just trying to get an average height for the standoff from the underside of the fingerboard to the body at the neck join. 25mm/inch seems to be the norm i think??!
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Double Bass neck standoff height
- Thread starter pea
- Start date
Jeff Bollbach
Jeff Bollbach Luthier, Inc.
I must have missed this one. Pea, what raised this question for you?
An inch is too low. Many commercial basses[especially plys] are set this low, but it is really not optimal in terms of tone and access to the upper register. When I make a new neck I make the angle of the face of the neck and the bottom of the heel 84 degrees. Then the neck is glued in with a 36-38 mm overstand. This usually results in a bridge of 6 7/8 in.[sorry to mix and match English and Metric] This gives very good access to the thumb position and always yields pleasing results regarding tone.
An inch is too low. Many commercial basses[especially plys] are set this low, but it is really not optimal in terms of tone and access to the upper register. When I make a new neck I make the angle of the face of the neck and the bottom of the heel 84 degrees. Then the neck is glued in with a 36-38 mm overstand. This usually results in a bridge of 6 7/8 in.[sorry to mix and match English and Metric] This gives very good access to the thumb position and always yields pleasing results regarding tone.
Jeff is so right regarding plys. Kays and Engleharts are almost always 1", unless modified.
I recently changed the fingerboard on my Kay and added a long tapered shim between the f/b and neck, resulting in a slightly more acute neck angle, higher overstand (1 3/16"), and thicker neck.
This improved the bass in many ways. The thicker section neck is easier for my adult hands to stretch out on. The tone from the increased string breakover angle was greatly improved, especially with the low tension Velvet strings I've been playing. Better access to thumb position was an unexpected bonus that I really appreciate.
BTW, these changes resulted in a bridge height of 6 1/2", about a 1/2" increase from before.
