Effect of neck thickness/width on tone?

[Mickey Mao]

Hello:

Just wondering---do you think the neck thickness or width effects the tone of the bass? That is---all things being equal, including the body, pickups, bridge, and strings----if I swapped a thin jazz-style neck with a thick P-bass neck, would there be any noticeable and categorical difference in:

tone
sustain
dead spots

or anything else outside the feel and playability?

[shrigg]

In theory, a wider neck would give you more room to fret the strings more cleanly which could affect tone. And a thicker more substantial neck could give more sustain due to increased mass. However in practice I'd say the effects would be hard to notice.

BUT neck and fingerboard *material* would make major differences in all these areas.

[walterw]

most folks who do a lot of neck/body swapping say the "character" of the instrument tends to follow the neck.

in theory, a fatter, stiffer neck means more clarity, evenness and sustain, but either way, a new neck is just about a different instrument.

[grendle]

Not sure, adding mass should add sustain. If they are the same woods though I'm not sure if you would hear much difference in overall tone. Different neck materials do effect tonal characteristics though. I'd be curious to hear a swap from a jazz to a p neck for myself.

[groove pump]

Aside from the fit of a bass, which is certainly a personal thing as far as what feels right to me, I either like or dislike them based very much on the "solidness" that I perceive in their necks. It's a tricky thing to really quantify, but I can tell when a bass isn't right when I feel how it plays without even being plugged in.

While I'd rather not play with a boat anchor hanging off my shoulder, I also hate it when the neck on an instrument feels like a piece of hollow balsa wood. There's often a direct relation between the heft and density of a bass and how it works for me, but I've also been let down by a couple of heavy basses over my years, too. Those disappointments were more about the balance (a neck-diving Warwick Corvette) or a tone that didn't hold its own in the mix once I tried to play loud in a band setting.

I was spoiled when I bought a parts bass some years ago that had a Warmoth neck (maple/rosewood). I eventually swapped that P neck for one of their J necks with the same woods AND both had that typical Warmoth solidness (and heft) from having steel reinforcement instead of graphite. I also got the impression that they gave me a similar tone, btw.

In these necks, I got a wonderful even response and playability that made anything from Fender or a lot of other builders seem especially flimsy. I've only found a similar neck solidness in some graphite necks from Zon or Modulus as well as a couple of old MusicMan basses and a rather lovely Sadowsky. Oh, then there was a nice Pedulla Rapture I tried once... and a pure evil Spector neck-thru...

I may simply be rambling about getting the right attack from a good sturdy neck, but I don't think that's exactly it. My new bass is a couple pounds lighter than my Warmoth Jazz, but the neck on that one still seems to provide a strong foundation that lets the strings effectively shake and resonate well. I've had both a Fender U.S. Deluxe P and J bass and both of those gave me that balsa wood feeling. I didn't hold onto either one.

[wfmandmusic]

most folks who do a lot of neck/body swapping say the "character" of the instrument tends to follow the neck.

I never really knew this or thought about it until recently. Recently I have been doing a lot of neck swapping on my basses. I would agree that the "character" tends to follow the neck. I started playing in a Led Zeppelin Tribute band last May. I had my trusty old 76 fender P bass and a Zon 5 string fretless when I started.
So I thought I would give a Jazz bass a whirl. It was okay, a little hard to get use to the thin skinny neck. After a while I was starting to get cramps in my left wrist and a little pain. Realized I missed by big fat P neck. My old P neck is a little beat after playing it for 35 years. So I looked around for a nice thick neck. Ended up with a Steve Harris neck. I put it on the jazz bass and yea, it made a big difference in the tone and sustain. I love it. I didn't know what to do with the jazz neck. I found a pretty good deal on a 62 reissue loaded P body. I thought you know maybe a little more time on this neck and I'll be okay, besides I heard some folks like the jazz neck on the p bass thing. The bass sounded really nice. Then I thought of replacing my old P bass neck with one not so beat up and I don't have a 4 string fretless so I found a nice 79 Fender fretless p bass neck. It arrived and I thought why not just leave my old bass as is and put this fretless neck on the 62 reissue. I played it all night at practice last night and the whole band agreed it is by far the best sounding bass I have played. The amp is a 1969 svt and 810 squareback cab. It cut through the mix so well and just had a great tone. Big difference than the jazz neck. So before I found the nice fretless neck, I had ordered a custom Warmoth fretless neck. So now I still have a nice jazz neck with no body for it. Well I found a nice body on this forum and now my jazz neck is back on a jazz body (for now). So what to do with the fretless Warmoth neck coming? I could put it on the jazz body ala my Steve Harris Jazz bazz or put it on my old friend the 76 p bass and see how it sounds. Anyhow I'm having so much fun playing with necks and bodies trying to find some awesome tone. It just keeps getting better.

[Pilgrim]

"In theory" is one thing.

"Real world" is another.

All these things make at least as much difference in sound:

Strings
Electronics
Technique
Amp
EQ
Effects

Those are just off the top of my head...."character" may be a factor, but it's also something that people might perceive differently.

[darkstorm]

Id think it would have very little effect on tone as long as the narrow versus wide (J versus P for example) where both very good qaulity and the same woods. But since I wont own basses with necks as wide as a P I havent experienced them compared to narrow neck otherwise the same, basses.