Hmmm, does it matter if the rest of the bass is aluminum too?
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Aluminum Neck Club
- Thread starter oZZma
- Start date
How's the build coming?I just bought all the parts to build an aluminum neck bass. I had another bass in mind for awhile, however, after randomly joining an aluminum guitar group on facebook.. I'm nearly $2k into this build. Feels impulsive, a bit impulsive..
I haven't played any bass with a polished neck, but from what I've read they tend to be more sticky with sweat etc.
Tonally they're totally different because of the pickups (humbuckers on the 500) and I have them tuned differently, but I will say the all-alu is much more resonant and weighs a lot more.
In retrospect, I would've chosen splittable humbackers or even single coils for the 500.
I don’t have any firsthand experience playing polished aluminum necks but I’m sure it could be compared to high gloss poly vs satin finish on normal necks.
My neck is clear anodized and the feel is silky smooth, not at all unlike the “finish” on my MacBook, to be honest. I LIKE IT.
My neck is clear anodized and the feel is silky smooth, not at all unlike the “finish” on my MacBook, to be honest. I LIKE IT.
did anybody else see EGC's instagram post earlier today? methinks bolt on bass necks are on the way 
I don’t suppose any of you aluminum neck dudes are located in the Colorado front range area? I’d love to try one - I am giving some serious thought to converting my T-40 to an EGC neck, but $800 and a three month wait is a bit much to try sight unseen.
Are you on Facebook? Check out the Aluminium Axes group, you’d probably have tons of luck finding someone close to you on there.
I’m fully Mid-Atlantic east coast, so can’t help you myself. I’ve read that most of EGC’s bolt on necks are “Fender-esque” in form and feel. Imagining that the T-40 necks would be somewhere along those lines as well.
Cool thing is that even if you were to buy one sight unseen and didn’t gel with it, you could easily sell it for the same amount you paid. They flip quick!
Yeah I might have to have my wife check for me there (I'm not on Facebook) but that's a good idea! I imagine there's got to be a couple people around here with one - there's a pretty healthy rock/metal/hardcore scene here so the demographic is certainly around for it.
Mostly what I really want to see is just how much neck relief the EGC necks have, and whether it's functionally a problem in use. I've heard that dimensionally they run pretty flat in terms of relief, and while I don't mind some buzz in the tone (especially acoustically which doesn't really translate through the amp that much), I've heard a couple snippets of EGC basses that sounded almost a bit choked in places. I read elsewhere that they do a neck relief of 0.005", which probably works great for a guitar, but for a bass is pretty darn minimal IMO. It seems like you'd be stuck with high bridge saddle as your only option to beat that, which then probably leads to higher action than I want.
I do like the clangy, string buzzy, aggressive thing - but I want that to be an option, not the only option.
It’d be worth it to make a throwaway FB just for the wealth of aluminum instrument knowledge in the group, IMO.
Here’s a snippet:
I will say that if rattles and buzzes aren’t your jam, then you may not find even an EGC neck to be to your liking, especially unamplified, though having an onboard tone knob + EQ adjustment on the amp’s end could smooth things out.
Part of the personal joy I derive from my Obstructures is its quirky nature and inherently unique tonal character. Some beasts aren’t meant to be tamed. I know this probably doesn’t make full sense without context but all of the low action “noise” sounds simply divine when amplified.
been thinking lately of converting my jazz egc into a pj. also, I picked up.an electrofoods pig pile and it is glorious.
