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Double Bass fingerboard tapered to slightly overlap neck into thumb position

J

JBarz

On indefinite internet sabbatical
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Mar 6, 2015
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#1
What is everyone's thoughts and opinions about fitting fingerboards to slightly taper and overlap the neck as it passes the overstand and enters into thumb position? My new favorite bass has been setup this way, but there was some sloppy work done and I can't decide if it was intentional or not.... the Knutson Messenger does it a little, but conversely that's a highly finished and refined setup (very intentional)... I'm wondering what ya'lls take on this little touch is. It seems like it makes no difference and serves no function and is just a small aesthetic thing that maybe some luthiers like, but I don't really know. Thoughts?
 
#2
This is hard for me to visualize without pics, but maybe it is a replacement fingerboard that is too wide for the neck, and so somebody shaved/planed/scraped the part of the fingerboard that would rest on the neck so the 'board's edges would be flush with the neck and not overhang. Once past the neck, for whatever reasons, the planing was not continued and so the part of the fingerboard that projects over the body overhangs a bit.
 
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#3
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Yes of course pictures! Sorry, I couldn’t find my phone before. Here is the Knutson and my post-war German ply. So this is more than likely slop and not a convention I was unaware of? Thanks for your help.
 
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#4
JBarz said:
View attachment 4299065 View attachment 4299063 View attachment 4299064 Yes of course pictures! Sorry, I couldn’t find my phone before. Here is the Knutson and my post-war German ply. So this is more than likely slop and not a convention I was unaware of? Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pics. I am going to revise my guess, as I have seen something like this before. The fingerboard width taper and the neck taper do not match up exactly, which creates the overhang on the sides. I have got a similar situation with a bassoguitar whose original fingerboard was so used up it had to be removed and replaced. The replacement 'board, Romberg bevel and all, actually is too narrow at the nut end of the neck -- sort of the opposite of your situation.

I simply measured and cut off enough of the top end of the 'board that I get a flush alignment all the way down.
That fingerboard was going to have to be cut back some anyway. Its complete, original length had the fingerboard projection past the overstand covering the soundhole.
 
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#5
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#9
I once came across to a bass in a shop in Paris, which had a fingerboard made wider than the neck all the way from the nut down to the end. The seam of the fb and the neck was flush and neat all the way, but the edge of the fb sort of curved outwards from the seam. I have never seen a solution like that before and never after that either, and I regret I did not take any pics. The bass played nice, the neck itself was actually not very narrow, but the fb was about 1 whole cm wider than the neck anyway. It looked peculiar, but this strange feature actually did not feel strange and didn’t have any affect to actual playing.I asked the shop owner about the fb, but he could not tell much about it, nor the bass, which was for sale on commission. The bass was priced about 12 k Euros and was from late 19th century. I figured out that somewhere in the past the fb needed to be replaced and the owner, from a reason or another, wanted to have a bit wider fingerboard without replacing or shimming the neck. The string spacing felt normal and the same spacing would have been possible with a narrower board, too. The shop owner was helpful, though and suggested to provide the contacts of the owner, but since I was not actually intending to buy that bass, I just thanked him and said let’s just leave it a mystery as it was.
 
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#10
arto alho said:
I once came across to a bass in a shop in Paris, which had a fingerboard made wider than the neck all the way from the nut down to the end. The seam of the fb and the neck was flush and neat all the way, but the edge of the fb sort of curved outwards from the seam. I have never seen a solution like that before and never after that either, and I regret I did not take any pics. The bass played nice, the neck itself was actually not very narrow, but the fb was about 1 whole cm wider than the neck anyway. It looked peculiar, but this strange feature actually did not feel strange and didn’t have any affect to actual playing.I asked the shop owner about the fb, but he could not tell much about it, nor the bass, which was for sale on commission. The bass was priced about 12 k Euros and was from late 19th century. I figured out that somewhere in the past the fb needed to be replaced and the owner, from a reason or another, wanted to have a bit wider fingerboard without replacing or shimming the neck. The string spacing felt normal and the same spacing would have been possible with a narrower board, too. The shop owner was helpful, though and suggested to provide the contacts of the owner, but since I was not actually intending to buy that bass, I just thanked him and said let’s just leave it a mystery as it was.
Click to expand...

I've seen this on 5-string conversions. It's fine if intentional:)
 
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