How do you check the neck radius?

[addylewis]

I've got a few Fender jazz 4-strings - could the neck radius be different on them all? (different years...)

Just wondering how to check the "neck radius"? Which bit/what/where do I measure to find this out?

I've never set up a truss-rod before...the bass I wanna set up is my special one - I'll take it somewhere if need be but I need to learn to start doing the setups myself (obviously I'd try it on my squire first)

Last time it was set up was I think 2006 - my teacher who set it up scared me somewhat by telling me you CAN snap the neck doing it...also a whie before that when he set it up for us he said afterwards it was bent like a banana...I don't know what state its in now coz I can't really see the difference between awful or ok, but I REALLY need to get it done coz if its already warped it could become permanent...

[Andyrew]

Put your nose up against the very bottom of the body, by the bridge, and look down the strings towards the nut. you can compare the curve of the neck to the straightness of the strings. try to make the neck nearly parallel with the strings; having some concave is normal. make sure your strings are loose when straightening the neck, because when you do so, you are also slightly increasing the distance from the bridge to the machine heads, which causes the strings to gain tension. be patient and adjust in baby steps.

[slyjoe]

Just use a template for determining your neck radius. You don't really "measure" anything.

http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguar...s%20Gauges.pdf

See the links at the top of the forum for setup tips. It's great to be able to do setups yourself.

[JansenW]

Use a radius gauge.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Sp...ctures#details

[Woodfield_Bass]

If it's a fender jazz standard without any modifications, it's probably a 9.5 inch radius neck. You can check on fender's website to get the specs on all of their products. You can also go here: http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup...dius_gauge.pdf and download a pdf that has all of the common radii for necks. Just carefully cut the shape out and use it to check your neck. I'm working on sanding down my neck to put on epoxy and I used this to determine the curvature for my radial sanding block that I'm making.

[JTE]

Yes, it's quite possible that different Fender Jazz basses from different years (and even different models from the same year) have different neck radius measurements.

All Fender solid body instruments had a 7.25" neck radius until about 1983. And anything that's a reproduction of those will also have the same radius (so a brand new VS '62 Jazz will have 7.25" radius).

John