Are jazz bass necks too small?

[Texican]

i like both jazz and p necks as well as the slim ibanez necks.

oddly i only like to play acoustic guitars with wider nuts...

Not having a 1 3/4” nut on acoustic guitars is a deal breaker for me. I can’t stand 1 11/16” nuts, so much so that I sold my Martin D-35 and ended up with a chunky necked Eastman E10D...

...on the flip side, I MUCH prefer jazz necks over precision necks. I guess that’s kind of weird.

 

[pcake]

Not having a 1 3/4” nut on acoustic guitars is a deal breaker for me. I can’t stand 1 11/16” nuts, so much so that I sold my Martin D-35 and ended up with a chunky necked Eastman E10D...

...on the flip side, I MUCH prefer jazz necks over precision necks. I guess that’s kind of weird.

it's not weird to me - it's pretty much where i'm at. i prefer a 1 7/8" nut, minimum of 1 3/4", but on a bass, a jazz neck rocks it.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

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.

Not a matter of design and neck shape in general but rather an issue with the response of the neck wood to the eccentric action exerted by the strings ... too low modulus of elasticity, wood not seasoned properly with residual water causing causing it to behave as a viscous material with deformation and strains increasing with time under constant loading and not instantaneously recoverable ... solution in this cases is to remove the neck, straighten it under a press for days and switch to strings exerting less force on the neck ... the problem however will not be eradicated

 

[Stranger Danger]

A couple years ago, I was hankering for a good jazz bass. I had been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin. I eventually found a used CS that I couldn’t say no to. The action is perfect. However, the truss is maxed and I had to get the saddles just right. The neck feels very small to me, I am used to classic Precision style necks and my Rick has a club for a neck, which I like btw. Talking with other bass players, it seems this is not uncommon with jazz basses. I am surprised it would happen with a CS being that they can choose the wood first etc. So are jazz necks just a bit too small or what? Is it uncommon for the truss to be maxed in a jazz neck?

The width of the nut on the neck of your bass has nothing to do with the maxed out truss rod. There are thousands of perfectly functional jazz basses.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Anyway at a certain point Fender decided to glue graphite rods to the neck under the fretboard ... this is not to say that the jazz bass neck shape is a design naturally prone to this kind of issues but that probably also Fender realized that, due to the neck wood mechanical properties scatter, some form of light-weight reinforcement could help in countering the scatter's negative effects on the jazz neck response to force and humidity/temperature variations ... in effect thede rods seem to do their job (got an Am. Std. with them in) whereas my Am. Original 60s jazz bass neck is a little more delicate from this point of view

 

[BassoSaku]

No. At least not to me. They are fast and (CIJ) Geddy Lee neck maybe fastest of them all.

 

[mouthmw]

Anyway at a certain point Fender decided to glue graphite rods to the neck under the fretboard ... this is not to say that the jazz bass neck shape is a design naturally prone to this kind of issues but that probably also Fender realized that, due to the neck wood mechanical properties scatter, some form of light-weight reinforcement could help in countering the scatter's negative effects on the jazz neck response to force and humidity/temperature variations ... in effect thede rods seem to do their job (got an Am. Std. with them in) whereas my Am. Original 60s jazz bass neck is a little more delicate from this point of view

Graphite rods have been used on both P and J necks on standard Fender USA series (and Special, old Highway One series, now Professional, Elite etc). I've seen good and bad necks on both P and J basses, but I definitely prefer having some reinforcement on both necks. That's why my next Jazz is going to be American Pro. My old Highway One P is super stable.

 

[Real Soon]

Oh yeah, what does maxed out mean? If you've got a truss rod nut, you should be able to theoretically keep turning it until stuff starts breaking, be it the nut threads, rod threads, rod, rod fixture in the neck, or neck itself.

 

[Yahboy]

Are there jazz neck with precision bass 42mm nut width ？

 

[FenderOli]

However, the truss is maxed ... Is it uncommon for the truss to be maxed in a jazz neck?

Hi Mantis, if the rod isn't broken - what do you mean by "maxed"?

If the trussrod workes fine, it is the wood itself that bowes. Typical Fender uses very strong maple.
If you can get a good relief/action with the trussrod, but the strings with too much tension bows the neck forward. You can even "over"tighten the truss rod to a neck backbow, but the high tension strings pull the weak neck forward (the relief (more or less) stays, its the hole neck (mostly around the 15-20 fret)) that is too weak and the string action raises to an unplayable height.
Try TI Flats or LaBella LTF-4A strings and put a washer underneath the nut-screw to get more threads.

