3-string bass - neck width suggestions?

[andare]

Chris Ballew played bass with 2 strings on a guitar and he became one of The Presidents of the USA. Just sayin'.

I would go as wide as possible, 19mm spacing at the bridge and fat ass 44mm at the nut.

 

[micguy]

I’d get a narrow necked 5’er, and take off strings 2and4.

 

[Killing Floor]

Dibs! I want one.

 

[coy garcia]

Very cool!!! all this time I've been playing 4's like a sucker.

 

[halcyo]

Jaco needed 4 strings.

Underrated comment lololol

 

[Fender_Bender]

Mark Sandman only needed 2.

Brushy 1 string needs....tadah, one string.

 

[Rick Brienzo]

I have a Three string bass. The neck dimensions are the same as a Fender jazz and I would not change a thing. You end up with a wider string spacing but it makes it fun to play. A small narrow neck would probably make my hand cramp up.

 

[Geogio]

Tony Levin had a 3 string
I think it was a music man.
He did center up the strings.

 

[GeorgesEric]

What are the advantages of a 3-string bass?

 

[JEDI BASS]

I would go with 1.4" nut width, and take off 5/16" to 3/8" at the heel width.

 

[andare]

What are the advantages of a 3-string bass?

I guess it's much harder to overplay and you have to focus on making each note matter.
There's freedom in limitations. Just ask Georges Perec, who wrote a 300-page novel without ever using the letter e (the most frequent letter in French).

 

[el murdoque]

Some stupid 'did not think this through entirely because I lack coffee' maths:

Your typical fat P bass nut is 44mm.
Your typical skinny J bass nut is 38mm.
That means, evenly spread, the P bass string has 11mm
Put on a J bass neck it'd be 12.66mm.
So if you went from 11mm to 12 and took the 2mm that's left you'd have to move the stings to the inside for just a fraction. If you are, as I assume, ditching the G-String, you could go for a more technical approach and measure the string spacing not from center to center but from edge to edge (so you have even gaps between the strings), where the fatter strings factor in more and come up with a spacing that requires about just enough neck to make it work on regular J dimensions.

 

[Reno2]

You don't have to change so many strings. And some of us don't really play all of them most of the time anyway...

 

[Haans]

Some stupid 'did not think this through entirely because I lack coffee' maths:

Your typical fat P bass nut is 44mm.
Your typical skinny J bass nut is 38mm.
That means, evenly spread, the P bass string has 11mm
Put on a J bass neck it'd be 12.66mm.
So if you went from 11mm to 12 and took the 2mm that's left you'd have to move the stings to the inside for just a fraction. If you are, as I assume, ditching the G-String, you could go for a more technical approach and measure the string spacing not from center to center but from edge to edge (so you have even gaps between the strings), where the fatter strings factor in more and come up with a spacing that requires about just enough neck to make it work on regular J dimensions.

Two things to take into consideration:

• String spacing: between strings or center to center
• Distance from string edge to fretboard edge

If I go for the J nut width, I have 38 mm at my disposal. For simplicity, I'll go with center to center spacing. Taking into account the different thickness of the E and D strings, let's go with 2.7 mm edge to center on the E side and 2.3 mm on the D side. That leaves 33 mm for spacing, 11 mm per string, possibly the same spacing as a fat P neck. It also leaves about 1.5 mm from string edge to fretboard edge on both sides using .070-.105 strings.

I'll have to do some finer calculations to get the strings evenly spaced if I want the same spacing between the strings. The above example will result in a slightly bigger spacing between the A and D strings than E and A.

 

[GeorgesEric]

I guess it's much harder to overplay and you have to focus on making each note matter.
There's freedom in limitations. Just ask Georges Perec, who wrote a 300-page novel without ever using the letter e (the most frequent letter in French).

Bravo! He must have been happy guy to reach the end of the novel, crouched on his typewriter and finally typing the 2 words he has been longing for 298 pages… « La fin ».

 

[el murdoque]

Two things to take into consideration:

• String spacing: between strings or center to center
• Distance from string edge to fretboard edge

If I go for the J nut width, I have 38 mm at my disposal. For simplicity, I'll go with center to center spacing. Taking into account the different thickness of the E and D strings, let's go with 2.7 mm edge to center on the E side and 2.3 mm on the D side. That leaves 33 mm for spacing, 11 mm per string, possibly the same spacing as a fat P neck. It also leaves about 1.5 mm from string edge to fretboard edge on both sides using .070-.105 strings.

I'll have to do some finer calculations to get the strings evenly spaced if I want the same spacing between the strings. The above example will result in a slightly bigger spacing between the A and D strings than E and A.

I don't know why exactly you go for a 3 string, but if I went down that route, I'd be fine with a little more space since I'd not use a three string for super technical and fast lines, but rather for either a minimalistic approach where every note counts (even more) or for massive distortion and playing with a hard touch.
I'd probably go for 21mm at the bridge, too. My widest bass has 20mm at the bridge and I quite like that.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Two things to take into consideration:

• String spacing: between strings or center to center
• Distance from string edge to fretboard edge

If I go for the J nut width, I have 38 mm at my disposal. For simplicity, I'll go with center to center spacing. Taking into account the different thickness of the E and D strings, let's go with 2.7 mm edge to center on the E side and 2.3 mm on the D side. That leaves 33 mm for spacing, 11 mm per string, possibly the same spacing as a fat P neck. It also leaves about 1.5 mm from string edge to fretboard edge on both sides using .070-.105 strings.

I'll have to do some finer calculations to get the strings evenly spaced if I want the same spacing between the strings. The above example will result in a slightly bigger spacing between the A and D strings than E and A.

2.5mm (average) from edge to string at the nut is...not much; I don't have any of my guitars - bass or otherwise - handy at the moment, but I'm pretty sure all of them have more than that. Depending on string tension, you could find yourself pulling the outer strings out the board from time to time, when playing mid-neck.
In short, I agree a J neck width is fine (unless you want to experiment with narrower width ergo spacing), plus you may not need/want to go with especially larger spacing than normal just to fill the available space.

 

[JRA]

What are the advantages of a 3-string bass?

cuts down practice time by ~25%.

per the OP: you may be over-thinking a bit. i'm quite sure you (most of us) could get used to playing slightly wider string spacing if we were hell-bent on keeping a particular neck dimension/profile at the same time. there's nothing wrong with having preferences (we've all got 'em!), but playing 3 strings means we're learning a new take on the instrument --- requires a new approach, too! my $0.02.

 

[GeorgesEric]

…especially if it’s one of the middle one (D or A) that’s got to go…

 

[Rick Brienzo]

Playing a three string is a great way to break into new approaches to playing lines. The limitation of missing just one string really forces you to think differently. If you think in box patterns, 3 or even 2 strings gets you moving up and down the fretboard which will help advance your playing.