Musicman Sting Ray Bass: Set Up

Related Topics: | Truss Rod | Nut | Saddle |


1. A Set Up is necessary from time to time in order to counter changes in an instrument due to climate change, changes in string tension from one brand or guage of string to another and wear and tear.	2. Checking the Neck Relief. I'm accomplishing this by capoing the strings at the first fret and depressing each string individually at the last fret with my left hand. One by one I will measure the relief half way down the neck. With enough experience you can eye truss rod adjustments for good results. That's a good thing because when a neck is unevenly bowed, twisted or suffering from fretboard tongue lift the method of checking relief which I am using here will not work.


3. Checking the Neck Relief Cont. Here I'm checking the gap between the bottom of the 1st string and the top of the 7th fret. The 7th fret is the middle of the adjustable truss rod's effective range on this instru- ment. The neck wants to have a few thousandths of an inch relief in order to play without fretbuzz. I've found that the greater the fretboard radius, the more relief is required for optimal playability. I'm not exactly sure why this is. In any case, the fretboard is radiused to 12". From my experience .010" relief (give or take) at the 7th fret will yield the best results with this radius. It is important to note that when the instrument is held in the playing position without the support of a neck cradle, the relief will undoubtedly increase. It is the relief measured as the neck lay on the bench with a neck cradle that I am setting at .010".	4. Adjusting the Truss-Rod. On this bass the truss-rod nut is accessible at the body-end of the neck. This truss rod nut has lateral holes through it so the truss-rod may be adjusted while the neck remains attached to the body. This makes the work go a bit faster. I'm using a jeweler's screw driver (don't worry, it's one of the shop's crumby ones) to tighten the truss rod. Since it fits pretty tightly into the nut's holes I'm not worried about needless compression damage to the nut at these adjusting holes.


5. Oils, Dead Skin and Dirt on the Fretboard ensure untimely pitting in frets and fretboards. I'll be loosening the strings to lubricate much of this instrument's hardware so I may as well remove the strings to clean up the fretboard.	6. Converting a Razor Blade into a Scraper is pretty easy using a screwdriver to create a burr.


7. Oiling the Tuning Machines with sewing machine oil will keep these gears functioning smoothly for some time to come. I'm oiling these machines while I'm thinking of it before I string this bass back up to pitch. I'm only putting oil on the worms (shafts of the machine heads that turn the gears). As I tune the bass the worms will disperse the oil all along the teeth of the gears.	8. Scraping the Fretboard is a quick way to get rid of all of the smut (dirt, dead skin and oils) that is threatening the fretboard. Smut acts like fine sandpaper. As a player's hands depress the strings the smut gets ground into the hardwood fret- board. Eventually this will necessitate repairing the pitting in the fretboard. This repair can be avoided (or at least put off) by regularly cleaning your fretboard.


9. Taping off the Pickup will prevent the bits of metal from the steel wool from sticking to the pickup's magnets. It's a good idea to lint the tape to reduce its adhesive strength. This will prevent damage to the finish.	10. Polishing the Frets and Fret- board begins with #0 steel wool. This courser steel wool will also remove the scraper marks. I'll follow this up with #0000, or extra fine, steel wool. After that I often use micro mesh pads to give the frets a nice shine.


11. Cleaning the Fretboard with naptha will get any remaining smut out of the pores of the fretboard.	12. Sealing the Fretboard may be done with a multitude of oils and waxes. My latest favorite product for this job is mineral oil. It looks nice is non- toxic has a thicker viscosity than lemon oil which makes it easier to control during application. Like wooden cutting boards, most fretboards aren't finished. Because of this they need to be oiled from time to time to keep them in good shape.


13. A Generous Application of Oil ensures that the board has all it needs to retard the process of impregnation with unwanted dirt and fluctuations in moisture content.	14. Rubbing Out the Oil gets rid of the oil that didn't get absorbed by the wood. This process also gives the fretboard a nice shine. I'll spend a few minutes hand buffing the fret- board. I can only do this after the fretboard has had about 10 minutes to absorb all of the oil it wants.


15. A Squeaky Clean Fretboard. Those strings look like they're a bit high off of the fretboard. Time to continue the set up...	16. Lubricating the Hardware is just about always a good idea. As the metal parts oxidize and accum- ulate dust they don't funcion as smoothly as they would otherwise. For the small allen key driven screws that adjust the saddle's height I'm using white lithium grease.


17. Lubricating the Hardware Cont. For the machine screws that adjust the intonation I'm using more sewing machine oil.	18. Measuring the Action at the 12th fret gives me a good idea of how much I need to adjust the saddles for optimal playability. Before doing this I measured the action at the nut. The nut slots were a touch low but not so low that the strings were buzzing on the first fret.


19. Adjusting the Saddles is quick and easy since I lubricated the hard- ware. I'll set the action to the bottom of the g string to 2/32" and the e string to 3/32". From here I'll adjust the inside strings by measuring to the top of the strings. Following this procedure for adjusting the saddles ensures that the action is as low as I think my customer will want it. Also, adjusting the inside strings by using the top of the strings as a referance for measuring will make the strings feel well balanced to the fretting hand.	20. Intonation is adjusted via the machine screws that go through the back of the bridge and through the saddles. After lubricating the machine screws I adjusted them so the saddles were at the very tip of the screw. I then placed the screwdriver in the head of each screw and gave the handle of the screwdriver a quick tap with a mallet. This ensured that each saddle was all the way forward. To adjust the intonation, then, I'll slowly tighten each screw until the string fretted at the 12th fret matches the pitch of the string played with the open harmonic at the 12th fret. Since I'm only tightening the screws to adjust the intonation I'm confident that there won't be any slack in the mechanism which would allow the intonation to throw itself off later.


22. All Set Up and Ready to Play. This electric bass guitar is set for easy, in tune playing for the owner's upcoming audition for the Berklee School of Music. Good Luck Jay!