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Ok, Im done with wood.

H

Human Bass

Aug 26, 2005
2,190
10
#1
So the bass is super fine, the action is quite good. The next day the action is misteriously high, so I check the truss-rod, not working anymore. And it is a dual type that was supposed to be much less prone to have problems.

I will blow some money on a Status neck, have a local guy to just build a body and transfer all the electronics and hardware to the new bass.
 
#3
I can understand your frustration but......this is a very rare type of failure. What bass? Not repairable? Chronic condition?
Status has a truss rod too you know, I have one and mine requires periodic adjustment. Then there is the issue of the radius- 16". If you like the 'rounded' Fender feel you might not like such a flat fingerboard.
 
#4
I live in the northeast coast of Brazil, a city called Recife. Besides the ocean, 80% of the city giant mangrove (a kind of swamp) corvered by concrete and also we have rivers here, so with such sea+mangrove+river combo humid is always high here.

Actually I thought that the constant humid, that never changes, would be good to the wood get used and settle down, but it didnt happened, and it was a laminated neck with a pau ferro stripe in the middle.

So yeah, im going carbon fiber since cf simply ignores either high or low humidity.
 
#5
don't write off wood because of that....you'll miss some really great basses if you do. The problem was the truss rod...not neck material.

FWIW, I own many, very high-end basses. The only one I had trouble on the neck with was a graphite one.
 
#8
You just have to be careful on were you keep your bass. And get something that monitors the humidity. Thats what I have and i've never had any problems at all with my basses, and one of them is a 1974 precision so it's been around!!
So just be careful
 
#10
hasbeen said:
don't write off wood because of that....you'll miss some really great basses if you do. The problem was the truss rod...not neck material.

FWIW, I own many, very high-end basses. The only one I had trouble on the neck with was a graphite one.
Click to expand...

+1 to that. My old modulus had irreparable high action due to having no truss rod!

But seriously, I bought a brand new modulus Q6 after that, and while I didn't have to adjust the truss rod from humidity, I found I was tuning a lot because the graphite was so sensitive to changes in temperature. :( Because of this... (and other reasons) I have since given up on graphite necks.

All my other high end basses with wood necks have always been a pleasure to play and maintain. Keep in mind, I also travel very frequently with my current bass (BN6), between high and low humidity extremes (70+% to 15-20%) with no issues whatsoever.
 
#11
Wood does not normally have this many issues. I think you somehow ended up with a bummer of a bass. Between the 90% humidity summer and 2% Humidity winter here(90 degrees to -14Degrees I never have that much variation in my wood necks.

Best of luck,
Jonathan Rhum
 
#13
i have a zon sonus and i think it's great. it is a fretless and i want to get a fretted now. the neck does move a tiny bit but nothing compared to my wood basses, and it is always playable as opposed to the winter/summer swing of my wood basses. still there are a lot of good wood basses out there so don't necessarily close that door. if the area you live in is fairly constant in it's humidity then leave your bass for a while to equalize to the temp and humidity and then set it up. also try not to move it from humid to dry to cold and hot or it'll never stop. in the winter, i make sure my car is warm before i take my basses out to it and i never leave them in the car during any weather extreme.
 
#14
Its not like I will never use wood again, im not that crazy. Its just im very pragmatical and for now i want the no-frills of carbon fiber.

The funny thing the old is not unplayable, the action is high, but not a lot for a neck whose rod is dead, i guess its a testament of how good strong the grumixava and pau ferro combo is.

Well, I always like to see the good side of things, high action is good to develop strengh
 
#16
I'm a huge fan of graphite, I've owned Modulus, Zon and Status. I can attest that wood necks that contain graphite stiffening rods have not moved on me in Michigan weather (Roscoe, USCG fender replacements, and others) My current warmoth neck hasn't moved either but it's solid ebony with steel rods. I like graphite rods better because they weigh less,
 
#17
I can attest that my Status did not worry me even when I played a mid-day gig on a very hot and very dry day, only to fly to another gig few hours later with a 90% humidity and 35C temperature. I was indeed happily surprised.

I have found that graphite reinforced necks are just as stable eg Dingwall, Ken Lawrence, US Masters. Kinal
 
#18
I have a graphite reinforced maple neck on my Status Electro 2 and it is the most stable neck by far of any of my basses and also beautifully playable for my taste, which is low action. I am in Montreal where we have very hot humid summers and very cold dry winters - the Status rides it all almost perfectly, but nothing is absolutely perfect.
My Ovation Magnum 1 is a close second and it was one of the first basses with graphite reinforcement.
 

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