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full-scale basses with 22 frets?

N

newfuture

Jul 13, 2007
1,008
872
#1
Hi all--

Looking to replace the neck on an Aria RSB series bass that someone Jaco'd back in the day. I used it as a a fretless for years, but between roundwounds having chewed up the rosewood and now owing a fretless I prefer has me wanting to replace the neck.

Harder than I thought. Most of the fender/fender-esque necks out there are 20 frets, and many of the less classic style basses are 24.

Even Arias with 22 frets are medium scale if they came off a cardinal/ZZ/XX bass (the ZZ/XX really surprised me).

So, what basses do you know of that have 22 frets, a 34" scale, and hopefully a square bolt pattern to the neck?

I may also investigate refretting. Not sure it'd be worthwhile/ possible though...I've sanded the fingerboard multiple times to get rid of dead spots and grooves from the roundwounds, probably only half the initial thickness of the rosewood remains.

Of course, it may also be time to retire this beast. It was a great $125 bass, but it's still always been just a beater.

Thanks
 
#2
The Precision Bass Lyte had a 22 fret neck. Part of the fingerboard extended over the body. Warmoth used to make a similar neck, but I think it was discontinued.

image.jpg
 
#3
How much are you looking to spend, and are you looking for a neck only or a complete bass?

The Music Man Sterling, Reflex, & Big Al (last 2 have been very recently discontinued) have 22 frets and a 34" scale. As does the Sadowsky Will Lee models (NYC or Metro). Sadowsky is a 4-bolt. But are you looking to put a neck from one of those on the body of a $125 bass? o_O :smug:
 
#4
AMp'D.2play said:
How much are you looking to spend, and are you looking for a neck only or a complete bass?

The Music Man Sterling, Reflex, & Big Al (last 2 have been very recently discontinued) have 22 frets and a 34" scale. As does the Sadowsky Will Lee models (NYC or Metro). Sadowsky is a 4-bolt. But are you looking to put a neck from one of those on the body of a $125 bass? o_O :smug:
Click to expand...

ha!

Looking for neck only, and no, the ones you listed aren't right for this project :). It's to be a beater, tape-wound stringed bass with actives.

I'm looking more for a dismemebered neck, something in the sub $100 range, ideally.

I'd found a zzb (explorer shape bass) neck that closed for about $40 shipped, but again, that was a 32" scale instrument, in spite of the total instrument length being about five or six feet.

I've got an email in to mighty mite, maybe they've got something that fits the bill. Musicians friend listed one of their necks as a 22, but cross checking this on MM's site says it's a 20.
 
#8
Canadian APII said:
I would suspect the heels are different shapes and dimensions. There are many replacement suppliers like Warmouth for bigger brands like Fender but not Aria. I suspect you need to use your present neck.
Click to expand...

Definitely possible. I think what I'm going to do is pick up something silly cheap for the tape wound fretted thing (which I found in a BB300 for $63 from a music go round, already with the EMG P pickup innit!), string that up and see how I like it. I think I'll keep the RSB fretless, and just re-surface/ re-radius it with envirotex lite or similar. I never did anything other than lower the bridge when addressing the lower playing surface of the fretless, so it should work reasonably well. Gonna keep it with either tapes or flats to keep dead spots and string grooves to a minimum.
 
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#9
quick update: I've been playing around with this bass in as-is condition for a few days now. Seems that the neck did a little back-bow on me, which is making the wear on the neck too noticable. I let out a little tension on the truss rod, and it's sounding a lot better. Actually fully usable if playing by the bridge, but still too buzzy if plucking at the neck, I might be able to work out some more of this with string height, but suspect the epoxy's gonna happen.

On another note, I up an EMG 40TWs from a TBer. It fits nearly perfectly into the (oddly sized, enormous, silly) pickup route on the bass. And sounds really good.

So, for folks that are looking to replace the anemic stock pickup on an RSB (probably cardinal/ZZB/XXB too), the EMG40s fit with no routing, and just a little bridge-to-neck gap that might not be a problem for you. I stuffed mine with black foam to keep with the bass' color, looks fine.

20151125_133706.jpg
 

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