$30 unbranded bass necks from eBay?

[jaybones]

I am noticing a RED star on the seller's rating...

Well, China is still using the red star of communism aren't they?

And for $30 what's the risk?

I bought a Stratocaster unbranded neck from a similar California distributor of Chinese made Canadian maple necks for $50 total. Was pleasantly surprised that the fret ends were smooth, frets dressed and well seated. Screwed the neck to my body, strung it, tuned it and didn't even need to adjust the truss rod.

 

[mbelue]

I used a cheap neck like that on my 100$ bass challenge bass, it holds up to a .120 .90 .65 .45 set tuned E standard just fine no problems and it's fairly stable I haven't touched the truss rod since initial setup, which required a fair amount of force given the massive string tension.

Holy string tension Batman!

I nearly ruined my starter bass with .115 in D. I love high tension and can only imagine that sounds great but wow.

 

[Will_White]

Holy string tension Batman!

I nearly ruined my starter bass with .115 in D. I love high tension and can only imagine that sounds great but wow.

What was the bass? .115 tuned to D is less tension then a standard .105 tuned to E. My main bass has a balanced set of chromes with a .110 E and my second main has a balanced set of NEONs with a .125 D / C.

 

[mbelue]

What was the bass? .115 tuned to D is less tension then a standard .105 tuned to E. My main bass has a balanced set of chromes with a .110 E and my second main has a balanced set of NEONs with a .125 D / C.

Samick artist series. Pencil thin Ibanez style 24fret neck. I originally moved to .115 when i joined a band that tuned drop C, on the suggestion of my tech. Later went to a new band that played in Standard and Drop D. Same tech begged me to go to at least .110 or .105 at next visit. Said something about irreversible curvature (which now sounds like a maxed truss rod.) This was about 15 years ago so his wording could have been substantially different.

 

[Will_White]

Samick artist series. Pencil thin Ibanez style 24fret neck. I originally moved to .115 when i joined a band that tuned drop C, on the suggestion of my tech. Later went to a new band that played in Standard and Drop D. Same tech begged me to go to at least .110 or .105 at next visit. Said something about irreversible curvature (which now sounds like a maxed truss rod.) This was about 15 years ago so his wording could have been substantially different.

hmm, my main used to be a samick corsair PJ, its actually the one in my avatar, it usually wears the same strings as on my main but its currently sans strings and awaiting a new pickguard.

Added- I'm assuming the .115 was round wound, if so it should of been pretty similar tension to a flatwound .110 even tuned up to E.

 

[RobinC]

Just stopping by to report that the neck arrived in today's mail, a full 5 days ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, that is all I have to report as I am out of town until the 23rd. Looking forward to an unboxing when I get home!

 

[FlaCharlie]

Well... I may have done something stupid on ebay myself. Take a look at this, a P-bass for $68:
New Brand Yellow 4-String Jazz Electric Bass Guitar

"A perfect instrument for emitting wonderful bass effect," it says. Even if the wood is paulownia ("cheaper, stronger than balsa wood") and the brand name leaves something to be desired (ISIN? Islamic State in... Nebraska?), how can I resist? Surely I won't regret this impulse purchase, will I?

Just curious . . . what's it like? Playable or firewood? With free shipping it's about $100 LESS than an SX.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

What say you? Part of me thinks "for $30, why the hell not". The other part of me thinks, "for $30, this can't possibly be good".

Fully Finished Bass Maple Neck 21 Fret Rosewood Fingerboard for JAZZ E3B3

Anyone had experience with these?

Greetings All,

Decided I wanted to screw around with a fretless. Like Thunderbirds but they don't offer a fretless. Was originally going to make an Entwistle, FenderBird as an Epi Thunderbird already comes with a bolt on neck. On top of that this was more of a whim just to see if I liked playing one.

Bought a neck off EBay, an Eden!?! Less than $70.00 to my door, fretless paddle neck with probably an ebanol fretboard. There is a truss rod.

Once I had it mocked up, decided just to make it look stock rather than a FenderBird, though there is no tilt back on the headstock. Copied the T-Bird headstock, traced and transferred to the paddle neck and cut and fitted.

