CHINESE BASS GUITAR NECKS

[gln1955]

OP gives an honest review of his purchase and admits it was a bad decision, yet people on here can't help but crap on him.

Love this place.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I've had far worse experiences buying from Guitar Fetish. Seriously. You want a parts supplier to avoid, start there. Nothing fits anything else and they don't do returns.

A bit of shimming and rework is to be expected when you're buying a part for a quarter of the going rate made in a foreign country that doesn't even use a twelve-tone scale. These are great deals if you have the skills to do the rework needed. If not, well, pay the going rate.

I only ever buy pickups from them anymore, and even then not really. Guitar Madness is cheaper and just as good quality.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

I had heard little about Chinese bass guitar necks. I found a rosewood P-Bass neck with pearl block inlays on ebay for only $79 bucks so I decided to give it a shot. First off if you order from China on a good delivery it can take two weeks with little of no tracking information. It kind of drove me crazy but I have heard of horror stories where something took three months so basically if you order from China just forget about it. It will be there eventually. O.K. the neck arrived. The last P -Bass replacement neck I ordered from a place called The Stratoshpere. It was a Fender licensed neck from Ensenada Mexico. Same neck basically. Rosewood with pearl block inlays. A beautiful neck with not one issue but almost three times the price of this neck. Looking at the Chinese neck initially it was like wow! This looks as good as the Fender licensed neck but that was where the similarities ended. The peg holes that were supposes to be 18mm. Not. A hair under but not 18MM. It left me some reaming out o do. O.k. I can live with that. Better tight than loose since I had already purchased 18MM Fender 70's style tuning machines. O.K I did that. Bushing went in great. I went to put the tuning machines on and the peg holes were so closet to the top of the headstock the tuning machines overlapped and would have stood above the headstock. Yes I kicked myself for not checking first. O.k. not a total lost cause. I just needed a tuner that had less of a footprint. Luckily I had some Hipshot HB7's in 18mm. I checked those out and then found that the peg holes were not all evenly spaced. Not off by a lot but off. Some of the tuners touched. OK. I got my bastard file out and took some edges down. You can only tell from the back of the headstock that the spacing is off a bit but I know it. Next I had to shim the neck pocket. 1 degree under the neck and 1/32nds on both sides of the neck pocket. O.K. that's done. The neck was not the width at the heal specified on the site I purchased this from. The frets were the best part of this neck. Only two slightly high in spots. It's now on. It looks nice, but at the end of the day I wouldn't do this again nor would I recommend it. I initially wanted to return this neck. I was offered $30 in refund to just keep it. Of course once you do that the transaction disappears from ebay and you cannot give feedback and the Chinese know this. On any of the Chinese sites they will not let anyone write a review. If you have a problem they offer a discount. If you take that the transaction disappears and you cannot leave any kind of feedback. If you check the Chinese sites before you buy everything looks hunky dory but I suspect there are thousands of players like me that tried to do something on the cheap and got burned. It won't happen again. Oh...as I said it looks nice but I also suspect the materials are also inferior. Time will tell. BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Why would you buy it directly from China, there are no savings involved and there is more risk in their delivery because they answer to no one?

You could buy one off EBay like I did, that the seller wasn't in China but an importer in the U.S. That would have options and avoid the problems you experienced.

Wanted to play around with a fretless.grabbed a used bolt on Epiphone bass.

Bought a fretless paddle neck. Paddle necks are undrilled no uncut headstocks. Company was Eden. $65.00 to my door. Fretboard likely ebanol, the neck was fine and unfinished.

Installed over the weekend.

Had to modify the heel. With all the variations between manufacturing plants at different times for the same model of guitar, I don't think anyone actually knows what sizes go with which production. More of an educated guess.

Took another week to cut and shape headstock, and match the finish.

Honestly, if you were expecting to do no work, that's folly on your part.

 

[cmuellemann]

Why do you think that 79$ for the Chinese neck is very good purchase ?

I don't. That's the reason for the post. To let anyone know that may be contemplating the purchase of one of these necks that it is not worth the trouble.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

I bought a Chinese J neck off fleabay, delivery was from China and stated 4-6 weeks. Cost around £30 UKP including shipping so very very cheap. It turned up inside the timeframe and other than needing some fret end refinishing was fine, except where someone (I guess my local postman trying to fit it through the letterbox) had squashed down some frets at the heel end. Not overly well packed with just thin cardboard and a layer of bubblewrap so a bit vulnerable in transit. I claimed as it was damaged in transit and the sender gave a full refund of which I then refunded back the cost of the neck minus the repair bill, to cut a long story short it ended up as a very playable neck on a P body, now owned by a friend who wanted a cheap knockabout bass. The moral is, if you buy cheap parts you have to expect to do some work. No paragraphs have been harmed in the making of this post.

