How I made a Wenge neck into a Maple neck

[Drake Custom]

I was looking through some of my repairs and mods files and came across the pictures of a neck replacement I did on a custom 4 string bass that I built a year or two ago. The customer had originally specified the bass to be built with a Wenge neck in 32 inch scale. The bass was to have Madrone Burl both front and back of both the body and peg head. I built the bass and the customer played it for about 6 months. He then called and said that the tone of the bass was not what he had in mind and that he felt that the Wenge was the culprit. He said that he would rather have a Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard instead. The neck was a glue in and therefore could not be removed without a lot of fuss. The customer and I talked it through and we decided that I could certainly give it a go. A neck replacement is not too difficult, but the trick here was to make use of the truss, carbon fiber, veneer and even the inlays. Here is what I did.

The bass arrived at my shop looking like this.

I pulled the pups and disassembled the bass.

I was thinking that I might be able to salvage several parts from the original neck. Since it was a glue in and I would most likely wreck it by trying to remove it whole, I decided that I would re-use what I could from the destroyed neck.

I pulled the frets.

Then chiseled out the inlays. I was only able to rescue about half of them. Some broke and some were too thin to re-use.

First step of the fret board removal.

Removal of the truss rod and carbon fiber.

I then cut the neck off and bored out some of the wood of the old neck heel. I simply placed blocks around the perimeter of the neck heel and routed it away.

Now to find a method to salvage the peghead veneers. I knew that I would never find another piece of Madrone to match the body top and back. So I would have to reuse the current veneers.

I sanded and scraped the backs of the veneers down as smooth as possible. I knew that I could not remove all of the Wenge but I had a plan for that.

I made a new neck blank out of figured Maple.

And then I glued the front veneer onto the new Maple neck blank.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I love descriptions of oddjobs like this.
This is where skill and experience show up. Please go on.

 

[Drake Custom]

Now to make the new fret board.

The bass had a string through the body feature and I did not want to have to move the bridge. I had to make sure that the new neck would have the same placement as the old neck.

Once I had the new fret board made, I set about slotting for the truss and carbon fiber. I had to clean some epoxy off of the old carbon fiber rods in order to use them. It came off easily.

Gluing on the new fret board.

Rough cut neck.

And some carving of the new neck.

 

[blindrabbit]

Damn sir, you are good.

 

[Drake Custom]

I took some time to fit and glue on the rear peghead veneer, drill the tuner holes.....

.....,and carve the neck some more.
Then the new neck assembly was ready to be fitted to the old body.

But first we had to replace the diamond inlays into the fret board.....

....and fret the neck.

Now you can see what I planned for the Wenge that was still attached to the Madrone veneer.

I sanded down the whole bass and prepared her for a refinish. I had scratched her up some while removing the neck.

Now, after a complete refinish....

...I think she turned out pretty nice.

The customer was not too keen on the original Bartolini preamp that we used, so we just installed a tone control pot.

Oh, and the back of the neck.

I hope you enjoyed this little post. I look forward to my next build thread.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Nice!

 

[SaintMez]

Replacing a set neck is no small feat. Salvaging the veneers is impressive as well. Really shows how committed you are to your customers. Well done!

 

[WorktheWood]

Great work!

 

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Cool thread, Drake. I'm curious to hear what the customer reports on any change.

 

[FBB Custom]

Cool thread, Drake. I'm curious to hear what the customer reports on any change.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[PDX Rich]

Excellent work!

 

[Robert Canfield]

Cool thread, Drake. I'm curious to hear what the customer reports on any change.

Yes, please let us know. Work like that separates the men for the boys. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Drake Custom]

Thanks everyone. This re-neck happened last year so I have heard back from the customer.
His thought was that the Wenge neck with the Wenge fret board were a little too warm and compressed sounding for his Classic Rock tone that he needed. I have used Wenge necks quite often and I have always liked the tone I get from Wenge, but he tried it for a time and thought that his other basses with the Maple/Rosewood had the tone closer to what he needed. Most often, I use EMG pickups pared with Wenge necks as the clarity and presence of the EMG pups are a nice paring to the Wenge's tone. In this bass the customer specified Bartolini passive pickups and did not want to try the EMGs. The tone of the Bart pickups was very warm and organic, so the Wenge neckwood may have not been the best choice. I had not used Barts with Wenge prior to this build so I could not really advise against it at the time. Many MTD basses have used this combination of Wenge neck with Bart pickups. The ones I have played on had a great tone.

Also, the customer had small hands and felt that the original neck was a little too chunky. He is used to LP basses and others that have that deep C shape, so I copied the shape for the new neck. The original Wenge neck was more of a thin oval shaped neck.

Anyway, here is what the customer said in the last email I received. I cut his name out for privacy reasons. He was a great guy to work with/for and I had no issue with doing this work for him. I do like to make sure that my customers get what they need for the music that they play.

happy sunday morning to you andrew

i just wanted to thank you for all the great work you've done for me
the new neck is just what i thought it would be , slim and comfortable , nice clear tone
- rings out like a grand piano -
you should remember that profile for people with smaller hands , i bet they would love it .
great great job ! thank you very much !

 

[Big B.]

Andrew, that's a superbly executed repair. Shows your skill AND your patience. If one of my customers wanted me to cut the neck out of a bass like that I'd probably chase 'em out of the shop.

 

[SLivinghouse]

Good to hear the customer's response wasn't "Um, can I have the Wenge back?..." Beautiful work.

 

[Gdrock33]

Amazing craftsmanship. Thanks so much for sharing your process.

 

[KramerDon]

One of the most impressive threads I've seen here,great workmanship!!! What would you charge to change my wenge neckthru SR1400 to maple?LOL Just kidding I love the wenge w/nordstrands

 

[Means2nEnd]

One of the most impressive threads I've seen here,great workmanship!!

+1!!!! Absolutely agree!! Incredible work and skill just beautiful work.

 

[Drake Custom]

Thanks guys. It is hard sometimes when I work very hard on a project and then the customer wants a major change in something. I want the customer to really be satisfied with the instrument, so...and I know that this may open a can of worms....I don't ever feel that one of my basses is ever completely finished. In my mind, there can always be something improved upon. In this case, the customer felt that he was not getting the tone he wanted. When we planned this bass out, he wanted to try the Wenge, as he has never had a bass with it before, and he liked the idea of a raw feeling neck. I have had nothing but good experience and reviews about Wenge necks in the last 10 years of using it, so I figured it would be fine for his style of playing. My own personal bass has a Wenge neck and I can get any tone I ever wanted with that bass. So when he said he wanted to try it, I told him that I thought it would make a great neck for his bass. My endorsement of the Wenge helped him choose it for his neck. After playing for awhile, he felt that the Wenge was dampening the tone too much. I felt that I had led him in the wrong direction so I wanted to help fix the issue. It made it easier that he was willing to pay for the re-fit. It was a good experience for me as I now have another skill to add to the arsenal. I am confident that I could do something like this again if I had to.

 

[MattZilla]

Fantastic work!

But, now there's one less awesome-bass on earth. You could have just made a second bass for dudeguy and sold the original off to someone else. hooray for having a new skill. probably good to be able to say very confidently "sure!" When some Jaco comes in with a wrecked bass that needs it put back together with some new chunks.