying and my Overwater basses which were set up perfectly on the day by Chris and his team when i bought them. I do check my basses on a routine basis.
Fenders i've had to do whenever i buy them. Rik was the same. Yamaha, WAL, Ibanez, Aria, Shergold all tweaked when i bought them.

Not such a bad thing as it gives you experience in how to adjust your bass to get the best out of it. Not everyone wants the lowest action on every bass. On my Jazz bass i preferred a slightly higher action than on my Warwick simply because i play my Fender harder in rock band than i do my Warwick which is used for more intricate styles.

Provided you follow the instructions which are posted everywhere these days and take your time making small adjustments at a time until you get approx what you want then not much to it really and you'll gain loads of experience along the way.

Dave

[jazzybass]

[color=#222222]Yes I guess your right I should learn to tweak my basses and I'll have a good read up on the subject, and ultimately everyone like basses setup slightly differently but if I owned a shop trying to sell basses I wouldn’t want them setup so bad they felt not worth the money.[/color]

[Lowender]

The 62' re-issue P's were great -- as close as you can get to a pre CBS if you got a good one. If I were in the market for a P, I'd look for a used RI.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Lowender

[4000]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1380981286' post='2233078']
I bought a 2011 P Bass last year. got it a bit cheaper coz the 2012 was coming in. I had it set up by the shop before I collected it.
When I got it home I played it for a bit, but for some reason I couldnt get on with it. It had random buzzing spots, and was uplayable up on the top register frets.
So I gave the neck a tweak and raised the action but it still wasnt right.
So I took it to Chandlers who took one look at it and told me it had that infamous Fender hump high up the neck, and it would need a neck tweak and a fret dress to make it playable.
Its great now, but I cant believe Fender would let it out the factory in less than high standards.
[/quote]

And this is exactly my point over in the Setup thread; setup isn't easy if there's an issue with the instrument, as IME there often is.

FWIW my Roadworn Jazz needed the neck replacing from new. As no new bass I've ever played in a shop is setup right for me I've usually had to assume that my 40-95s and low action will be do-able once the bass gets home. Wrong! I always factor in a fret-dress now at the very least, because the majority of basses I've tried need one to get them where I want them, new or used.

[Dr M]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1381249689' post='2236460']
they have a lovely USA G&L there at the moment - green (my fave colour) and at a silly low price. The neck's like a bent thing though- It probably would straighten out but i'm not going to spend £600 to test that theory....
[/quote]

You could try discussing this point with them. I would have thought most guitar shows would consider spending an hour or so doing a setup to be a fair exchange for a £600 sale.

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='Dr M' timestamp='1381408466' post='2238611']
You could try discussing this point with them. I would have thought most guitar shows would consider spending an hour or so doing a setup to be a fair exchange for a £600 sale.
[/quote]

the pertinent point I should make clear is I don't have £600 at the mo.... also they don't have anyone there able to do set up (though they have a tech in every sat) and... it was "off" enough I would want to see it set up and left to settle for a few days to see what the neck would do (if that makes sense)

[Telebass]

Bit late getting to this page.
The "infamous Fender neck hump" should not happen on any Fender bass with Posiflex rods. If it really did have such a fault, then it's a warranty job. And it may return if the neck support is not doing its job properly.