Chinese replacement neck

[AncientNoob]

Black Maple 20 frets bass guitar neck part 4 string rosewood fingerboard inlay | eBay
Anyone have any experience with these Chinese eBay necks? I love the price point and the pictures look pretty good, but the price makes me skeptical. I’m thinking of using something like this on a Frankenstein build using an Ibanez gio body so it’s nothing vintage or something that needs to be authentic or correct in any way.

 

[AaronBass4]

I bought a maple p-bass with black blocks and binding a couple years ago . . . about $65, I think. It's pretty good. I had to do some work to the frets and the truss rod nut is a little wonky, but works. At that price point I didn't expect it to arrive perfect and I didn't mind doing the fine-tuning myself. Plays and looks fantastic. It's been stable over time.

 

[Arie X]

that truss rod access slot and the adjustment nut look dodgey. make sure that you can return it if the rod doesn't work.

 

[AaronBass4]

I bought a maple p-bass with black blocks and binding a couple years ago . . . about $65, I think. It's pretty good. I had to do some work to the frets and the truss rod nut is a little wonky, but works. At that price point I didn't expect it to arrive perfect and I didn't mind doing the fine-tuning myself. Plays and looks fantastic. It's been stable over time.

Just checking in here . . . the neck mentioned above is still stable and looking great. No issues. I did modify a hex key slightly to make it easier to adjust the truss rod. That bass has bridge-cable labella flats on it and is doing fine with just normal seasonal truss rod adjustments.

 

[JKaftertwoxans]

Just want to leave this here for future reference. Chinese necks in general are an incredible value for what you pay for them. They're not without their flaws, you will generally have cosmetic blemishes and often times lifted and unfinished fret ends and unsightly peices of wood, it's best to avoid those with binding and inlays as generally they will have a greater potential to be bungled in the cosmetics department. The simpler the design of the neck the more likely you are to get a nicely built one. I'm still in awe of the superb neck profiles and stability of the necks, lots of people here like to run their mouths on chinese necks when the last time they ever touched one was more than a decade ago in some cases several, yet they speak with commanding authority when for the last 20 or so years they've been comfy up in their ivory towers playing nothing but an assortment of high end american built instruments. Kind of reminds me of a certain brand that throws ancient human history out the window and deems oils once used to waterproof the wood of ancient sea faring vessels as inadequate for their adamantium reinforced necks. How people willingly support a brand that is willing to ream you for no good reason other than overwhelming pretentiousness ill never understand.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I bought two guitar necks. One was great, one unusable.

 

[SharpCat]

I grabbed one to practice setups and fret leveling. It's not terrible. Better than I expected really, but one of the block inlays is sunken in the middle, and the frets were lifting a bit.

 

[AaronBass4]

Just checking in here . . . the neck mentioned above is still stable and looking great. No issues. I did modify a hex key slightly to make it easier to adjust the truss rod. That bass has bridge-cable labella flats on it and is doing fine with just normal seasonal truss rod adjustments.

Checking in again . . . now 5 years on, and that neck still looks great, but it did develop a weird issue . . . can't get rid of some buzzing in the area of frets 10-15 . . . even after another fret level/crown/polish . . . I guess some sort of weird twist that you can kinda see when sighting down the neck. So, its wall art now, but it was great for 5 years . . . I think I got my $65 out of it!