Bass Care & Maintenance: Adjusting Your String Height and String Spacing

[@nunogoncalves5364]

There is a lot of good videos about this on youtube but this guy is the best. I have some of his videos bookmarked and play them everytime I want to do some maintenance jobs on my basses

[@zenderlike]

Excellent video, explanation are very clear. Thanks for your passion and for your skills on wooden instruments !

[@stephentesta9106]

Thank you for speaking clearly and correctly.

[@lclaughton]

Jason, a great presentation!!!. This gentleman has many very interesting and important bits of information that I have not heard before. Oh, by the way, what a beautiful bass guitar as well. A true work of art.

[@dirkjanklijn9949]

Thnx for these insights, I'm a newby on bass playing and setting up is totally new for me, verry clear instructions.

[@keithbutler2222]

I wonder what gauge strings you are using there. I recently purchased a squire jazz and swapped the 100 to 45 strings for some 90 to 35 Roto sounds strings like I used to use when I was a bass player in bands years ago...just wondering if this affects the action

[@scottcollins88]

Truss rod adjustments are not as hard as I would have thought. But but I am glad that that adjustments are easy enough and that you can custom your own Bass the way you want the feel the touch the intonation everything I'm grateful for this video really am

[@Chicgeek2014]

I play an epiphone Toby 5 string, these videos really helped, my bass plays much better

[@JuergenJoherl]

Great job Jason...I love this serie of videos...thanks again for making them!!

[@humblegeorge]

What a Brilliant man.Easy to understand too.One day I too will own a Fodera :>) God has Blessed the work of your hands big league.

[@JacqueRamon]

Great info. Man that bass is gorgeous

[@Upsetkiller456]

How do you actually adjust the string spacing though? I have a MR5S Bridge on a Ibanez bass, Everything I have seen so far is not very clear.

[@EnergyAndLightAwakening]

Hello, I have a 1978 Rickenbacker bass and I'm having problems with the G string buzzing. How do I tighten it up?Thanks.

[@BlackRootsAcademyOfSoul]

Very informative 👊🏿👍🏿

[@Chasjazzez]

Hi, I have a Fodera and have a question about the Duncans with pope preamp... Is it normal that with the mid-switch in low mode toggled and potmeter flat that the bass sounds a bit muddy? Thanks

[@TC-de9kn]

My B string seems to have alot of play and I am very new to guitar is this a bad string

[@joseferrobass4447]

Excellent video! I am curious about two things. 1) What gauge strings are on the bass? 2) Would 2/32" be the suggested height on the C string on a 6 string bass?

[@b1akn3ss93]

Should the G string feel tighter than the other strings when in tune?

[@mikebonora2238]

Jason, what about doing this with a fretless bass, what are the differences?

[@kenwidman7697]

thank you, for a clear and informative video I learned a lot of good stuff

[@jbaranowski1990]

Interesting. I never heard about setting C, G, D, A strings the same but E and B higher. Most of the luthiers increase height of the strings from highest to the lowest one. Many of them even don't measure anything and setup string height all by the feel. I must check it out. I just change strings and setup intonation if needed. My action is the same as the first day I boight a bass. Feels ok, but maybe I finally try to change it and experiment a little bit with that?

[@ayberkfahri]

Hello and thank you for a very informative (and easy to follow) tutorial. I took my bass (a very cheap one!) to a shop the other day with your videos in mind to compare what they did to what you do here. The guy at the shop used a tool to read the radius of the neck and has set the saddles accordingly so that the curvature of the string positions would match the radius of the neck. I found the resulting action very high for my comfort . The strings became harder to press on even though he has put a thinner/softer gauge set of strings. Would someone explain what is the actual use case for that under string radius gauge tool and action setup ? Thanks!

[@Justbeingjosh]

Excellent video. I agree with everything you are saying.

[@gregstopa5092]

Excellent and helpful video thank you.

[@inspector-tech]

I take it this advice applies to any bass and not just Fodera's???

[@SteezyFilms24]

I havent done my setup yet but would there be any complications in having the truss adjusted with the feeler gauge to 0.020 (the medium touch) but setting the string height with the ruler to 2/32in

[@mustafic83]

Thanks for the video. What are the general mesurements for medium action per say? And also, where exactly on the board are you measuring for example, 12th fret etc... Thanks

[@Foderaguitars]

+Yuniversal While there is no exact measurment for various action (it is very dependent on you as a player) we consider 3/32nds of an inch (From the bottom of the C or G string above the 24th fret to be medium action.

[@GabrielJimenezGuitars]

I have adjusted the neck pretty straight and the bridge is in the lowest position but the action of my bass is still high. I don't know how to set it lower. Any help?

