Getting the Instrument Ready 13
Pre-Adjustment of the Bridge - Height 18
The Neck Adjustment Process 29
Bridge – Setting the Intonation 31
The Intonation Setting Process 32
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The Ultimate Guide to The Perfect Bass Setup version 1.0
Adjusting the Height and Angle of the Pickups 36
Instruments with a Double Truss-Rod
Instruments with a Double Truss-Rod 41
Parallel Truss-Rod System (A+A) 41
Diagonal Double Truss-Rod System (A+B) 42
Tuning Table for ERB Basses 48
Cut-Out Templates for Curvature Adjustment 49
Cut-Out Templates for Curvature Adjustment 52
The Alchemy of Sound - The Book 58
Bass Design Fundamentals - Video Course 60
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The Ultimate Guide to The Perfect Bass Setup version 1.0
Important Information:
This book is for free distribution. You may copy it and distribute it or include it with other
products at no charge, as long as the full, unaltered text appears and it is provided in
either pdf or printed format.
You are allowed to publish excerpts from this book only if you include the following links:
www.jerzydrozdbasses.com and www.electric-bass-secrets.com.
Unless another source is indicated, all text and images appearing in this work are
protected under the author's copyright.
The author of this book has no commercial affiliation or contract with any of the registered
trademarks (® or ™) used as examples for purposes of demonstrating the various
processes and setups.
These trademarks include: Fender®, Jazz Bass™, Tobias®, Rickenbacker® and
MusicMan®, among others.
© 2009 All rights reserved. Free distribution of the unaltered content is permitted. This document is free.
Its sale is prohibited. Visit: www.jerzydrozdbasses.com y http://www.electricbasssecrets.com
6
The Ultimate Guide to The Perfect Bass Setup version 1.0
A Few Words about Future Updates to this Book
This Guide should be considered as a work in progress and as such, it will be
continuously updated. If you have downloaded it directly from our webpage,
www.jerzydrozdbasses.com, as a subscriber to our mailing list, we will notify
you by e-mail any time we make an update.
If you have received this book as an enclosure with another product or
through a third party, we recommend that you subscribe to our mailing
list and Newsletter as soon as possible in order to keep informed of any
future updates.
You can subscribe right now by clicking on the following link:
http://www.jerzydrozdbasses.com/subscripcion-newsletter-en.html
If you have any further information on a topic related to electric bass setup that
isn't included here, you can address these concerns or questions to our Forum
at this link:
http://www.jerzydrozdbasses.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=19
In this way, we can continue to update this book, adding any topics of interest
that haven't yet been addressed in future editions in order to make this
manual as complete as possible, covering every type and style of electric bass
currently available on the market.
This is the first edition of this Guide. If you find any errors, please let us know
so that we can correct them in future editions. You can contact me directly at:
© 2009 All rights reserved. Free distribution of the unaltered content is permitted. This document is free.
Its sale is prohibited. Visit: www.jerzydrozdbasses.com y http://www.electricbasssecrets.com
7
The Ultimate Guide to The Perfect Bass Setup version 1.0
Introduction
In my honest opinion, every bass player should know how to set up his or her own
instrument. Even though some bass players know how to do it, most turn to a professional
to do it for them.
So, you might ask, "Why should I learn how to set up my bass if a professional guitar
maker (or luthier) can do it for me?"
In time, you will probably discover more reasons, but for now, I will give you two:
First: because if you learn to do it yourself, you will save a lot of money, time and
travel.
Second: the setup will be much more customized according to your personal
playing style.
The process itself is relatively simple, but it requires a lot of experience before you will be
able to do it optimally. I'm not going to lie to you: you won't learn how to do it overnight,
but each time you make adjustments to your bass, you will do it better than the time before
and one day, you will reach a point where you can set up your own instrument in terms of
your personal criteria and needs better than any professional ever could.
As far as I know, there is no other definitive, simple and precise guide available on the
market about how to set up an electric bass.
This Guide was written especially for you and for those bass players who would like to
learn this process, but don't know where to begin.
Even though it has been written with the electric bass in mind, it can also
be used for setting up electric guitars or other similar instruments
because the procedures are exactly the same.
Read it, then read it again and make it an indispensable part of
your instrument maintenance toolkit.
This is why I have written this book, as my gift to you.
Jerzy Drozd
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Its sale is prohibited. Visit: www.jerzydrozdbasses.com y http://www.electricbasssecrets.com
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The Ultimate Guide to The Perfect Bass Setup version 1.0
Waiver
This Guide is for educational purposes only. The author will not be held responsible in any
way for damage of any kind, whether personal or material, resulting from the incorrect use
or interpretation of the contents of this book.
The user of this guide will be solely responsible in the event of any such damage.
In order to avoid any unnecessary losses, read the instructions and warranties before
handling any musical instrument, so that you will be sure use it according to the
manufacturer's recommendations and within the terms of the manufacturer's guarantee.
Safety:
Any adjustment that involves tightening the strings or screws or applying any
force in general carries certain risks. Be sure to follow all safety regulations
and if available, use protective eyewear and gloves to protect your eyes and
hands from any possible harm.
© 2009 All rights reserved. Free distribution of the unaltered content is permitted. This document is free.
Its sale is prohibited. Visit: www.jerzydrozdbasses.com y http://www.electricbasssecrets.com
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The Ultimate Guide to The Perfect Bass Setup version 1.0