Am I crazy for wanting to make a neck thinner?

[Yellow Bang66]

For starters, I’m a fairly advanced woodworker.

Secondly, I’ve posted in another thread about just buying a replacement neck that meets my needs.

But I got to thinking...just traded for a Fender JMJ SS bass and am really digging it so far. However, I have small hands for a dude and the neck is a bit on the chunky side. This is also going to be a bass one of my daughters, learns on. So, I’m considering a diy neck adjustment to remove some wood from the back.

Am I crazy for having this idea?

I believe I ruined my OG FJBS' neck, it was an Ebay Find I was gonna resore/rebuild, I had plans to upgrade & mod the bejesus out of it, I appeared in rough shape in the supplied Pics. Upon delivery I t was in rougher shape than I thought, badly chipped & dinged all over, the body was gonna need to be refinished, the nech was stable& straight,but had several dings, and stand bruises on the back. Nothing Major,but enough to be a concerned.

So since I was gonna have to refinish the body I decided to give the neck a shot at restoration,with if it was too bad I would replace with a warmoth,in my back pocket. after about a week of trial & error resusitation(steaming,patching & sanding) nothing seemed like it was gonna work well enough, so I decided to reshape the neck to a thinner, flatter profile.

I finally got it to where most of the scratches, dents & dings where almost undectible. I got it pretty flat & thin!I t felt Awesome in hand! I toyedwith trying to get it perfect, just alittle thinner! that was my down fall! I was aware of how much I was removing but I just couldnt resist, getting it Perfect!I got it to where it was just Right. I was done.However I had enough of the body done to try a dry fit& trial run all was well until I plugged it in! It was noticibly thinner sounding, higher pitched,with more nasally tone! It had lost it's gutteral,girth,and low endgrowl! I was devasted!
What Have I done! I told myself over & over,but all was not lost. I figured it would be a risky adventure, so I set aside some $$ for a Warmoth Replacement! I quickly got online onto their website, An "cookedup" my new neck. A reverse Tele bass, Wenge neck with an Ebony fret board and abalone dots,since the refin was a darkteal green, more like metallic sherwood green. now I Would just have to wait 4-5 weeks for delivery.
It was totally worth it! I love, Love, Love warmoth products! It more than restored the beefy Tone I sanded away! I came to the conclusion That most of an instuments tone comes from the neck, not body.I only patched & painted the body,But completely restructured the neck.
in the weeks it took the replacement to deliver tried to get the ogs tone back,but to no avail. the mojo was gone. So be careful when reshaping( thinning down) a neck. You might lose some "magic",or be prepared tospend some $$ on a replacement! GL

 

[Engle]

Thanks everyone. I think I’ll hold off for now, play it as is for a while and decide later. Maybe shop for an after market neck or one off a Squier Mustang to try on it. I can play it fine as is, it’s more of a preference thing for me. My bigger concern is how my daughter will adjust to it.

The Bronco suggestion is really good too, for her.

I’ve shaved down necks many times and cut down a P width to J width.
On the other hand, I tend to get used to whatever I’m playing. As long as the action is reasonable your daughter will probably be fine. My daughter plays upright, so I’ve had to raise the action on her electric!

 

[Beej]

I believe I ruined my OG FJBS' neck, it was an Ebay Find I was gonna resore/rebuild, I had plans to upgrade & mod the bejesus out of it, I appeared in rough shape in the supplied Pics. Upon delivery I t was in rougher shape than I thought, badly chipped & dinged all over, the body was gonna need to be refinished, the nech was stable& straight,but had several dings, and stand bruises on the back. Nothing Major,but enough to be a concerned.

So since I was gonna have to refinish the body I decided to give the neck a shot at restoration,with if it was too bad I would replace with a warmoth,in my back pocket. after about a week of trial & error resusitation(steaming,patching & sanding) nothing seemed like it was gonna work well enough, so I decided to reshape the neck to a thinner, flatter profile.

