I misunderstood the problem. I’ve had a Fender J-neck (early ‘70’s) that left a void beneath the nut, leading to a succession of cracked plastic nuts. A brass nut solved the problem, but is obviously irrelevant in this discussion. Carry on!
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Neck too thin, truss rod is breaking out !! :(
- Thread starter barbe-et-hache
- Start date
With all these neck experts here, I have a question.... What's your collective opinion on the tonal effect of roasted necks? I've never played a bass with a roasted neck that sounded as good as a traditional wood neck. I've had a number of friends order roasted neck basses only to end up swapping necks out. The result has been a better sounding bass every time. This is coming from an admittedly small sample. Maybe 4 or 5 basses.
I'm curious what you mean here by stable vs. weak. Weak meaning more susceptible to chips/dings, but more stable against bowing out of relief?
Not trying to catch you in a tongue twister or anything, just genuinely curious. Thank you
I'm curious what you mean here by stable vs. weak. Weak meaning more susceptible to chips/dings, but more stable against bowing out of relief?
Not trying to catch you in a tongue twister or anything, just genuinely curious. Thank you
Stable means that it's less likely to start warping or twisting by itself, from internal stresses.
Weak means that it will bend or break with less force applied; it will move more when you apply string tension.
It's going to vary based on construction techniques and materials employed. I use a 10mm deep truss rod, so that becomes a dimension-limiting factor. If it's buried right under the fretboard and I use a thin fretboard (e.g. 5mm in the center of the board), then I may be able to get a neck down to 18mm thickness front to back "safely". It also depends on the neck wood used, the grain orientation, whether or not stiffeners are used, the amount of relief I'll carve in the neck, fretless vs fretted (fretless fingerboards can be stiffer if no slots are cut), volute on the back of the neck and probably other factors I'm missing.
My goal is to get my necks to insanely thin dimensions, like 18mm, which is less than 3/4"! (because I'm a shredding metalhead and love me some thin necks
). Sometimes they work out well and sometimes not so much. I would not bother trying it with something like mahogany for example, but for harder and stiffer woods it can work out. I've not had a TR break through the back in a long time (knock on wood), but I have had necks that are so thin that seasonal variations make them a pain in the neck to own and maintain. A regular 1/4" thick fretboard, 10mm thick two-way (double acting double rod) truss rod and a fender style neck design can get you down to around 20-22mm thick, which is pretty comfortable for most people.
after a through examination of the clients needs, the material/component selections and the relevant variables, i think common sense should be the minimum mfg standard.
Thanks to the suggestions, I managed to salvage the neck ! Here is what I did :
- glue back the piece that broke
- glue another piece of wood on top
- I tried to carve the neck again from here but could not get a good profile
- make some wood past with saw dust and wood glue to fill the sides of the added piece of wood
- added some wood filer because there were small holes in the repair
- carved / sand the neck again
Attachments
Great to hear you have a usable neck again.
I say paint it. You will still be remember but no one else (well, except a few people on the forum here) will be the wiser!
I say paint it. You will still be remember but no one else (well, except a few people on the forum here) will be the wiser!
I got here late. I'm glad you found a usable fix without needing to make a whole new neck. Good job!
I agree, just paint it and carry on like you meant for it to be painted.
For what it's worth, I was leaning towards cutting a stripe in the back of the neck, full length, then replacing that wood with something contrasting to give it a "skunk stripe". You already had contrasting stripes so it could have hid very well. After cutting the "slot", you could have dropped the truss rod in from "the back", then glued your new skunk stripe in to capture the truss rod, then recarve. You know, something like this -
I don't want to say "keep it in mind for next time" because I pray you never have a "next time". Seriously, glad you found a fix.
Actually, this does not work because we need more thickness behind the truss rod and the neck is already shaped. Doing this would leave a bump in the middle of the neck.
