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Ideal measurements for 5-string neck...

S

Sassafras

Guest
Jul 6, 2012
23
0
#1
Alright, I started making a hackjob bass and I was working on shaping the neck and such today and I realized that it was wider than my 4-string neck and maybe I can make it into a 5-string.

The neck is 4.8cm wide at the thinnest part (by the head), which is approximately 1.88 inches.

I was wondering if this is fully plausible (I have never owned a 5 string before and thus cannot measure one myself). I am perfectly fine with a narrow necked 5-string. That may even be preferable.

A picture of it:
Invalid Link Removed
Couldn't find a metric measure, sorry. :P

tl;dr what is ideal 5-string neck thickness at the head, and what is the narrowest 5-string neck in same place.

Any ways thanks for the help.
 
#2
1.88" is definatly ok for a 5 stringer, my most recently built 5 string basses were 1.75 at the nut.
Neck width at the heel is usually dependent on desired string spacing at the bridge. The most common width at the 24th fret for a 5er is around 3", which will yield around a 11/16" string spacing at the bridge.
 
#3
Phendyr_Loon said:
1.88" is definatly ok for a 5 stringer, my most recently built 5 string basses were 1.75 at the nut.
Neck width at the heel is usually dependent on desired string spacing at the bridge. The most common width at the 24th fret for a 5er is around 3", which will yield around a 11/16" string spacing at the bridge.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! It's about 2 and 7/8 at widest, would that be alright still or would it be ideal to cut it down and make it a 4-string?
 
#5
Sassafras said:
Thank you very much! It's about 2 and 7/8 at widest, would that be alright still or would it be ideal to cut it down and make it a 4-string?
Click to expand...

Do you have the bridge that you want to use? It sounds like you need to stop cutting wood for a moment and take some measurements and make a drawing. Figure out what the string spacing is at the bridge that you want to use and draw lines from the outer string locations to the nut. Then draw a line parallel to those roughly 1/8"-3/16" outside of them and that is the boundaries of your neck. Figure out where you want to end the neck and then measure how wide it is at that point. Only then can you know if your neck is wide enough.

I know that every time I do something without a detailed plan, I screw it up or it comes out all wonky somehow and it's harder to make work. Have a plan before you mess it up. That is all.:cool:
 
#7
devo_stevo said:
Do you have the bridge that you want to use? It sounds like you need to stop cutting wood for a moment and take some measurements and make a drawing. Figure out what the string spacing is at the bridge that you want to use and draw lines from the outer string locations to the nut. Then draw a line parallel to those roughly 1/8"-3/16" outside of them and that is the boundaries of your neck. Figure out where you want to end the neck and then measure how wide it is at that point. Only then can you know if your neck is wide enough.

I know that every time I do something without a detailed plan, I screw it up or it comes out all wonky somehow and it's harder to make work. Have a plan before you mess it up. That is all.:cool:
Click to expand...
Not planning on ever putting equipment on it.
 
#12
Looks to me like a stick to learn on - joke's on anyone who's never done it. :)

You can 'reverse engineer' a nut width to accommodate a different number of strings, but it comes down to the string spacing you want to use at the nut, plus a few mm (4-5) on either side of the strings. 48mm is wide enough for 9.5mm string spacing with five strings.

The bridge spacing will either depend on the width of the fretboard at the last fret, or the width of the last fret will depend on the string spacing at the bridge - all rests on which one you decide upon first... :)
 

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