I finally got it to where most of the scratches, dents & dings where almost undectible. I got it pretty flat & thin!I t felt Awesome in hand! I toyedwith trying to get it perfect, just alittle thinner! that was my down fall! I was aware of how much I was removing but I just couldnt resist, getting it Perfect!I got it to where it was just Right. I was done.However I had enough of the body done to try a dry fit& trial run all was well until I plugged it in! It was noticibly thinner sounding, higher pitched,with more nasally tone! It had lost it's gutteral,girth,and low endgrowl! I was devasted!
What Have I done! I told myself over & over,but all was not lost. I figured it would be a risky adventure, so I set aside some $$ for a Warmoth Replacement! I quickly got online onto their website, An "cookedup" my new neck. A reverse Tele bass, Wenge neck with an Ebony fret board and abalone dots,since the refin was a darkteal green, more like metallic sherwood green. now I Would just have to wait 4-5 weeks for delivery.
It was totally worth it! I love, Love, Love warmoth products! It more than restored the beefy Tone I sanded away! I came to the conclusion That most of an instuments tone comes from the neck, not body.I only patched & painted the body,But completely restructured the neck.
in the weeks it took the replacement to deliver tried to get the ogs tone back,but to no avail. the mojo was gone. So be careful when reshaping( thinning down) a neck. You might lose some "magic",or be prepared tospend some $$ on a replacement! GL

Don't mean to be contrarian, but I've reshaped many necks, and have built lots of necks as well in a variety of sizes, shapes, materials and designs, including as replacement necks. I suspect that what you lost through your process was unrelated or only partially related to the reshaping of your neck, but instead was from a combination of factors. No idea what it was, but it does not jive with my experience that your tone would change so significantly.

 

[Bassamatic]

I would sell it and just buy a Mustang P/J. The neck is nice and thin and very comfortable. The bass is also really well made and sounds great.

The only thing better is the Squier Jaguar Short Scale, if you can find one used. These are simply the best bargain in shorties ever made and were so good that Fender had to discontinue them.

 

[baileyboy]

Since you've got the woodworking skills, why not give it a try? Sounds like a great idea to me.

 

[Watchootognbout]

For starters, I’m a fairly advanced woodworker.

Secondly, I’ve posted in another thread about just buying a replacement neck that meets my needs.

But I got to thinking...just traded for a Fender JMJ SS bass and am really digging it so far. However, I have small hands for a dude and the neck is a bit on the chunky side. This is also going to be a bass one of my daughters, learns on. So, I’m considering a diy neck adjustment to remove some wood from the back.

Am I crazy for having this idea?

That's a lot of trial and error.
Why go through the trouble?
Go find a bass that's just right.
Then sell the one you are playing now.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

For starters, I’m a fairly advanced woodworker.

Secondly, I’ve posted in another thread about just buying a replacement neck that meets my needs.

But I got to thinking...just traded for a Fender JMJ SS bass and am really digging it so far. However, I have small hands for a dude and the neck is a bit on the chunky side. This is also going to be a bass one of my daughters, learns on. So, I’m considering a diy neck adjustment to remove some wood from the back.

Am I crazy for having this idea?

Getty Lee played with just such a bass for years. Then, when he wore it out, he got a neck with a little thicker neck so he wouldn't wear it out. I would suggest seeing if you can get the specs on the Fender "60's slim C-shape neck with 7.25" radius". That was the neck on the 1965 Jazz that I bought in 1966 and was stolen in 1976. Among other things I toured for 3 years with that bass playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year. Got to know that neck real well.

After it was stolen, it took me just shy of 10-years to find another MIA Fender Jazz with the same neck shape, profile, and radius. That the '82 MIA passive Jazz I bought in 1985 and have been playing ever since. Every other neck Fender has made has always felt chunky to me. My first neck with those dimensions had no trouble at all within the 10-years I had it. And, my '82 that I've been playing for the last 36-years has had no problems either.

Not sure I would just arbitrarily start shaving the wood off the back of it though. I'd be sure I had the specs and the ability to modify the existing neck to those specs. Otherwise you'd be opening yourself up for all kinds of problems with stress and torque and possibly a very short lived neck.

