Allparts 3-bolt Jazz body on the way, neck options question

RBrownBass · #1 02-21-2013, 06:51 PM

I just bought an unfinished Allparts ash 3-bolt 70s spaced Jazz body. Now I'm looking into bound/blocked necks, and I have some options I'd like you all to help me weigh.

I plan to buy a blocked/bound neck for the body, so my eBay options are:

1. Fender MIM 70s RI blocked/bound Jazz neck, rosewood/pearl

2. Fender MIM 70s RI blocked/bound Precision neck, maple/black- since it's a Fender, I'd replace the decal with a Fender Jazz decal.

3. Allparts blocked/bound J neck, either rosewood/pearl or maple/pearl

4. Warmoth blocked/bound J neck

1 and 2 have the bullet truss at the headstock (1975-83 or whenever), 3 has the truss adjust at the heel (pre-1975 or so)

Options 1 and 2 pros- if I can get a professional to rout the neck for 3-bolt hardware (and maybe expand the neck pocket sides to fit- I don't know for sure about that), the bass will look proper in front and back and will have the Fender logo on the neck. I do NOT want to turn the bass over and see four bolts when there's a bullet truss at the headstock. I passed on the MIM 70s bass as a whole instrument because of the four-bolt neck and bullet truss combo (that never happened in any measurable numbers) and passed on the MIJ '75RI because of the 60s spacing and bullet truss combo (that never happened, either). Cons- overly white binding on the MIM necks but I think I can fix that.

Option 3 pros- Since both the body and neck are from Allparts, I expect the neck to drop right in. I could dowel the holes in the body and redrill for a four-bolt with no problems. Additionally, I'd finish clear and the dowels would show, pretty much giving my body at least the appearance of a Fender that's had the neck replaced. Also, it's about $75 less than the Fender. Cons- no Fender logo. I'm not about to put a Fender decal on an Allparts neck and I think humorous text (like "Fonder" or "Fendre" or "Tender" or "Fender Jass Bazz") is cheesy. So going with an Allparts neck would likely mean a blank headstock.

My luthier forum questions are as follows:

1) What would be the going rate for having a luthier convert the MIM neck into a three-bolt?

2) Should I expect the Allparts pocket to be smaller, larger or the same as an MIM Fender? I've read that they are a tiny bit smaller than some other pockets.

My Basses forum questions are:

1) Are there any deficiencies in the MIM necks that would make converting the body a waste of time down the road?

cstar · #2 02-22-2013, 10:35 AM

From experience, I can tell you that AllParts bass necks do have a slighlty smaller heel than other Fender bass necks. I had an AllParts jazz bass neck on a mighty mite body and there was maybe a 16th of an inch of play in the neck pocket fit.

Also, I found the truss rod on the AllParts neck to be a bit weak. I was using 50-105 rounds regularly, which aren't particularly heavy, and the neck just wouldn't hold up. I had to constantly tweak it to keep low action. Not an issue if you don't mind the tweaking, but it bothered me after a while.

I replaced my AllParts with a Warmoth neck, and I will never buy a neck from someone else ever again. This thing is solid as could be. I have 55-110 rounds on my bass now in standard tuning and the neck hasn't moved a bit since I set up a month ago.

However, the Warmoth neck is heavier than the AllParts neck by a substantial amount. I never weighed them but I could tell the difference. I attribute that to the additional steel stiffening rods in the Warmoth neck.

Also, there is no guarantee that the AllParts neck will be a tighter fit with your body. MIM necks are decent quality, but for the price being not that far off from a Warmoth neck, I would personally go for the Warmoth neck. Especially if you're picky about fret size and those kinds of details. If you had to, you could rout or have someone rout the AllParts neck pocket out a hair to accommodate the Warmoth neck, if that's even necessary. That would be better to me than a sloppy neck pocket fit.

I will say that the Warmoth neck fits my Mighty Mite jazz body a lot better than the AllParts one did. Nice and tight! Just a tiny gap to one side, which leads me to believe that the MM pocket is too big and that the Warmoth neck is probably as close to Fender as it gets

That is my $.02

RBrownBass · #3 02-22-2013, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cstar

From experience, I can tell you that AllParts bass necks do have a slighlty smaller heel than other Fender bass necks. I had an AllParts jazz bass neck on a mighty mite body and there was maybe a 16th of an inch of play in the neck pocket fit.

Also, I found the truss rod on the AllParts neck to be a bit weak. I was using 50-105 rounds regularly, which aren't particularly heavy, and the neck just wouldn't hold up. I had to constantly tweak it to keep low action. Not an issue if you don't mind the tweaking, but it bothered me after a while.

I replaced my AllParts with a Warmoth neck, and I will never buy a neck from someone else ever again. This thing is solid as could be. I have 55-110 rounds on my bass now in standard tuning and the neck hasn't moved a bit since I set up a month ago.

However, the Warmoth neck is heavier than the AllParts neck by a substantial amount. I never weighed them but I could tell the difference. I attribute that to the additional steel stiffening rods in the Warmoth neck.

Also, there is no guarantee that the AllParts neck will be a tighter fit with your body. MIM necks are decent quality, but for the price being not that far off from a Warmoth neck, I would personally go for the Warmoth neck. Especially if you're picky about fret size and those kinds of details. If you had to, you could rout or have someone rout the AllParts neck pocket out a hair to accommodate the Warmoth neck, if that's even necessary. That would be better to me than a sloppy neck pocket fit.

I will say that the Warmoth neck fits my Mighty Mite jazz body a lot better than the AllParts one did. Nice and tight! Just a tiny gap to one side, which leads me to believe that the MM pocket is too big and that the Warmoth neck is probably as close to Fender as it gets

That is my $.02

Man, thanks so much for your reply.

I think I've ruled out Warmoth because the Allparts body is 4 pounds, 3 ounces. I can't afford the cost of graphite rods and Ultralite tuners don't have the look I'm going for- I'll be using either the Geddy-style ('68-'75 or so Fender but without the "Fender" stamp) tuners or the newer stamped ones with the shorter key shaft.

I've owned several Allparts necks and while I never ended up using the ones that came unfinished, the finished bound/blocked necks --I've owned five-- were wonderful. Far better, in fact, than the neck on my MIA Jazzes (long ago sold off. one from the late 70s, bought when I didn't know anything about dating a bass. I think now that it was a late 70s, given the bullet truss and heavy ash body long sold).

That said, I'm leaning toward the MIM neck because of the logo. I've had a few MIM basses and while they weren't of the fit and finish of the newer MIA basses, they were solid and gave me no trouble.

I'd have just bought a Geddy and refinished the body if the neck weren't so thin. I've played some of those and liked them enough soundwise, but I can't get used to the neck.

RBrownBass · #4 03-09-2013, 10:27 AM

So I bought the rosewood/pearloid MIM neck. It's here, with the body. I also found someone in ATL to install the neck properly- that'll happen in a couple weeks. Then a decision about body finish. I'll probably remove the bullet truss and sand the face of the headstock so I can replace the janky stock decal (the serial number should be on the front under the word "Fender" but it isn't- it's on the back) with a late 60s/mid 70s version which never had the serial on the front. Then I'll shoot the face with nitro. The serial number and country of manufacture will be left intact on the back of the headstock. I'll choose electronics (prolly passive v/v/t, so the only real decision will be pups) later.