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Neck too high?

franvarin

franvarin

May 30, 2013
727
814
Rhode Island
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#1
I'm hoping the TB community can help some confusion I have. I have a PBass body which I bought from company in NY. They did a great job and the quality of the body is really good.

The dilema I have is this, I installed a Fender neck and am using a Hipshot bridge. When I string the bass up I have to set the saddle screws at max just to get string clearance. So, I looked at the orientation of the neck and to my eyes the neck seemed to sit high in the pocket. I measured the pocket depth and found it to be dead on 5/8". I can for the life of me understnad why the neck is so high. I measured the pocket depth on a couple of Squire bodies I have laying around and found the neck pocket was a bit deeper which is contrary to what I've read about the Fender specs for the neck pocket. If anyone can clear this up for me, I'd really appreciate it!
 
#2
Depth and angle can both cause out-of-range problems like this. If the neck thickness and pocket depth are both in spec and the bridge is out of range like that, the neck or pocket may not be perfectly flat. You can fix that by identifying the problem and shaving it until it's flat, or just use a tapered shim (thicker towards the headstock end of the pocket in this case) to tilt the neck. The fit being off like you're describing is not very common but it definitely happens.
 
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#4
Unless you want to get into rerouting things or sanding an angle into the neck heel a small shim, like a playing card thickness, at the headstock end of the neck pocket will probably fix you up. Like @dwizum said, shimming the other end of the heel is more common but I could probably go in the basement and pick out 2 or 3 instruments that are shimmed like that versus maybe 5 or 6 that have body end shims.
 
#5
Matt Liebenau said:
Unless you want to get into rerouting things or sanding an angle into the neck heel a small shim, like a playing card thickness, at the headstock end of the neck pocket will probably fix you up. Like @dwizum said, shimming the other end of the heel is more common but I could probably go in the basement and pick out 2 or 3 instruments that are shimmed like that versus maybe 5 or 6 that have body end shims.
Click to expand...


Never do that, it would screw a neck in the long run.
 
#6
franvarin said:
I'm hoping the TB community can help some confusion I have. I have a PBass body which I bought from company in NY. They did a great job and the quality of the body is really good.

The dilema I have is this, I installed a Fender neck and am using a Hipshot bridge. When I string the bass up I have to set the saddle screws at max just to get string clearance. So, I looked at the orientation of the neck and to my eyes the neck seemed to sit high in the pocket. I measured the pocket depth and found it to be dead on 5/8". I can for the life of me understnad why the neck is so high. I measured the pocket depth on a couple of Squire bodies I have laying around and found the neck pocket was a bit deeper which is contrary to what I've read about the Fender specs for the neck pocket. If anyone can clear this up for me, I'd really appreciate it!
Click to expand...
My neck pocket is a little shallow. Opposite. My saddles go all the way down. So, I stuffed a few playing cards in my neck to raise it up. Maybe you could do the same on your bridge.
 
#7
Few clarifying questions:
1. what is the height of the middle of the fretboard at the heel above the body?
2. how are you defining the saddle screws being at "max"?
3. When you have them at max, what is the height of the saddle off the body of the bass - not the side of the saddle, but the bottom of the string groove?
 
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#10
InstantEctobass said:


I think Dan videos are worth watching. Like "luthiers" tightening trussrod with 140 Kg of string tension on the neck. Stupid people wrecking good parts.
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I have watched most or all of Dan’s videos and read his books and articles before there was an internet. I guess I’ll just figure I’m still misunderstanding you and apologize if I am and leave it there.
 
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#11
Matt Liebenau said:
I have watched most or all of Dan’s videos and read his books and articles before there was an internet. I guess I’ll just figure I’m still misunderstanding you and apologize if I am and leave it there.
Click to expand...

No need to apologise, it's just that I've seen the effects on
one of my necks in a few months. It was buzzing on the high frets. Not anymore now that I watched that video and corrected my way of shimming the neck :)
 
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