Double Bass Laminate Christopher, vs hybrid Chris, vs Hybrid Shen

[Steve Swan]

Kerry,

I haven't figured out what the "Mystery channel" in the center of the mating surface of the Shen maple necks are for. Why would they go through the extra step? It's smaller than most truss rod channels in guitar necks. The ebony fingerboard offers much more stiffness than an inlay of ebony or other hardwood would have. Maybe John Sprague can let us know. It seems like a solution in search of a problem. The nice conventional medium size neck shape offers far more mass and stiffness than, say, a Kay or Engelhardt. Christopher basses also have a nice medium profile and reasonably thick fingerboards.

Recently I had to replace a fingerboard on an incoming Shen bass that had been damaged by my last shipment ever with UPS Freight. (Never use these animals! Some lazy forklift operator had been slamming around the two-cartons-per-pallet packaging with the forklift tines instead of taking 3 seconds more to properly put the tines under the pallet. This idiot had not only snapped off the end of the fingerbaord, but had torn the neck right out of the bass. Subsequent shipments with Conway Trucking have arrived perfectly safe.) Mike Olivola and I couldn't figure out why the neck channel was there.

I haven't observed or had reported to me neck warping on Shen basses. If it was a problem, I would have dropped them a long time ago. A significant problem like warping necks would completely wipe out the small profit on these instruments. It wouldn't make sense for a retailer to constantly be chasing his tail for this kind of inventory. It's why the warranty on Cremona and Palatino bass-shaped-objects is typically of the "thirty feet or thirty seconds" variety. No dealer for those "instruments" is going to want to buy three for every one that sticks with a customer!

 

[DHoss]

Hopefully, this post might shed some light on the reason for the neck channels.

In October 2010, I emailed John Sprague inquiring about the Shen neck channels because I was in the market for a Shen Bass having read glowing reports (I now own two Shens, made in 2009, with neck channels as evidenced by a maple piece when looking up into the overstand area). The necks are stable (one bass was set up by Arnold Schnitzer in 2011).

I imagine Mr. Sprague won't mind me sharing the contents of his reply:

He replied that the channel is made prior to drying the wood as a measure of meeting supply and demand while facing the struggle to acquire fully dried wood, as all bass makers do. The slots are the solution designed to assist in more thoroughly aging the neck's core. At that time, he stated that because of this technique, the occurrence of neck issues was reduced to nearly zero.

Hopefully this helps resolve the mystery!

Dave

 

[Steve Swan]

Thanks, Dave!

 

[kerrycares]

Hopefully, this post might shed some light on the reason for the neck channels.

In October 2010, I emailed John Sprague inquiring about the Shen neck channels because I was in the market for a Shen Bass having read glowing reports (I now own two Shens, made in 2009, with neck channels as evidenced by a maple piece when looking up into the overstand area). The necks are stable (one bass was set up by Arnold Schnitzer in 2011).

I imagine Mr. Sprague won't mind me sharing the contents of his reply:

He replied that the channel is made prior to drying the wood as a measure of meeting supply and demand while facing the struggle to acquire fully dried wood, as all bass makers do. The slots are the solution designed to assist in more thoroughly aging the neck's core. At that time, he stated that because of this technique, the occurrence of neck issues was reduced to nearly zero.

Hopefully this helps resolve the mystery!

Dave

Thanks Dave and Steve.