Jazz maple neck back bow without strings?

[Joshua Phelps]

I have a Geddy lee jazz bass & I've adjusted the neck to its optimum forward bow. My question is that when I remove the strings it back bows a good bit. None of my other jazzes do this but they all have rosewood boards so is this common for maple board necks?

Thanks guys

 

[XylemBassGuitar]

I'm not sure if that's more common with maple boards or not, but maple is generally less stiff than rosewood, all things being equal. So, it would make sense that the Geddy neck would need more backbow with the strings off so that it didn't have too much relief for the rod to remove when the strings were on. Is the Geddy neck also a little thinner than the other necks?

Many basses, guitars, etc. actually go into a backbow when the strings are taken off. I've worked on basses with quarter sawn maple necks & ebony boards that went into a backbow with the strings off. There are tendencies and trends, but it can depend on each individual neck.

 

[Joshua Phelps]

Yes I think one of the specs for GLB is a thin c shaped neck.

 

[202dy]

Not unusual.

It's not so much what kind of wood as which piece of wood. The maple board neck is more flexible because of the individual pieces of wood that make up the neck. Not necessarily because it is maple vs. rosewood. Besides, the fingerboards, because of their thickness on Fender basses, do not contribute much to neck stiffness.

In any event, it is not something to worry about.

 

[darkstorm]

Weaker and some thin necked basses do this when strings are removed. The best way to change strings is one at a time and tune up the new ones as you install em.

 

[dStar]

Geddys have a thinner neck than other Jazzes. So, I'm not surprised.