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Kramer Aluminum neck on non-Kramer body.

zartalexander

zartalexander

Guest
Mar 17, 2012
105
9
California
#1
Has anyone ever done/seen this?

I have a Kramer aluminum-neck bass, I love it but sometimes I'm not in love with the shape of the body. I've thought of retrofitting the neck to another body in the future, but I'm not sure how this would be done given the slotted design of the Kramer necks. Would prefer to salvage a body as a project, rather than getting something expensive/custom done.

Just curious if there's anything out there.
 
#2
http://www.edroman.com/guitars/kramer/images/orig-neck.jpg

Looks like a normal flat back heel with a trapezoidal end. Would be a breeze to simply match that on a custom build. To make it fit a current body you may have to remove some wood so it will fit. This will leave some gaps in areas that are mostly cosmetic. A Fender style could have the neck pocket filled before routing a new pocket for the Kramer neck. I've Frankensteined some necks onto bodies they didn't originally fit so it can be done depending on your tolerance for routing.

On any body there is a perfect place in space for the neck to fit based on bridge placement and scale length. Once that is found where the heel ends and it's shape, and how deep the pocket is will dictate what wood that needs to be removed, and gaps you may or may not want/need to fill.
 
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#3
I haven't yet but I have a neck and mean to attempt it some day, just that the neck pocket is a different shape.
 
#4
zartalexander said:
Has anyone ever done/seen this?

I have a Kramer aluminum-neck bass, I love it but sometimes I'm not in love with the shape of the body. I've thought of retrofitting the neck to another body in the future, but I'm not sure how this would be done given the slotted design of the Kramer necks. Would prefer to salvage a body as a project, rather than getting something expensive/custom done.

Just curious if there's anything out there.
Click to expand...

I have felt your pain...had an aluminum neck Kramer when I was young and foolish. It played well and sounded great, but the body was butt-ugly and weighed a ton.

One night, in an altered state of mind, I cut off the upper horn in attempt to make it a Tele-style bass. What a mistake. Parted ways with it soon after, but if anyone ever comes across a black, one-pickup Kramer with a ghetto quality amputated upper horn, that's it!

Tell her I'm sorry!

I remain,
Your Obedient Servant,

The Terror.
 
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#5
I made a new body for my Steinberger neck, the heel is also trapezoidal, narrower at the bottom face of the heel than the fingerboard side. They made them that way so they'd pop out of the mold. I cut the angled sides of the pocket with a jig including a couple "ramps" to match the angle of the neck sides. It worked great, with minimal hand fitting. Another approach is to make a template using epoxy putty to make a negative of the neck heel that can be used to cut a matching pocket. A couple people have used that trick on CB. How stable is the neck? They had a reputation for moving a lot due to temperature changes, but I never owned one.
 
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#7
Here's a shot of the rather crude jig I made to cut angled sides for the neck pocket for the Steinberger neck, which is angled on the sides. Simple stuff, but it worked perfectly. You can see the neck pocket sides left oversize about to be cut back. This allows the use of a straight cut template bit to cut angled sides, with minimal cleanup at the bottom of the pocket. The blue tape on the ramps is to make the cuts very slightly (a few .001") undersized, I was able to hand-sand the pocket to a perfect fit. The two ramped rails are also not parallel, but skewed to account for the taper of the neck itself from nut to heel. The tapered rails were just ripped to the correct angle on the tablesaw, pretty easy once I figured out the right angles.
dKd4bpT.jpg
 
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#9
Bob_Ross said:
Jeebus, I feel like I have seen that bass!
Click to expand...

Last seen by me in Boulder, CO, circa 1990. Sold it to a keyboard player.

I must admit, I am not particularly proud of what I did, but damn, that thing was heavy!

I can say that I have never abused an instrument like that ever again (except musically, perhaps).

I remain,
Your Obedient Servant,

The Terror.
 
Last edited:
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#10
Good question. I think you need to take exact measurements of that neck and see if you can find a body, preferably new - without bolt holes/screw holes that could fit. Buying off the internet, which you will probably end up doing, doesn't ensure Anything. Been wanting to do a refit myself, but finding a body I like to go with my favorite neck I feel is going to be problematic. Making a new body yourself might be the answer, and it's probably cheaper than having one built for you. Keep us posted. I'd love to hear your solutions.
 

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