The J Bass neck???

[ozzbike]

I have had a few things go really really wrong in my life....so absent for a time.

But, you could not get rid of me that easy. Moo ah ha ha.

I only have one J Bass here with me.....

"Jazzmine" is her name.

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ead.php?t=8119

From reading other build diaries and trawling the internet I have come to discern that the kit necks are closer to the standard P Bass neck, in both taper to the nut and thickness of wood on the neck behind the fingerboard.

My only other thinner neck is the Yamaha TRBX 304 I have in Candy Red.

https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/mu...300series.html

The internet says I need a 38mm at the nut neck for a J Bass. Okay I reckon the kit necks can do that. But the J Bass necks are also supposed to be thinner through the fingerboard into the neck. My only concern is how deep we have to sand off the back before we hit truss rod.

I found some measurements on a Bass site. They seem to indicate a thinning of the neck from the 12th fret through to the nut. So effectively a narrowing of the neck and a thinning of the back of the neck.

I was wondering if anybody has played with the idea of getting some genuine #BIG F# measurements and trying to trim a kit neck down to meet them. The other difference will be a top access truss rod nut as opposed to a bottom of the neck one on a real J Bass.

Will this effect the stability of the neck and maybe cause a catastrophic outcome?

I really like the finish I can get on the raw Ash body Basses and this one really tickles my fancy with a Maple neck and fingerboard.

https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...ash-body-copy/

I am really wanting to make this happen....and have the money put aside for after Xmas. I was wondering if anybody else has tried to change the kit necks into anything close to a J Bass?

Ideas, concerns, hopes and dreams will be richly received. Thank You.

Very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

[Rabbit]

I'm not realy sure what the neck profile is like for the P-bass. I know it's wider at the nut than a Jazz. I belive they changed the width for the jaz to make it easier for guitarist to transition to a more familiar width when they changed to bass. The neck profiles of the kit necks for the 3 I have so far are more akin to baseball bats than my Epiphone , or the profile I measured from the Ric. I'm guessing the profile of a p-bass could be thinner too, as they use a single action rod in curved channel and capped on the back rather than the double action bar on top of rod truss rod of the kits. I would imagine because the truss rod channel takes up more real estate on the kits there is less meat on the bone with the kit necks, yet other manufacturers use similar truss rods with thinner neck profiles, so you might be ok...but you would probably need a gently gently approach.

[Simon Barden]

I believe Pit Bull can supply proper J-bass profile necks. You’d need to email them and I expect it will be a custom order (or they would have them on the web site for sale) so will take several months to arrive.

[JimC]

I was wondering if anybody has played with the idea of getting some genuine #BIG F# measurements and trying to trim a kit neck down to meet them. The other difference will be a top access truss rod nut as opposed to a bottom of the neck one on a real J Bass.

There are Fender and 3rd party JB necks with the top access truss rod so its not impossible - indeed the more moderately priced 3rd party JB necks I found last time I looked were pretty much all top access. I suspect it would be more likely to break if you dropped it rather than just in use. Having said that I wouldn't be comfortable with a top access JB neck, but I have zero evidence that its unsound.

[Simon Barden]

My Harley Benton JB kit (see my signature for link) has a top access truss rod and proper JB neck dimensions. All seems fine and steady, though it's yet to be assembled and strung up.

[wazkelly]

G'day Ozzie,
I bought one of these earlier this year for a semi scratch build yet to be started. It has genuine J Bass width at nut but configured with a G Style headstock which is perfect for what I have planned and measures 20 cm along the top edge, just enough room for 4 in line or maybe MM 3 + 1.


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/202815446784

Cheers, Waz

[fender3x]

There are Fender and 3rd party JB necks with the top access truss rod so its not impossible - indeed the more moderately priced 3rd party JB necks I found last time I looked were pretty much all top access. I suspect it would be more likely to break if you dropped it rather than just in use. Having said that I wouldn't be comfortable with a top access JB neck, but I have zero evidence that its unsound.

FWIW I have one of the PB Jazz profile necks. It has quickly become one of my favorites. It feels a lot like my here-to-fore favorite neck, the #8 "C" type neck that is 1.5" at the nut on my G&L ASAT, which also adjusts at the top and has a 12" radius, like the PB. It's a '94 that I have had since 2002, and I have not noticed any issues, but I haven't dropped it on it's head, either ;-)

At one point I looked to see if there were some sort of advantage to having a top or bottom adjustable neck. I haven't found a trustworthy source to say whether one is better than the other. I think the reason that most current mfgs put them at the top is to make t hem easier to adjust. There are some mfgs that put a traditional fender adjustment at the bottom, I am guessing to make them more vintage-like. There are adaptations (holes in the pickguard, wheel type nutes, etc.) to make the bottom loading type easier to adjust without taking the neck off. Warmoth has even invented a side adjust truss rod. But as far as I can tell all the adaptations and changes from the traditional appear to be for the purpose of making the truss rod easier to adjust.

So, there may be an advantage that I am not aware of, but as JimC notes, Fender puts a lot of them at the top now (including on signature basses like the US made Geddy Lee). My '75 Fender bass has it at the bottom, but Leo Fender's other companies seem to have put them at the top. As far as I can tell, all the Music Man basses and all the G&Ls had top adjust, including the ones made with a jazz profile, like my ASAT.

[wazkelly]

Hopefully truss rod adjustment is not frequently required and therefore placement should not be a functional issue, more an aesthetic aspect.
For me what works and how it feels are way more important than appearances and looks.

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