Twisted neck - sound issue

[aqualan]

Hello!

I just recently bought a rather old vintage bass guitar and loving it. But I have a question regarding the neck. I recognized after the purchase that the neck is twisted. Looking from the headstock down the neck you see that the neck is twisted, in other words, the height between the e-string and the neck is increasing as you move from the headstock towards the bridge. After having played it some time, I recognized as well that the sound on the e-string changes after the 5th fret ->. The sound becomes more muddy, but not buzzy. For example, the C-tone on the E-string and A-string sound different.

Could there be a correlation between the sound of the e-string and the twisted neck? Or it is a matter of worn down frets? What do you think?

[Connor]

it sounds like a neck problem. and a job for the truss rod.

[202dy]

Originally Posted by aqualan

Hello!

I just recently bought a rather old vintage bass guitar and loving it. But I have a question regarding the neck. I recognized after the purchase that the neck is twisted. Looking from the headstock down the neck you see that the neck is twisted, in other words, the height between the e-string and the neck is increasing as you move from the headstock towards the bridge. After having played it some time, I recognized as well that the sound on the e-string changes after the 5th fret ->. The sound becomes more muddy, but not buzzy. For example, the C-tone on the E-string and A-string sound different.

Could there be a correlation between the sound of the e-string and the twisted neck? Or it is a matter of worn down frets? What do you think?

What you are describing is not a twist in the neck. If the frets are parallel to one another when sighting from the headstock to the bridge then the neck is normal. The bass may require a setup.

As far as the timbre of the strings goes, what you describe is normal. Compare the tone of the E string C at the eighth fret and the A string C at the third fret. They will be different. That is the nature of the beast. If it is more pronounced than what you are used to chalk it up to the differences in individual instruments.