Spent more time matching the finish. ONLY time I have ever finished a light wood and could not get it dark enough initially, eventually got it right. If you're just going to tint it you'll most likely be fine.

Quite happy with mine. The neck did come with a clear finish/sealer of some kind.

Not sure what model you plan to put this on or purchase, but I had to shim mine as the Epi's heal was considerable thicker and was angled. I ended up using a piece of brass as a shim plate that I machined an angle into to mimic the original.

Honestly thought the process would be done on the weekend, but had a few more details to sort out when I copied the headstock as I had to put a bevel on it, change the nut over to brass and tweak the finish.

Overall, good times, highly recommend it.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

Well they have a complete bass build kit for $72.....never seen a total kit for that cheap. Ive learned to stay away from that cheap stuff. I end up dumping a ton of time into a project and spend that never feels that great to me

here is that kit

JAZZ Bass Electric Guitar DIY Kit Basswood Body Maple Neck High Quality TZ4I

Greetings All,

Have played around with this stuff. The general rule is the wood is good they tend to get a lot of die cast hardware and obviously those pickups aren't going to be anything to write home about. Since they are sold as a kit you are stuck with pickups and hardware, but they can be changed out.

Highly recommend for do it yourselfers, otherwise you'll probably end up selling the kit a year later with missing parts that have gone lost.

 

[NigelD]

Here is my FrankenP with eBay neck.

 

[GIBrat51]

What say you? Part of me thinks "for $30, why the hell not". The other part of me thinks, "for $30, this can't possibly be good".

Fully Finished Bass Maple Neck 21 Fret Rosewood Fingerboard for JAZZ E3B3

Anyone had experience with these?

I haven't; but a friend of mine (who likes to build... um, inexpensive... basses and guitars, has. From what he tells me, it's possible to get one that fits what it's supposed to - but don't hold your breath. They seem to be essentially factory rejects, due mainly to heel size flaws. Several of the ones he's bought would work just fine - if you're cutting the neck pocket to match. He's gotten "Fender" necks with the heel too wide; too narrow; too short... well, you get the idea. They can be a good deal - if you're willing to take the chance...

 

[RobinC]

Time for a long overdue update!

The neck arrived well-packed and without incident. It appears to be strait and true, with an operable truss rod. The frets were actually pretty well dressed, though a little extra attention there would certainly go a long way. The tuner holes were pretty rough internally so I got in there with a little sand paper to smooth things out before installing a set of hipshot ultralites and d-tuner. The nut was pretty high and had a really odd shape to the bottom, so I popped that out (easily done- it wasn't glued) and sanded it down a bit. Still needs more work to get it right where I like it. The seam between the fretboard and the heel had some buildup of glue or filler (see first pic) but that was easy to scrape out.

The neck pocket was not a perfect fit in the squier P/J body I'm using for this build, the neck heel being a little narrower, but I was able to line things up and get it drilled. You can't see the gap on the end due to the 22nd fret overhang. You will be able to see a slight gap on one side of the neck between the heel and the body, but not unless you are up close and looking for it. It didn't concern me in terms of structural integrity.

One thing to note: the neck is ever so slightly longer than a 34" scale. Putting it side by side with a Fender neck, you can see that the no-name runs a little longer overall, with a slightly larger spacing between frets. I strung it up briefly to see how it felt, and I didn't notice any glaring intonation issues but I'll need to do a full setup before I can really say one way or the other. Finish-wise, it was rubbed down with some kind of very light satin oil. Not a bad feel in the hand, and I like the dimensions- feels a little thinner than my MIA Jazz.

My overall takeaway is that this neck is no replacement for a high quality neck, but it is more than good enough for this parts build and with some tweaks I think it could turn out to be quite nice. I'm excited to get the project finished but unfortunately that is going to have to wait as I'm working on my master's and spring quarter has started up. I'll put up images of the final product when it all gets done, but in the mean time here are some pictures of the neck right before I installed it.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

Looks like some very dodgy fretwork in the close-up shot.

Fretwork can't be dodgy if it doesn't exist....

 

[phillybass101]

I bought a $39 SX Fretless Neck and it's great and really sings.