'71 P Bass Neck: Replace fingerboard, frets, truss?

[unbasslichkeit]

I'll post pix of this as soon as I can, meanwhile please to bear with my poor descriptions.

The neck is a rosewood board '71 Precision Bass neck. When I got the bass it was on in 1987 the truss was almost all the way out. In trying to tighten it, the truss broke off at the inner nut. I basically got a new neck for the bass and kept it around as junk, tore the first fret out to get to the truss nut. In later years I basically butchered it, but hey - this was 1987and 70s fenders were still relativly affordable.

The neck has been hanging on my wall for a long time and now I wonder if its worth the trouble & expense to have it planed and have a new fingerboard and truss installed. Bear in mind that its a tapered veneered fingerboard.

The butchers on eBay have sold necks like these for some good change so they must be of some value.

Opinions, w/o the benefit of pictures for now?

[Bass Kahuna]

I have a `71 P that I absolutely love!

You say you tore out the first fret.... my `71 has the nut at the heel of the neck, so if the nut on yours is at the headstock I would be suspect of it being a real `71 neck? Maybe I'm missing something.

The rosewood boards on that era of bass were the thin "veneer" style, where the neck blank was cut with the radius, and then back of the fingerboard was cut in a concave radius to match and glued on that way. So to remove the fingerboard and replace the truss rod would require removing the fingerboard which is no biggie, but cutting the necessary radius in the back of a new fingerboard would require a bit of finess. I've done repairs to fingerboards like this where you simply replace a sectino of the fingerboard, but yes, to replace the truss rod you're going to have to pull the whole fingerboard off.

Have you given any though to trying the new truss rod rescue kit from StewMac? You could then simply replace the damaged section of the fingerboard and go from theire. Dan Erlewine just sent out an email showing a repair he did to a section of the fingerboard on an old Fender like this. I could forward it to you if you like. It might work for you on this neck, although it is hard to say without seeing it.

Other things to note of the `71... unless my memory is wrong, this is part of the era where Fender was pushing the frets in from the side.

[unbasslichkeit]

Originally Posted by Bass Kahuna

I have a `71 P that I absolutely love!

You say you tore out the first fret.... my `71 has the nut at the heel of the neck, so if the nut on yours is at the headstock I would be suspect of it being a real `71 neck? Maybe I'm missing something.

I meant the "nut" (or threaded connector) that held the truss in at the headstock. No skunk stripe, so no way to get to it short of stripping off the fingerboard at the first fret.

Originally Posted by Bass Kahuna

So to remove the fingerboard and replace the truss rod would require removing the fingerboard which is no biggie, but cutting the necessary radius in the back of a new fingerboard would require a bit of finess. I've done repairs to fingerboards like this where you simply replace a sectino of the fingerboard, but yes, to replace the truss rod you're going to have to pull the whole fingerboard off.

Would it be practical to just plane the whole neck flat and install a new (flat bottom) fingerboard? Or would that compromise the integrity of the neck too much?

Gotta get those pix...gawd, I need a secretary.