Intoation on a cheap bass

[Jblount]

My brother, Tim, just bought a cheap bass from a pawn shop. He paid $40.00 for it and he just got it to play around with while he is home from college. The intonation seems to be messed up, you can tune the E and the A string with the tunner and they sound fine, but the A on the E string is about 8 cents sharp of the A open on the second string. Can we fix this, or is it a lost cause lesson learned about buying junk?

 

[64Firebird]

8 cents at the 5th fret seems like a lot. Are you sure you not bend the string a little? I don't think I've seen a guitar or bass that was more than about 10 cents off at the 12th fret.

 

[Jblount]

No, not bending the string, just placing pressure just to the left of the metal fret. The jump dosnt seem to be as noticable on the other strings, but it may just be my hearing. Is there anything else we are doing wrong, does it need new strings?

 

[Toki987]

go to the screw on the bridge for the E string. Tighten the screw a little and it`ll flatten that note. To properly set the intonation you`ll need to check the plane and level of the neck and tighten or loosen the truss rod enough that the neck is fairly straight, its better to have a litle bow in it than to have any hump in it, perfectly straight usually won`t work unless is it is a very good quality neck that has not twisted in any way and the fret job is absolute. use your tuner to tune the hamonic at the 12th fret and then chek it with e string open. Then do each string successively. once you finish go back and check them again and adjust as needed until the 12th fret harmonic and the open string are the same on the tuner for each string.

 

[Kramer]

Set the intonation......uh duh.

 

[Jblount]

The neck is fairly straight, and the action is pretty good. Do you mean the screw at the place the string end attaches to the body? Sorry, I am not a bassist, I just play.

 

[Toki987]

The neck is fairly straight, and the action is pretty good. Do you mean the screw at the place the string end attaches to the body? Sorry, I am not a bassist, I just play.

On the body of the bass is where you want to adjust. There you`ll see what is called a bridge. There are holes that you put the string thru before attaching to the neck with a bridge for each string. There will be a screw in each of the 4 bridge pieces. These screws move the bridge back and forth. Do not worry about the screws that raise it up and down.

 

[Jblount]

Yeah that is what I thought. So I need to loosen it, or tighten it? Tighten to shorten the intonation, right?

 

[Bass Freak]

i think shorter is sharper, and longer is flater.....i think.....




yeah i think thats it, it works that way for my sax's...




freak

 

[Jblount]

coolness