Bass Care 101: the Complete Guide to Basic Bass Care and Maintenance

Disclaimer: This guide is for those who know most of the parts of their bass guitar and want to know how they can care for their instrument, have their instrument at peak performance, and evolve as a bassist.

Being a self-taught bassist, I didn't know the benefits of caring for your bass, or even where to begin. Being told that I needed to change the strings on my bass felt daunting, and I almost felt like it would be easier to take it to a guitar shop.

If that sounds like you, then you've found the right guide. In this guide, we will be covering how to re-string a bass guitar, how to clean your bass, how to clean and condition your fretboard, and how to replace the battery of an active-pickup bass. My objective in this guide is to show you that taking care of your bass is nowhere near as hard as you may think, and only takes a few minutes to do.

Requirements:

1. Wire Snips/Cutters
2. Bass Guitar Strings
3. Tuner
4. Microfiber Cloth

Active-Pickup Bass:

1. A 9-Volt Battery
2. You may also need a screwdriver

Optional:

1. String Winder
2. Mineral Oil
3. Double-Sided Sponge (Abrasive/Soft - e.g. Scotch-Brite Sponge)

Strings should be replaced every 6-months to a year on a bass guitar. It is quite easy to tell if your strings need to be replaced. Strings that need to be replaced will sound "dead," meaning:

1. Lower Sustain - The strings do not hold out notes for as long.
2. Lower Attack - The sound is not as bright when initially plucking the strings.
3. Dull Tone - The sound of your bass is overall dull and lost its strong tone.

Visual signs that your strings need to be replaced are:

1. Rust on your strings.
2. Grime, Dirt, and Build-up between the windings.
3. Windings are unraveling.

Luckily, replacing the strings on your bass guitar is not as daunting of a task as one might think. The first step in replacing your strings is to get the old ones off your bass. For this, you don't need any special tools. Optionally, you can use a string winder and wire snips/cutters to make it go by a little quicker.

1. Release tension in the strings -
2. Starting with the smallest string, down-tune it until it feels loose.
3. Continue this with the D-string, A-string, and finally the E-string.
4. Optional - You can use a string winder to slacken the strings quicker.
5. Remove the strings from their respective pegs -
6. Unwind and feed each string through its tuning post.
7. Optional - Using wire snips/cutters, you can cut each string at the 12th fret, and feed the string back through the tuning peg.
8. Remove the strings from the bridge -
9. Feed the strings out of the bottom of your bridge.

With that, you have successfully removed your old strings from your bass, and are halfway done with stringing her up.

While cleaning the body of your bass doesn't provide much tonal benefit, it's still nice to have a shiny, non-dusty, and non-grimy bass guitar. With the strings removed, this will be the quickest and easiest part of taking care of your bass. To clean the dust and grime off your bass, we will only be using a dry microfiber cloth.

1. Using a microfiber cloth, lightly wipe any dust and debris off the body, neck, and headstock of your guitar.
2. For any stubborn dirt or grime, rub in a circular motion with a bit more pressure to clean it off.

If your fretboard isn't dirty or dry, you are okay to move on to Step 4 and begin restringing your bass. If you feel like your fretboard could use some help, move onto Step 3 where we will be cleaning the fretboard.

While the rest of your guitar only requires a quick wipe down, your fretboard may need a little more TLC. Fretboards, unlike the body, neck, and headstock, are usually unfinished wood. This causes them to get very grimy and dry out as they soak up all the sweat and oils from your hands.

It is important to clean your fretboard if it feels dry or looks dirty. To clean your fretboard, we will be using mineral oil, a dry microfiber cloth, and a double-sided sponge.

1. Using a corner of the abrasive side of your sponge, lightly dampen it with mineral oil.
2. With light pressure, scrub the dirt and grime out of each fret.
3. Briskly rub a dry microfiber cloth up and down the fretboard to remove any extra debris.
4. Lightly dampen a paper towel with mineral oil, and rub it up and down the fretboard just the same as you did the cloth.
5. Let the oil sit on the fretboard for about 30 seconds before finally taking your microfiber cloth and wiping off the fretboard to remove any excess oil on the surface of it.