[@jp8628]

You have 2 options: 1. Shim the neck if it's a bolt on 2. File the bridge saddles

[@kentbarnwell4179]

Anyone know where I can find one of those rulers?

[@alfieharries]

Nevermind the seasons, im more interested in these cheesuns everyone's raving about XD

[@nickolashank8622]

i know I'm quite off topic but do anybody know a good site to stream newly released series online?

[@forestellis7723]

@Nickolas Hank i would suggest flixzone. You can find it by googling =)

[@beaucoen3769]

@Forest Ellis Definitely, have been watching on Flixzone for since march myself :D

[@nickolashank8622]

@Forest Ellis Thank you, I went there and it seems like they got a lot of movies there :D I really appreciate it !

[@forestellis7723]

@Nickolas Hank no problem :)

[@jasonbeguhn659]

What tuner are you using?

[@dreadnaught90]

Great information here! Thanks.

[@OsmarOliveira]

This video series is great, thanks! However, I'd like to know if after you adjusted the neck relief properly and lowered your string as much as possible on the saddle and you still get a high action... Is that probably a twisted neck or a neck angle problem?

[@Anonymous-rp4hn]

I use 5/32nds on the E. No chance I could go lower.

[@Barry101er]

This was great & I need new glasses :)

[@TriumphAventura]

thank you, excellent video

[@Jazzbeyba]

Thank You very much! It's helped!

[@zanytacks9194]

My bass guitar seems to have a problem. There is this rattling/buzzing noise around the bridge/saddle area when a string is plucked. It looked like the saddles were level, but an uneven setup seemed to stop the rattling, which is probably not a good thing. The rattling is most prevalent on the E string. Could I be seeing things imcorrectly? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[@zanytacks9194]

*incorrectly

[@liberatetutemeexinferis5902]

Did he say " cheese" at 2:00?

[@thestillmon]

Gotta keep an eye on the cheese seasons.

[@ruthlessadmin]

I'm starting to realize my bass is not set up properly. I loled when you said 1/16th of an inch because my action is closer to 1/4". I was seriously starting to think something was wrong with my wrist, because I thought this bass had been professionally set up when it was bought. However, now I'm learning the pickups are too high (causing a warbly sound in the upper register), and the action is WAY too high. The later probably also means the neck was never adjusted, and it all means that when my dad bought this guitar, he got ripped off for $50 b/c they never did the work (he passed away and I inherited it from him). He never mentioned it so I guess it was OK for him, but I get pain and serious fatigue after 10 minutes of practice exercises and maybe 30 minutes of normal playing. I have to break my practice up throughout the day. Oh, and also one of the frets has a high spot b/c 1 single note on the whole guitar wont play.

[@Freakcent]

The only tool I (need to) use for measuring the space between strings, are my right hand index and middle fingers. Running up and down (playing licks that I know very well, over all strings) my strings will tell me which string in not in its exact right place (in relation to the others). I like perfect numbers, but I like perfect feeling more. And feeling doesn't have a number.

[@jazzman1954]

In my opinion actions this low just sound bad no matter how soft your touch is. You can't get the strings to speak.

[@Hellion73]

Thats true. I found that a very low action tend to kill your tone, making your bass sound "muddy" even cutting the sustains.

[@richardrosemusic]

agreed

[@richardrosemusic]

@@Hellion73 agreed - but its nice to start with every nice and flat with low action and then raise the strings from there to what suits / speaks to you - lots of good set up tips here

[@tulpa1940]

When the ruler is rocking...

[@theaspiephotographer]

Thank you for these videos. They are very helpful with DIY tasks on the bass. If I may offer one bit of constructive criticism hoping you take it for what it’s worth. You talk too much. You tend to be over-thorough in some of your explanations by using too many repetitive words, basically saying the same thing 2-3 different ways, unnecessarily. It gets to the point where I’m literally yelling “ok, ok, I get it already!!” at you, which obviously doesn’t accomplish anything except me venting my exasperation. Other than that, your perfect.

[@Domination93]

Every guitar/ bass that is bought brand new should automatically have the lowest action possible. These companies need to get it right.

[@Pedozzi]

use millimeter for god's sake

[@AngusNB]

He's from the US, using a US made bass. The rest of us can convert or flip the scale over. :)

[@brockr6795]

@@AngusNB since he is making this video to anyone around the globe, it wouldn't be so bad to say the numbers in metrics as well.

[@AngusNB]

@@brockr6795 You assume he's familiar with the metric system. I doubt that he is.

[@bernardjharmsen304]

He said 19mm string spacing at the bridge

[@ratmasher6561]

I don't want a bowed neck that ruins intonation. a bowed guitar sounds out of tune. how high for funk? get to the point. bowed for cheep lazy fretless? ugh

[@joseph3339]

shut up

[@myflash]

All talk and no play. Literally the worst vid i have seen