Right.. to start of with this forum :D

i'm planning on building myself a new bass from scratch ( no warmoth stuff )

i've got some questions about the neck & bridge stuff..

- What is the best way to align your bridge with your neck ? ( to put the neck exactly in line with the neck )

- Does the string spacing at the nut have any influence on the stringspacing at the bridge ? ( e.g. if i want 16mm string spacing at the bridge, should my nut have a specific spacing, to make it work properly ? )

- how do you determine the amount of space between the outer strings and the side of the neck ? ( e.g. the space between the side of the fretboard and the E-string )


my idea was to make a neck with 55mm nut and 16mm stringspacing @ bridge.. but i dunno if it will work properly..

Howdy.

You can align your bridge with the neck by placing a straightedge along either side of the fingerboard and tracing lines out along the body. Center the bridge on the two lines.

There should be no problems with adjusting string spacing of the nut and bridge independently, as long as you stay within reason.

I leave 1/8" of fingerboard outside the strings. If your playing style is more aggressive, you may decide to leave more.

Good luck!

Hi, Allodo X! Hi, Matt!

Why not measure your favourite neck?
You didn´t mention the number of strings, you want to have on your bass?

For a 5-string the 55mm at the nut are already very wide, while the 16mms string spacing are rather narrow.
In most cases the "standard" at the nut is approx. 45mm, 67mm at the 12th fret, while most of us use a string spacing of 19mm (sometimes 17 for 5- and 6-string)


Heiko

ah yes.. i forgot.. it's a 5 stringer :)

i want to have a rather wide neck and thick neck..
but i don't want godzilla stringspacing on a 5'er..

it's going to be sort of a jazzbass, so i guess measuring a jazbass neck is a good idea.. :)

Good morning, Allodo X!

Think you will find completely diffferent sizes on a Jazz-type bass!
These basses are known for their small nut and neck. The size of their 5-ers must be close to a modern 4-string.
16 and 19mm don´t seem to be much different, but it´s a big difference for playing (mainly for slap style).
Just play, whatever you can find and copy the sizes.

Doesn´t sound, as if copying the Jazz-type neck is what you are looking for?!?

Heiko