Now that your fretboard is looking better than ever, you are ready to re-string your bass, tune it up, and get back to playing some sick licks on your bass.

You are now ready to put new strings and get back to playing your bass. Do one last once-over of your bass before putting the strings on because cleaning your fretboard and cleaning between your pickups will be lot harder with the strings on.

To restring your guitar, you will need your new set of strings, wire snips/cutters, and, optionally, a string winder.

1. Remove your strings from the packaging, each should be in their own separate paper/plastic organizer.
2. The largest string (Your B string for a 5-string or your E-string for a 4-string) will be the largest-numbered string.
3. Starting with your largest gauge string, feed each string through its corresponding hole in the bridge.
4. Feed the largest-gauge string through its bridge saddle and nut guide.
5. Pull the string tight through its corresponding tuning post and make a 90-degree bend/crimp in the string at about 2 inches (about 5 cm)
6. We crimp it so that the core of the string does not slip out of the windings around it. It also makes it easier to wind as it won't slip out of the post.
7. Using your Snips/Wire Cutter, cut the string at about ½” from your bend.
8. Push the string through the middle of the tuning post and feed it through the hole in the post until it doesn't go any further.
9. Begin turning the tuning key, making sure your string is feeding through opposite to the tuning keys.
10. Continue turning the key, and as you do, push the string down so that each coil of the string is below the previous coil.
11. Stop when the string is taught, but not putting much tension on the neck
12. Continue this for each string until your bass is completely strung.

If your bass guitar has active pickups, the battery that runs your pickups should be replaced every 6 months to a year depending on how much you play. Luckily, this lines up perfectly with how often you should change your strings, and as such you usually replace the battery when you replace your strings.

Replacing the battery in your bass can be a little different from model to model but the idea of it is the same. To replace your battery you will need a new 9-volt Battery and you may also need a screwdriver.

1. Flip your bass around to see the backside of the body.
2. You should find a small panel.
3. This panel could be a clip-in panel that can be opened without tools but most are screwed in.
4. Open this panel via the clip or unscrew the screws on the panel.
5. Now that it's opened, you should see a 9-volt battery connected to a clip connector.
6. Remove that battery and replace it with your new battery.
7. Close the panel back up and you're good to go.

The last step in maintaining your bass: tuning those brand-new strings up and getting back to playing. Tuning is a necessary step anytime you pick up your bass, but now that you've put new strings on it, it'll take a little extra time to keep those strings in tune. Due to the thickness of bass strings and the amount of tension we're putting on them by tuning them up, they will not want to stay in tune after tuning them up. To negate this, we will lightly stretch the strings after tuning them.

This step only requires a tuner.

1. Start by tuning your bass up to pitch, be it E-Standard or any other tuning, just the same as you always would.
2. For each string, grab the string at the 12th fret and lightly stretch it away from the fretboard.
3. This stretch is very helpful in keeping your strings in tune after restringing it.
4. Tune the strings back to your preferred tuning and you're good to go.

While this guide teaches a basic bi-annual maintenance routine for your bass guitar, you may still want to go a little further in depth. While everything I taught above can be easily done at home with things you may have lying around, there are further steps that you can take to intonate, set up, and tweak your instrument. These include:

1. Adjusting your truss rod.
2. Adjusting the bridge saddles.
3. Polishing your frets.
4. etc...

Each of these requires additional tools to accomplish. Linked below, I have step-by-step resources to assist you in each of these tasks. While each of these can be done if you possess the required tools, it may be easier to take your bass to a local luthier/guitar shop as these can be a bit more difficult of a task without proper experience.

1. Adjusting the Truss Rod on a Bass
2. Adjusting the Bridge Saddles on a Bass
3. Polishing the Frets of a Bass

Thank you for reading, and I hope this guide has helped you learn how to take care of your bass for years to come!