This is my Pbass which I have managed to replace the neck on. I had to use a shim in order to make up a 3.5mm thickness issue with the new neck. This is my first attempt at replacing a neck on a bass. After a lot of reviewing and a bit of advise on tapering the shim heel pocket, I found it wasn't needed as the new neck was already tapered to the same angle as the original just thinner. So as a test piece I used a 3mm piece of ply to make up most of the difference. The other issue I found was the nut pocket, being a second hand neck, I found the nut was sitting far too deep in the pocket, along with overload of glue. I managed to clear the nut pocket and by adding some hardwood strip shims .085mm x 2 under the nut, I was able to clear the string heights according to the frets. The truss rod needed only a 1 quarter anticlockwise turn to correct the neck. Was a bit of messing around but its working and may change the ply shim to some hard wood stock at a laterr time. The tuners were ordered with my JBA4 kit but decided to use them here.
Thankyou, it sounds amazing. I've impressed myself, I was taking a chance with this but persistence paid off. I'm debating over a full strip down and a repaint, playing with ideas. The neck heel was also a little wider than the original, had to be careful here to take off equal amounts on either side in order to keep the neck aligned with the strings to the bridge, was around 3mm wider and as can be seen on the heel. Flat aluminium square tube and 180grit sand paper double sided tape to it even and a few careful sweeps and constant checking till the was cleared to fit into the pocket, super happy was spot on. Aside from a small bit of damage to the side of the body (paint cracking) I will sand that out later when I re coat the body during sanding.
Well done! Looks amazing. Also nice to have the burgeoning luthier skills.
I like the bass's blue finish, but will be curious to see what you do with it if you decide to make a change.
If you do refinish the bass you might want to finish the shim in the same color. That will make it look like it's not there.
I may just be a little paranoid because I live in humidity land, but you might also consider giving the shim a couple of coats of shellac to keep moisture from affecting it. Probably not necessary, but easy enough to do the next time you have the neck off. ;-)
Fender3x, I totally agree with you. The shim is basically a test piece for seeing if it would work really, the neck is 3.5mm thinner than the original and the ply being 3mm was a question of it being, was it too thin ? Then of course clearing the strings for the fret heights then realising the nut slot had been previously tampered with, being that the nut was sitting in way too deep, then comparing it with other nuts showed that the nut itself was ok but the nut slot also had to be shimmed. So the experiment is successful, I can now move on to improve on it and will be changing the neck shim to a hardwood as at the moment it is only a pine ply and I do expect it to expand and shrink with the different seasonal climates. Painting the shim in to match the body color is what I had in mind also.
This is my Pbass which I have managed to replace the neck on. I had to use a shim in order to make up a 3.5mm thickness issue with the new neck. This is my first attempt at replacing a neck on a bass. After a lot of reviewing and a bit of advise on tapering the shim heel pocket, I found it wasn't needed as the new neck was already tapered to the same angle as the original just thinner. So as a test piece I used a 3mm piece of ply to make up most of the difference. The other issue I found was the nut pocket, being a second hand neck, I found the nut was sitting far too deep in the pocket, along with overload of glue. I managed to clear the nut pocket and by adding some hardwood strip shims .085mm x 2 under the nut, I was able to clear the string heights according to the frets. The truss rod needed only a 1 quarter anticlockwise turn to correct the neck. Was a bit of messing around but its working and may change the ply shim to some hard wood stock at a laterr time. The tuners were ordered with my JBA4 kit but decided to use them here.
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