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Fretted Bass with no radius

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DanSwain

Apr 24, 2007
408
7
Vermont, USA
sarawhitehairband.com
#1
Dear all,

I'm slowly gathering some ideas together to have a go at a little project to make an Electric Bass to fill the time between now and when I get to move to America, which is a couple of months away.

I've been following the threads on this forum, and had a look at a few Luthier sites, but I can't make my mind up, or find a common answer to this question:

Is it OK to make a fretted Bass with no radius?

This is the first time I've ventured into the world of instrument making (only having done some of Bill Fitzmaurice's speaker designs so far), so I don't want to make things too complicated for myself this time around.

Are there any good examples of commercial Basses that don't have curved face necks?

I'm a bit of a 6-string addict, so I'm going to have a go at making one of those :)

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

Kind regards,

Dan
 
#2
It is definitely OK to do so, and I have seen a few around here. Wilser does it, IIRC. As far as I know, all (or at least most) classical guitars have no radius.

I would think it would promote "proper" fretting hand technique, i.e. not wrapping your hand around the neck, but rather placing your thumb against the back of the neck. It would make chords more difficult, but this isn't as common a technique on bass obviously.

I wouldn't personally do it, because I do actually play barre chords on bass, but if you don't, I don't see any reason for it to be a bad idea.
 
#6
Brilliant - thanks for the responses!

I do play chords now and again, and I definitely see the benefit of it improving the left (or right in my case, another lefty here!) hand technique. I think I'm going to go with the flat option then!

I know this next question is dependant on the woods being used, but for a 6 string Bass, how thin should the neck be made? I don't want to take too much off, but then again I don't really want to have a thick neck either. I've got an instrument here that someone made for me, and they had to use 2 truss rods, and the neck is very thick!

I've noticed the regular use of graphite rods epoxied into the neck by luthiers on here, so I imagine this helps, and also to require only one truss rod, reducing weight and balance issues I'd guess!

Once again, thanks for the help so far!

Dan
 
#11
wdinc01 said:
Sorry to hi-jack this thread, but I had a quick question. Would a flat radius be more ideal for tapping? I think I read something along those lines while reading about the Chapman stick, and wasn't sure if it's true or not.
Click to expand...

The only benefit I have ever known about, other than personal preference for the feel, is that bending will be more consistent. I don't think that is as much of an issue on bass as it is with guitars.
 
#12
Interesting stuff!

I sent an email to ToneTech supplies a couple of days ago asking about what neck blanks they could suggest for my 6-string Bass, but I've not received a reply yet. I don't really want to go down the route of making my own neck blank for now as I don't have the tools to make it 'perfect' :)

I am looking forward to the prospect of carving the neck out though, and digging around for any hardwoods my parents may have accumulated over the years!

I'm still toying with the idea of the graphite rods, because depending on what I manage to get done I might take it to America with me, and I'm slightly wary of the differences in climate making the neck turn into something resembling a helter-skelter :)
 
#13
Sorry to bump my own thread, but I wondered if anyone had any knowledge about finding a supplier of neck blanks in the UK. Seeing as I'm going to do a neck-through design, is there anyone out there that does a piece 48" long?

ToneTech supplies only appear to do 34" blanks for bolt-on necks, and I don't trust myself enough to do one of those yet! :)

Thanks in advance!
 
#17
We build our guitars (see sig) with a flat radius. So far we've had no complaints, and only one demand (from a store) that we do a model with a radius (to be sold exclusively by them). Maybe it'S just me, but I've never much felt a difference in radii... or perhaps rather, I just didn't find it an issue... although my guitars all have flatter radii, but I think it might be coincidence.
 
#18
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Greg Curbow build basses with a flat radius? I owned one of his XT-33 basses about 10 years ago and loved how it played. I wasn't up on what radius meant back then, but I have since heard that they were flat.
 
#19
Thanks very much for the help Alan, I'll be sure to get in touch with him!

Will, if that's the case, this may be the first of many!

I don't particularly want to copy the design, but I like the dimensions I've seen of the F-Bass BN6 that Alain Caron uses. Does anyone have any knowledge on the neck width that Bass has? It looks quite chunky, but really accessible.
 

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