 

[OogieWaWa]

Yes.

 

[Ric5]

For starters, I’m a fairly advanced woodworker.

Secondly, I’ve posted in another thread about just buying a replacement neck that meets my needs.

But I got to thinking...just traded for a Fender JMJ SS bass and am really digging it so far. However, I have small hands for a dude and the neck is a bit on the chunky side. This is also going to be a bass one of my daughters, learns on. So, I’m considering a diy neck adjustment to remove some wood from the back.

Am I crazy for having this idea?

you like what you like ... removing wood might make the neck better and it might make it worse.

 

[JEDI BASS]

For starters, I’m a fairly advanced woodworker.

Secondly, I’ve posted in another thread about just buying a replacement neck that meets my needs.

But I got to thinking...just traded for a Fender JMJ SS bass and am really digging it so far. However, I have small hands for a dude and the neck is a bit on the chunky side. This is also going to be a bass one of my daughters, learns on. So, I’m considering a diy neck adjustment to remove some wood from the back.

Am I crazy for having this idea?

I did it to a brand new (and costly) Warmoth neck. It's the one on my avatar pic bass. It was easy and turned out perfect! I even put a slight asymmetrical contour on it. I put a tru oil finish on it afterwards.

I say go for it!

 

[Kubicki Fan]

Thanks everyone. I think I’ll hold off for now, play it as is for a while and decide later. Maybe shop for an after market neck or one off a Squier Mustang to try on it. I can play it fine as is, it’s more of a preference thing for me. My bigger concern is how my daughter will adjust to it.

The Bronco suggestion is really good too, for her.

+1 for the Bronco neck. It is a nice one punching above its weight. I'd go so far as to say I like the feel of it better than the neck of my Short scale stingray (which is 10x the price).

 

[Picton]

Necks made to Fender specs are fairly interchangeable for a given model.

The JMJ is a fairly expensive bass.

This seems like an ideal time to pull off the existing factory neck (which people will want if you want to resell this), buy a cheaper SS neck to Fender specs, and do whatever you want to it. Bolt it on and bob's your uncle.

All hail St Leo Of The Modularity.

 

[Killing Floor]

Has anyone said it yet??

anybody?

 

[Killing Floor]

Jaco wasn’t crazy for wanting a thinner neck...

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

You're not crazy. Even pros like Leland Sklar and Doug Wimbish had their necks shaved down.

 

[Fender_Bender]

It’s definitely doable, but it’s definitely not a one day process considering that it’s best to put a vapour barrier finish back on. I have done it myself before. I know oil finishes are popular because of the ease of doing them, but unless you have like 30 coats on them they will allow more moisture in and out.
I think you’d have to remove an unsafe amount from the back of the neck to have to worry about going too far. A long flat sanding block when you’re getting close will help you avoid hills and hollows.
Almost forgot, take the tension off the rod when you’re working on the neck because it doesn’t need to be doing it’s job right then.

 

[Michael Bauer]

So you're there guy that beat me to the JMJ! Congrats! But you did break my heart.

The answer to your question is: yes. Yes you are crazy for wanting to make the neck thinner.

 

[swarfrat]

I've got a Warmoth Fatback, and while I like beefy neck,the lack of taper bugs me. I know it's just a parts neck and i should sell it, but part of me goes "yeah,but it's Fatback..."

 

[mking]

I have changed the shape of a couple of necks including a "99 Fender American Deluxe Jazz 5 string. It was one of the best things I have done to make instruments more comfortable to play. It is really easy to sand necks to the desired shape and then coat seven times with tong oil. With the Fender the polyurethane on the back of the neck was more than a millimeter thick, so that removing it was most of the job. The polyurethane was very hard and took a bit of sanding using a orbital sander with decreasing sand paper grits. The result was a much better shape and much nicer finish. It made an instrument that always felt harder and slower to play than some boutique basses I have into one of my favorite basses. I don't know if it is my imagination or not, but I thought the sound improved too.