Leave those necks on!

[Glenn Johnson]

Could teflon tape work too?

Yes, but probably not as well as a bit of wood glue and a toothpick. That repair will be an essentially permanent fix to a problem I've never heard of anyway, and will in no way affect the tone of the bass.

 

[Koshchei]

Screwing takes time and practice to perfect.

Screwing is easy compared to unscrewing.

 

[baileyboy]

You are not alone... I would never take a neck off to do a truss rod adjustment or anything else for that matter for the very reason you state. I've never had any issues with adjustments leaving the neck on. I have removed pick guards for easier access to get to truss rods, however, but quite another matter altogether.

 

[james condino]

First world problems....

 

[Glenn Johnson]

Also, seems like a good idea when reinstalling the screws: turn them counter-clockwise by hand for just a bit until you feel it "click" into the pre-cut threads in the wood. Then tighten. That way the screw won't be tempted to cut new threads in the wood.

Much more important when screwing metal into metal. METAL INTO WOOD - not so much based on my experience.

 

[9mmMike]

Original Fenders ( and quite a few new Fenders ) are designed with truss rod adjustments at the heel, with no adjustment route. The necks are designed to come off.......... Stop worrying.

This.

 

[Pilgrim]

Looking around on Reverb and other (local) used stuff sites, i see a lot of basses with the necks removed to show whats underneath.

I'm a technician and also a pretty curious guy... but this always rustles my jimmies. A lot of basses have what is called a "bolt-on" construction. In fact no bolt ever comes near it (wish they did). It is "screwed on" and everyone who ever used screws knows that it's in some way a destructive process. As a screw is turned in, the "thread" is being cut. This is not neat and nice thread like when a bolt is used, but crude and actually different for each screw. It's a very secure connection and solid and ridgid etc, but when you loosen the screws to remove the neck, you can, in some cases, see wood come out of the hole. meaning, the next time you reinstall it, the screws will have lost some power, tightening wise. worst thing that can happen is not the same screw in the same hole. No screw is exactly the same as an other one.

I know i'm a Nitpick right now, but i've been thinking about this for quite a while and find myself looking at awesome J-Basses that are and look great, but i hit the little cross as soon as i see a picture with the neck removed or a clearly damaged neck-joint.

Am i alone in this? am i going too far with it? Should i go to therapy?

Chill. Not your bass. Also, if the process is done carefully it doesn't hurt a thing.

 

[Turnaround]

^^^This is what i mean.

I know there are a lot of able people out there (and i also know a lot of people nodding their heads reading that statement are in fact not!) who know how to properly reassemble a bass. I presume that in the factory, a procedure is followed to attach the neck to the body. In all other manufacturing processes this is the case, so probably also here the screw sequence and torques are there and followed by the assembly personel. What i don't know is if some salesperson out there has the same discipline. What i do know about a lot of salespeople doesn't really put my mind at ease. For them, for example, it's more important to show the authenticity of the bass than to remain it to have that thing you call Mojo.

You might be surprised about the procedure for attaching a neck in factory built basses. It's pretty crude in most cases. It's so crude in many cases that the shank hole size is drilled with the same size drill as the pilot hole in the neck. That means that the screw threads engage in the body as well as the neck. That is a poor way to do it - poor but cost effective. The screws are driven in with a machine - like an electric drill/screwdriver, with the clutch set to give an approximate tightness. I know of no maker that actually uses a real torque driver.

So many basses I have worked on, many right from the factory, were improved by removing the neck screws, drilling out the holes in the body to give proper clearance for the screws and reassembling, along with tightening other screws - bridge, tuners, strap buttons, string hold-downs, that are often slightly loose.

 

[AboutSweetSue]

Screwing is easy compared to unscrewing.

Hear, Hear!

