Who uses factory set ups?

[drTStingray]

I think it depends what make of bass you buy. Certainly with Musicman basses, my experience of ordering new ones (which I've done several times) is they always arrive set to 'factory specifications'. That their QC is amongst the best in the business (and all instruments are hand finished and set up) and probably dictates this. I can't speak for other makers but if there are some around selling instruments over £1500 that don't do this then I'd be very surprised - if there are then their customers should complain. 

if you buy a new bass that's been sat on the shop floor for ages, or worse still, has been 'tweaked' in the shop, then you may need to reset it completely. 

As almost everyone has stated in this thread, factory settings are a good starting point from which to tweak for individual styles and wishes in terms of playing - I do this with mine - some are set lower, some higher and some at factory setting dependent musically on what I use them for.

Its an interesting discussion point because I, and a lot of other people, have never experienced , for instance the infamous Stingray weak sounding higher strings. That there are people that equally are sure their basses have suffered from this is interesting, despite all equivalent basses having the same components - the lack of knowledge of factory settings (which have been published on Musicman's website for at least 20 years) is also interesting - there's been a long held suspicion that the issue may well be down to after-market set up issues (including particularly pick up height).