The P/J Bass

This is the brother of the ’69 P Bass.

This guy needed a new set of strings and a full set up. As this guitar is played in Eb, I thought best to up the string gauge a little to hold the tension for the drop tuning.

First things first, take off all the strings and give the guitar a wipe down to remove any dust and debris. Get to work on that beautiful roasted flame maple neck and take off any dirt on the fret board with the fine steel wool (remember to follow the grain) and then  hydrate the board with some lemon oil.

Next work through all those frets with the 1500 – 12000 grit paper. Once the frets are glass like get the strings on.  For this we went with D’addario 50 – 105 Chrome Flats. With the strings on bring them up to tension. Now, we’ll go through the standard set up process, string heights, buzz, intonation etc.

With this bass there were some string buzz problems so, the bass needed a truss rod adjustment. It needed a little more relief to the neck to take the pressure off that first fret (It looks like the nut was cut a little low on the A string). So, truss rod adjustment and string height adjustment compensates for the nut and relieves the buzz.  For these old vintage style truss rod adjustments you need to unscrew the neck and pop it out so you have easy access to the truss rod… I’m not the biggest fan of these heel adjustment truss rods, I prefer the ease of the modern ones!

But anyway, truss rod adjustment made and we’re back to the set up.  Drop the height of the strings to match the radius and then get to work on perfect intonation across all 4 strings.  Finish up with a finial polish and its good to go!