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Aluminum Neck Club

Been dialing in some next level crazy tones with this aluminum beast—
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Aluminum neck!!?? Never heard of such a thing.

Learn something new everyday.

Takes on a new meaning to the term "baseball bat neck".

I assume Cricket bat necks would be more preferable, but I don't believe Cricketeers ever use aluminum. :D

Actually they’re not that much heavier than a normal neck, at least in EGC basses. They’re hollow with thin walls and since aluminum is much stronger than wood they’re able to make the neck profiles really thin, plus the headstock is fairly minimal on most of them.

They’re a little heavier to be certain, but not by a massive amount.
 
Travis Bean, Kramer and Electrical Guitar Company owners and lovers unite!! I see there are many on TB but I can't find a "club" in the search so I created It! :) Welcome everybody! If you want to join and be listed just state the aluminum neck bass you own! ;)
Photos are very welcome too! :)



I'd like to start the discussion asking you: what kind of strings do you use on your aluminum neck bass? I think the choice may affect significantly the "voice" of any instrument and more significantly on these ones which are really unforgiving ones!
I currently use Daddario ProSteels (heavy gauge), I loved their sound on my previous bass (Fender Jaguar) but I'm a newbie to aluminum necks and looking for more options and suggestions!


--- the club! ---

1. Bob_Ross (lusting for) Travis Bean TB-2000 :D
2. GIBrat51 ('78 Kramer 450B and '81 Kramer Duke Special
3. oZZma ('83 Kramer Stagemaster)
4. A9X (Kramer DMZ5000)
5. mikewalker ('81 Kramer Vanguard, Vaccaro X-Ray, '02 Hartke HK-4, Hartke XL-4 Prototype #46)
6. cdwthunderfoot (EGC guitar+bass - coming soon!)
7. cataract (Obstructures prototype - coming soon!)
8. Jeff Scott ('76 Kramer 350B, sold)
9. Todd Hamby (Kramer 650B, Kramer 450B)
10. Boot Soul (Travis Bean TB2000)
11. hbarcat (Hartke - coming soon!)
12. saltymonkey (Travis Bean TB2000)
13. singlemalt ('76 Kramer 450B)
14. slantedpanted (Kramer)
15. Phud (Kramer 450B)
16. saddleslab (Travis Bean TB2000)
17. Brent Mingle Vaccaro x-ray, Hartke XK-4, Vaccaro x-Ray 5
 
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.. :woot:
Sweet. Which neck did you end up deciding on?
Or if you’d rather keep it a surprise for the NBD photos, that works too!
 
Here is my Aluminum Neck Bass #5... Kramer The Duke (1984).
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This is an awesome little bass - nicely replaced last year's custom ordered Status Streamline ( which I was unable to bond with ) as my main "ultra-bright-roundwounds-recording-bass" and will do double duty as my backup gigging bass. ( main gigging bass is the Kramer Vanguard, equipped with GHS balanced nickels)

I am going to pull the original pickup out of here and replace it with a custom double-J fabricated out of a couple of Bartolini humbucking J pups. And add in a StellarTone Bass 6 tonestyler control (yeah, its gonna be a tight fit!!). Nothing wrong with the original pickups, I'm just making a wholesale change to put Bartolinis in ALL of my passive basses (the Vanguard will be getting a Bartolini transplant very soon!) It's mostly just a cosmetic thing, but I do like the Bart sound as well...