Most Innovative Luthier

[BlistryFingas]

I've never seen anything like the basses being made at http://littleguitarworks.com/
Fan-fretted basses
A twisted Neck?-- yes!
Headless

[iamlowsound]

There have been a few people around here that have built twisted neck basses. Lots of interesting geometry involved.

lowsound

[BlistryFingas]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

There have been a few people around here that have built twisted neck basses. Lots of interesting geometry involved.

lowsound

I imagine they feel great to play-- especially up by the head where usually your wrist has to sorta' contort. *want*

[suraj]

That is some of the coolest work I have seen. Building a fanned fret myself, I don't buy the ergonomic aspect of it, but a twisted neck seems it would be quite a comfortable modification. Doing both together is entering some seriously complex geometry-land, at least for me

[Matthijs]

Would it not be impossible to make thrusrod adjustable neck this way? So the neck would have to be extremely rigid and aimed at on level of string tension.

[Marty Forrer]

A twisted neck is comfortable because we have all got in the habit of playing with the instrument parallel or nearly so to the floor. A straight neck is perfectly comfortable if the bass is played at around 45 degree angle or so. An extreme of this was Bill Wyman, who went nearly vertical, but many players from 60s bands used to play at a good angle. This has almost disappeared now. I find it very comfy at an angle, but then I play double bass too, so I'm quite accustomed to holding my left arm up and having an imaginary tennisball held between my left elbow and my left side.

[anezthes]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

Would it not be impossible to make thrusrod adjustable neck this way? So the neck would have to be extremely rigid and aimed at on level of string tension.

Do you normally build these with a truss rod, and if so, which way does it move the neck?

Every bass is built with a truss rod; usually one in the center is plenty. It actually works the same as a standard bass, pulling the neck back equally across all strings. It’s reacting to the pull of the strings, which of course are spread equally across the neck. Granted each string has a different tension, but in real life that force averages out pretty equally through the neck. I’ve been told that, due to the twist, even though the actual neck thickness is that of a standard neck, the effective thickness is actually much greater. In addition, the fingerboard is a two-piece laminate. The act of laminating that material under the tension of the twist works to produce a very stiff and stable neck.

Source: http://littleguitarworks.com/torzal-...ked-questions/