 

[Glenn Johnson]

If you unscrew the screws halfway, then rip them the rest of the way out, then you might have a problem - still easily fixable with a wee bit of wood glue and a broken off toothpick or two. And don't over tighten - just snug.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

My Steinberger XP-2 has brass inserts in the neck itself, with hex-head threaded bolts holding it through the body, with each bolt in a recessed ferrule. It’s possible to rip out (ask me how I know this) the threaded inserts by severe over-tightening of the bolts, but short of that kind of stupidity (me) it’s incredibly solid. The beck has s slight “dovetail” taper, so it gets tighter in the pocket as you crank it down. My G&L L2k has three wood screws and one neck tilt hex screw, and it’s plenty solid, but I’ve only had it off once that I remember. Blame the Fender cork sniffers, opining on the validity of date stamps. Leo would have laughed hard to see the level of Crazy applied to some of his older models.

 

[AcridSaint]

Strange. My tech has had necks off of many of my basses. I have too.

 

[james condino]

........Blame the Fender cork sniffers......

+1

 

[J_Bass]

Everyone knows the mojo leaks out when a screw gets loosened. But where does it go? This is the part most people fail to understand. If you have all the windows and doors shut tight, the mojo will generally stay in the room. You can sort of feel it sometimes, circling around up near the ceiling, looking for something to attach itself to. Now, the worst thing that can happen at that point is that someone walks in on you and lets the mojo escape from the room. Say your wife comes in while you are working on your bass, to bring you a sandwich or tell you your buddy called from jail to borrow $200 for bail. The mojo will fly right out of the room! Then you have to chase it down the hall. If you're lucky you might still be able to find it, but there are so many ways it can escape from the house that it's unlikely you will ever get it back. This is why there are so many lifeless, lackluster used basses on Ebay all the time - someone loosened a neck screw, the mojo escaped, and the bass was never the same after that, so they sold it on and bought a new one. Of course a new bass only has the factory-installed mojo, not the additional mojo that has built up over time, so a new bass will never sound as good as an old one that has all its original screws intact. Many a bassist has switched to clarinet in despair upon realizing this.

Now the good news: if you have locked the door and windows while performing your truss rod adjustment, and can ignore the pounding from people trying to get your attention, you have a decent chance at being able to recapture the escaped mojo. The procedure is relatively simple: holding the removed screw in your right hand and the bass body in your left hand, stand in the center of the room and repeat this chant three times: "Mojo, mojo, where did you go? Back into your hole you must flow! Hoedown, flowdown, mojo go down!" When you have completed this chant three times, immediately replace the removed screw and tighten. You must do this for each removed screw in order to ensure that the mojo from each screw hole comes back.

That's all there is to it! But please remember that this only works for neck mounting screws. The procedure for calling back escaped mojo after loosening pickguard screws is much more complicated, and not for the faint of heart.

Post of the month!!



Please tell us how to prevent pickguard mojo leaks!!

 

[Corevalay]

Seems like a bit of an over-reaction and overthinking it to me. The necks are designed to be removable and somewhat interchangeable. Unless you're removing it CONSTANTLY, I see no reason to be alarmed.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

All the Mojo in my house gets dissolved in the washing machine, or rinsed off with soap and water. When I get it on my hands, I use Mojo-Be-Gone, the orange citrus version in the handy pump dispenser.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I try to minimize the "new thread" cutting by turning the screw in the hole counterclockwise until it falls into place, before starting to screw it in.

First world problems....

They don't use screw-on necks in developing countries?

 

[giacomobass]

That being said, there is a right way and wrong way to remove a neck for inspection / adjustment / repair...same holds true for re-introduction of the wood screws.

Care to share the right and wrong ways to do it? Thanks.

 

[Turnaround]

All the Mojo in my house gets dissolved in the washing machine, or rinsed off with soap and water. When I get it on my hands, I use Mojo-Be-Gone, the orange citrus version in the handy pump dispenser.

NO! The orangey one is mostly just mineral oil with a bit of orange scent! Save a few bucks and get your mineral oil from the pharmacy for 1/10th of the price.

I think.

Maybe not.

 

[Turnaround]

sips coffee...

And if you hadn't removed the neck you would never have known that yours was one of the red marked versions.