 

[waynobass]

I can't read one long paragraph in bold italics.

 

[Feral Feline]

I had heard little about Chinese bass guitar necks. I found a rosewood P-Bass neck with pearl block inlays on ebay for only $79 bucks so I decided to give it a shot. First off if you order from China on a good delivery it can take two weeks with little of no tracking information. It kind of drove me crazy but I have heard of horror stories where something took three months so basically if you order from China just forget about it. It will be there eventually. O.K. the neck arrived. The last P -Bass replacement neck I ordered from a place called The Stratoshpere. It was a Fender licensed neck from Ensenada Mexico. Same neck basically. Rosewood with pearl block inlays. A beautiful neck with not one issue but almost three times the price of this neck. Looking at the Chinese neck initially it was like wow! This looks as good as the Fender licensed neck but that was where the similarities ended. The peg holes that were supposes to be 18mm. Not. A hair under but not 18MM. It left me some reaming out o do. O.k. I can live with that. Better tight than loose since I had already purchased 18MM Fender 70's style tuning machines. O.K I did that. Bushing went in great. I went to put the tuning machines on and the peg holes were so closet to the top of the headstock the tuning machines overlapped and would have stood above the headstock. Yes I kicked myself for not checking first. O.k. not a total lost cause. I just needed a tuner that had less of a footprint. Luckily I had some Hipshot HB7's in 18mm. I checked those out and then found that the peg holes were not all evenly spaced. Not off by a lot but off. Some of the tuners touched. OK. I got my bastard file out and took some edges down. You can only tell from the back of the headstock that the spacing is off a bit but I know it. Next I had to shim the neck pocket. 1 degree under the neck and 1/32nds on both sides of the neck pocket. O.K. that's done. The neck was not the width at the heal specified on the site I purchased this from. The frets were the best part of this neck. Only two slightly high in spots. It's now on. It looks nice, but at the end of the day I wouldn't do this again nor would I recommend it. I initially wanted to return this neck. I was offered $30 in refund to just keep it. Of course once you do that the transaction disappears from ebay and you cannot give feedback and the Chinese know this. On any of the Chinese sites they will not let anyone write a review. If you have a problem they offer a discount. If you take that the transaction disappears and you cannot leave any kind of feedback. If you check the Chinese sites before you buy everything looks hunky dory but I suspect there are thousands of players like me that tried to do something on the cheap and got burned. It won't happen again. Oh...as I said it looks nice but I also suspect the materials are also inferior. Time will tell. BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

...And with BOLD mortar, perfectly impenetrable...

 

[Gunga Din]

I have three Chinese necks: a 21-fret JB neck with a maple cap; a '51 square-heeled PB neck; and a bound Tele neck. The JB neck is a dream to play and had no issues bar one or sharp fret ends, easily sorted.

The '51 was a custom order. I submitted the dimensions and they got them correct. Neck has a beautiful flame to it.

The Tele neck is slightly wider than standard (I knew this prior to purchase) and the only complaint I have about it is that the frets have been levelled lower than I prefer. Other than that, they're fined necks

 

[The13thFret]

I just thought I would add my experience. I ordered a rosewood $99.99 USD (about 140 AUD at the time) 22 fret Jazz neck out of Shenzhen, China, just before Xmas. I wasn't expecting much, 22 fret necks apparently being uneconomical for companies such as Warmoth to produce. I was planning to use it to practice fret work, maybe levelling and crowning a few times before pulling the frets and throwing it on a Japanese Fender body I have spare, just for a bit of fun.
Its a nice neck, I don't know what else to say, everything is within the specifications given online, its well finished, the truss rod works. I feel kind of bad gouging away at the frets just for a hobby/project.

I'm ordering another to keep as a spare for one of my main basses (I recognise that a total re-fret is beyond my ability, and at this price I have to consider one of these necks as an option). We shall see if the quality is uniform.

