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Are jazz bass necks too small?
- Thread starter Mantis Tobaggan
- Start date
I think that both neck width and scale are important in the feel of how an instrument plays and how you respond to it.
A JBass and a Rickenbacker 4001/3 both have narrow necks. The feel when playing is not the same.
A JBass and a Rickenbacker 4001/3 both have narrow necks. The feel when playing is not the same.
The original J necks were very thin front to back, later models esp. mid 70s were much thicker. My AVRI 62 J had that problem, I'm guessing your CS has the same thin neck profile.
I also own two Peavey Palaedium (Jeff Berlin) basses, both have super thin J-like necks. One of them also has the truss rod maxed and can no longer be set up with low action. The other one is still OK.
So in my own experience, it's common.
- Aug 21, 2003
- 11,617
- 18,683
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- A-Designs Mike Lull GK Tsunami Cables GHS Strings RMI Basswitch Nordstrand Pickups Darkglass
Warmoths with the standard contour (not the slim) are a little chunkier but the same widths.
They are worth checking out.
They are worth checking out.
I gotta say...... I only played jazz necks for years! Really started digging on the p tone in my pj. Bought a p bass and absolutely fell in love with the neck. Something nice about a nice beefy neck.
Not all Jazz neck basses are "small". The reason is neck profile plays a role. I have 3 Jazz neck type basses and had a couple of more in the past and i can tell you there are huge differences. For instance my Peavey Fury and a EBMM Sterling was one of the smallest ones i had. To my tastes two of the most comfortable necks i have played, But My 62 AVRI is far from being "small" to te point it mostly gets no play. So all Jazz necks are no equally small
I have a Geddy and I don't play it any more because in the heat of the moment I tend to pull the G string off the bottom and push the E string off the top. Plus it's really heavy. I love Jazz bodies but I just can't deal with Jazz necks. Thinking about putting the Geddy(in my profile pic) up for sale if anyone is interested pm me.
- Jan 28, 2009
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- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
I’m wondering the neck on the early sixties CS Jazz basses may be too small and thin to handle the pressure of the strings.
Why is the truss maxed? It is supposed to counter the pressure of the strings right?
I'm not a luthier but my answer would be "no".
Maxed-out truss rods are not something baseball bat "C" necks are immune from. At all.
Improperly routed/installed truss rod, especially if subjected to long-term improper adjustment and/or adverse changes in temperature and humidity will behave like yours does.
I've owned a reasonably high amount of basses with "thin" necks, and a smaller amount of the ones where the truss rod got maxed out. Found no correlation between the two, whatsoever.
My $0.02 only...
If there are years of neglect, the neck can become out of the range of a truss adjust. This requires a more convoluted adjustment. But it can be done. It requires weight, gravity and sometimes time and/or moisture
Mantis, it sounds like you got a damaged neck. If you're used to larger necked instruments and pick up a Jazz it may seem small at first. This can be solved by playing a Hofner 500/1 for a few weeks. When you put that down and pick up the Jazz it'll feel like a '68 Tele. Whenever you hear of someone having a particular problem with an instrument that has been in production as long as the Jazz Bass has (with hundreds of thousands of them in existence) and you have to think back to when (if ever) you heard the same complaint, it's a pretty good sign that the problem is rare. A maxed out truss rod is a sign of trouble, to be sure, but it isn't indicative of the model or style neck per se. Your options include tackling the problem yourself by trying to fix it, bringing it to a luthier and having them fix it, replacing the neck with a good one, or selling the bass. None of those are cheap and foolproof. Sorry this happened.
Neck size doesn’t bother me, I can play comfortably with a Jazz neck and a 50s P neck and everything in between, I. Really digging the neck on my 81 G&L Wunkay these days!!
