The Fender Bass Handbook: How to Buy, Maintain, Set Up, Troubleshoot, and Modify Your Bass Hardcover – July 8, 2010

I purchased this when I bought my first Fender because they're so well known for thier versatility & customizable/interchangable parts. I wanted to know all I could about the instrument, how it's made, & what I'm able to do with it. IMPRESSED!!I have several basses, including my "starter" bass (an SX Ursa Jazz bass that I bought on Amazon several years ago). the style was copied from a Fender Jazz bass. Because of this, I was originally eyeing this book so that I could upgrade the parts on my Ursa. Needless to say, this book can also be applied to it, as well.Even if you don't plan on doing the adjustments yourself, or any at all, this book really teaches you a LOT about the instruments contruction and internal parts (information that I had no clue about, despite being able to jam on the bass itself)I always hated when other bassists would talk technical & I couldn't follow. Now I feel "armed"...lol

This book blew me away. It's a high quality hard back and a bargain it's current price. The pictures are vibrant and detailed and accompany the text very well. The name of the book is not a sham, it has complete strip downs of some bass models like a Jaguar, not something I'd expect. The level of detail isn't just for the average bass player but goes in luthier's work. I showed the book to a tool and die engineer and he was impressed with it and he doesn't even have an interest in guitars. If you own a Fender and maintain it beyond replacing your strings, or you want to learn how to do your own setups and maintenance, Get This Book!

The Fender Bass Handbook has a great deal of information on vintage through current Fender models: descriptions, photos, key differences in hardware, etc. Additionally, it provides some simple remedies to common problems, such as strap pins coming loose, setting up actions and intonation, etc. The book also includes a few electrical modifications that owners/luthiers can make in their basses, though there should be many more of these listed and described with wiring diagrams for such modifications (such as series-parallel switching in Jazz basses, adding additional pickup(s) to Precision basses, etc.). Also wiring diagrams of Fender basses should also be included in the content--perhaps in the appendix of the book. Kudos to the author for reminding readers to save original hardware when making modifications to their basses--adding provenance when basses are placed for sale. I enjoy reading and re-reading this book, and it will be kept as a reference in my bass guitar library.

If you are a Fender bass fan and want to know how to setup or modify your bass then this is the book for you. It has plenty of pictures to illustrate the history of the Fender bass, set up, and short bios of some of the players who have used the Fender bass. Great book one of the best I have seen. I keep referring back to it. I even ended up buying a bass that was descibed in the book and it is exactly as the author described. If you play a Fender or a Squire bass and want modify it or keep it in to form get this book.

Pretty basic info on Fender basses- I think I could have written a more in depth book with my limited knowledge of these instruments.This is pretty much a "dumbed-down" book for beginners. I think there are better repair and set-up publications out there, this one was pretty thin...

Great resource for setting up and maintaining your bass guitar. I have been playing for over 40 years and have built multiple guitars and basses - and I learned things from this book. Took me over a year to find a copy, I'm never letting it go.

I have owned this book for awhile now, and it has been a big help to me.I have been playing bass now for about 22 years,andthere were still simple trouble shooting areas that I was having trouble figuring out.This book covers all of that and more!I have learned simple set up jobs to fully re-adjusting the neck tension.So far I believe this book has saved me a ton of cashon simple repairs.If you get this book, you won't believe how easy some of this really is.

A well-written book that contains valuable historical and set-up information.