 

[whamni]

I played a 79' MusicMan for years, nut width 43 mm, I recently purchased a Sire V7 (jazz neck) 38 mm, that took me ages to get used to, it's a very fast neck.
But then I hit on the new Yamaha BB734 and it's a dream to play with a nut width of 40 mm

If you've run out of threads on the truss rod, put a washer on, that will help

 

[Kiril Basso]

Played Jazz neck, the PBass neck and the Steve Harris signature Pbass which has a ''U'' Profile neck. Got accustomed to all of those necks but I prefer the Harris' neck, it's just something about those big necks. The tone is much fuller and well rounded, and also I like how they fit in my hand. Best of luck!

 

[dmt]

Jazz necks are sweet

 

[dmt]

A couple years ago, I was hankering for a good jazz bass. I had been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin. I eventually found a used CS that I couldn’t say no to. The action is perfect. However, the truss is maxed and I had to get the saddles just right. The neck feels very small to me, I am used to classic Precision style necks and my Rick has a club for a neck, which I like btw. Talking with other bass players, it seems this is not uncommon with jazz basses. I am surprised it would happen with a CS being that they can choose the wood first etc. So are jazz necks just a bit too small or what? Is it uncommon for the truss to be maxed in a jazz neck?

Sorry to hear about the trussrod getting maxed out, Mantis Tobaggan. My buddy’s J bass has the same problem — his tech told him that the last adjust he did was the last one for that trussrod.

However, apparently there are various techniques for keeping the neck, some of them already mentioned in this thread. Good luck with getting it all straightened out, so to speak

 

[Temcat]

No.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I have small/average sized hands and find a P neck uncomfortable, J necks better. For me it’s not so much the nut width as the profile. The wider the nut, the more I want it to be a flat “ D” profile. A deep “C” is ok on a narrow neck like my Steinberger. My G&L L2k is 1-5/8” nut, but a flat D, very comfortable. The Ibanez necks are perfect in my hands. The Ric is an oddity in some sense, 1-5/8” nut, but almost no taper, so it feels chunky at the nut and narrow at the 12th, go figure. J neck in a P body a great compromise. I own a fretless J with a Warmouth neck, haven’t touched the rod in a couple years. Sounds like you got a bum neck, it happens.

 

[whero]

Does the neck reach all the way from the body to the headstock? I mean, there's no gap, right? Then it's just the right size.

Anything else like width, depth, profile is just a variable and what's perfect for one person will be unbearable for another.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

I have small/average sized hands and find a P neck uncomfortable, J necks better. For me it’s not so much the nut width as the profile. The wider the nut, the more I want it to be a flat “ D” profile. A deep “C” is ok on a narrow neck like my Steinberger. My G&L L2k is 1-5/8” nut, but a flat D, very comfortable. The Ibanez necks are perfect in my hands. The Ric is an oddity in some sense, 1-5/8” nut, but almost no taper, so it feels chunky at the nut and narrow at the 12th, go figure. J neck in a P body a great compromise.

Built one with USA parts ... good results ... wondering why Fender doesnt offer this option ...

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Wasn’t the P Bass Special a J neck? The Fenderites will know. So many parts suppliers floating around, I always kinda wanted a P body with a bound and blocked J neck. Warmouth parts not cheap, but their necks are bulletproof.

Edit:
Yep, P bass Special still available
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/bas...4065028-sku^H96715000001000@ADL4MF-adType^PLA

 

[shoulderpet]

A couple years ago, I was hankering for a good jazz bass. I had been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin. I eventually found a used CS that I couldn’t say no to. The action is perfect. However, the truss is maxed and I had to get the saddles just right. The neck feels very small to me, I am used to classic Precision style necks and my Rick has a club for a neck, which I like btw. Talking with other bass players, it seems this is not uncommon with jazz basses. I am surprised it would happen with a CS being that they can choose the wood first etc. So are jazz necks just a bit too small or what? Is it uncommon for the truss to be maxed in a jazz neck?

I play Hofners so to me a jazz neck is massive, if i remember rightly the neck on my club bass starts around 42mm at the nut and is around 48mm wide at its widest point, also short scale