Cheers

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

I just thought I would add my experience. I ordered a rosewood $99.99 USD (about 140 AUD at the time) 22 fret Jazz neck out of Shenzhen, China, just before Xmas. I wasn't expecting much, 22 fret necks apparently being uneconomical for companies such as Warmoth to produce. I was planning to use it to practice fret work, maybe levelling and crowning a few times before pulling the frets and throwing it on a Japanese Fender body I have spare, just for a bit of fun.
Its a nice neck, I don't know what else to say, everything is within the specifications given online, its well finished, the truss rod works. I feel kind of bad gouging away at the frets just for a hobby/project.

I'm ordering another to keep as a spare for one of my main basses (I recognise that a total re-fret is beyond my ability, and at this price I have to consider one of these necks as an option). We shall see if the quality is uniform.

Cheers

I bought a fretless neck, price was inexpensive, probably ebanol.

Heel was a little wide but I liked the taper of the board so I undercut on each side.

Quite happy.

 

[Vin Orange]

So if you have the ability, are buying in the knowledge that a $79 neck will not be perfect (as it definitely won't be otherwise it would be $279) and don't mind putting a couple of hours of effort in, would the consensus be that the Chinese ones are worth it or not?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

So if you have the ability, are buying in the knowledge that a $79 neck will not be perfect (as it definitely won't be otherwise it would be $279) and don't mind putting a couple of hours of effort in, would the consensus be that the Chinese ones are worth it or not?

The difficulty in offering advice being the wildly varying quality of Chinese products. Is the wood properly dried? Does it have a functioning truss rod? Assume a full fret level and polish will be needed. Do you have the time, tools, and skills to do that? That's going to be more than a couple hours work unless you are experienced at fret work. At that price point, you roll the dice, worst case scenario: you got burned for $79. I've bought a couple Mighty Mite and Allparts necks over the years that were decent, for all I know, made in the same Chinese factories as the $79 neck, but under a better set of QC protocols. I hope.

 

[turf3]

The difficulty in offering advice being the wildly varying quality of Chinese products. Is the wood properly dried? Does it have a functioning truss rod? Assume a full fret level and polish will be needed. Do you have the time, tools, and skills to do that? That's going to be more than a couple hours work unless you are experienced at fret work. At that price point, you roll the dice, worst case scenario: you got burned for $79. I've bought a couple Mighty Mite and Allparts necks over the years that were decent, for all I know, made in the same Chinese factories as the $79 neck, but under a better set of QC protocols. I hope.

Actually, having had personal experience through the years in attempting to polish various turds, I'd say "worst case scenario" is that you buy the cheap thing, spend dozens/hundreds of hours and additional money trying to make it work, and THEN give the whole thing up as a bad job, having spent more in actual money and the monetary value of your time than it would have cost you to buy the high quality version in the first place.

I'll tell you how I know this, so you don't have to ask: I have done it many many times. I grew up with parents who were charter members of the Hardway Club and even at 60 I'm still trying to lose that early programming.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

^^^^^^ What he said, I'm a Charter Member of the same club, there is no simple thing I can't make worse by cheaping out. The only neck I've ever bought that was absolutely perfect on delivery was from Warmoth, but that quality isn't cheap. There's probably a good middle ground between Allparts/Mighty Might, but I don't know hat it is.

 

[JRA]

would the consensus be that the Chinese ones are worth it or not?

no clue on the "consensus," but i've purchased a half dozen made-in-china necks from a couple of ebay sellers. they are nice necks (all fretless) and their 'stability' has been as good as my allparts and mighty mite necks (caveat: the oldest one is only 2.5 years old).
pro: what i like about the transactions is that the necks pictured are the necks i get!
pro: shipping times are as advertised.
con: shipping takes a while in some cases, but all have been at least 3 weeks.
con: plastic nuts (not a problem for me, but might be an issue for those who'd have to pay someone to replace).
samples:

all of the necks i've purchased were in the ~$70-$90 range. in each case: i had to 're-locate' the side dots --- they were located in the fretted-neck positions. one neck had a sharp-to-me fingerboard edge, but i got some advice from the luthiers here, smoothed/rolled that edge, and it's now one of my favorite necks to play!
question(s) about 'rolling' one edge of a maple fingerboard: need advice!

if you get a neck, i'd advise purchasing from ebay (for their buyer's protections, such as they are). good luck!

I've bought a couple Mighty Mite and Allparts necks over the years that were decent, for all I know, made in the same Chinese factories as the $79 neck, but under a better set of QC protocols.

i like my mighty mite neck --- it was made in china --- and i agree that chinese products can be good if the QC protocols are in place. i don't remember (or i never knew) where my allparts necks were made, but i've always assumed they made someplace in asia.