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P bass necks that are thin/flat front to back?
- Thread starter nonohmic
- Start date
I've been down this road. The '62 neck profile is the one. I have a Fullerton Reissue P that starts at 0.785" at 1st fret and stays thin at 0.875 at 12th fret. The 62 profile progressively got thicker as the AVRI years went by. My 2008 AVRI 62 is a bit thicker, but same idea. If you play anything else (except my Fullerton Reissue) it feels pretty thin. The one Fender currently favors is the "60s Oval C" which my CS 59 has. Very comfortable, it starts thin at 0.79" but ramps up close to an inch at the 12th fret. Again, if you play anything else before it, it feels thin, but if you play my Fullerton first it feels chunky.
My friend Tim who made the bass in my profile picture turned me on to this. He made that bass with the Fullerton 62 profile, and called it "Fender's Ibanez neck"
You'll often hear me gripe about descriptions that just say "P neck" or "J neck"...... nowhere descriptive enough for me. Nut width is just one of many factors!
My friend Tim who made the bass in my profile picture turned me on to this. He made that bass with the Fullerton 62 profile, and called it "Fender's Ibanez neck"
You'll often hear me gripe about descriptions that just say "P neck" or "J neck"...... nowhere descriptive enough for me. Nut width is just one of many factors!
You can try the Indonesia Squier CV70P.
I been own the 2024 FSR version, neck are thinner than others Squier P I ever own and play. . Pretty much a J neck with 42mm nut width with similar neck thickness under first fret to 16th fret.
Another contender is the Dan Lakin Bob Glaub signature P. Both this and the Joe Osborne jazz bass are pretty true to early 60's thinny-thin specs. These D Lakin's are extremely well made, in Korea, and set up in USA, and are an extraordinary value as well. I value Ed Friedland's opinions and reviews and he highly praises these.
Assuming you’re looking for a “fast feel” id tout player series as the slimmest fastest feeling p bass necks ive played. A friend said the same about my player 1. He was never a p bass fan (necks) but wants one now. I believe the player 2 has the same neck only slightly more refined. If you have not tried a player or player 2
suggest you start there.
Players are top notch for the money. Especially player 1 used. My player is .815 in. And .915 at 1st and 12th. I have a mod shop American neck sitting here that is only about .025 thicker (.840) but feels chunky compared to the player. It could easily be the contour ( c, d or whatever) that makes the noticeable difference in the hand. The fattest necks i have are all allparts. Love those ball bats!
An ultra or ultra 2 is going to be a hair slimmer (.800) but then your price quadruples and you have a neck that won’t fit any other bodies because they’re 21 frets, and the two I measured were not wide enough to fill a neck pocket on a standard body even if you moved the components to maintain scale.
All that said i think Ibanez makes the thinnest necks ever on a bass. My 4 string p/j sr whatever model, felt like a toy and required regular adjustments (which was good because it learned me on how to adjust necks) but it was absolutely thin.
suggest you start there.
Players are top notch for the money. Especially player 1 used. My player is .815 in. And .915 at 1st and 12th. I have a mod shop American neck sitting here that is only about .025 thicker (.840) but feels chunky compared to the player. It could easily be the contour ( c, d or whatever) that makes the noticeable difference in the hand. The fattest necks i have are all allparts. Love those ball bats!
An ultra or ultra 2 is going to be a hair slimmer (.800) but then your price quadruples and you have a neck that won’t fit any other bodies because they’re 21 frets, and the two I measured were not wide enough to fill a neck pocket on a standard body even if you moved the components to maintain scale.
All that said i think Ibanez makes the thinnest necks ever on a bass. My 4 string p/j sr whatever model, felt like a toy and required regular adjustments (which was good because it learned me on how to adjust necks) but it was absolutely thin.
Yes! Late ‘80s, too. Both their ESP-branded replacement necks and their Navigator-branded complete basses had very flat necks.
Fender Precisions from around ’82 until around ‘84-ish when they closed down U.S. production for a year have really wide, flat necks. 83 was the sweet spot. The variants of P-basses at that time like the Precision Elite also had that wide, flat neck.
I believe Musikraft will make a P neck with that profile as well.
I've also been down this road with Musikraft. I've asked if they'd make a Fullerton P profile which should be roughly about .775 to .875 1st and 12th frets, and a Jaco profile jazz neck .74 to .85 1st and 12th frets, they said absolutely not to both requests.
How does that feel to play? I never tried a neck that thin.The D Lakin Bob Glaub P bass is modeled after Glaub's '64 Fender. A full 1 3/4" at the nut and flat as a pancake like a typical '64. In fact, "pancake" was the nick-name for that neck shape at one time. Here's my pancake and it's probably going to the grave with me!(Thanks DaveDeville!)
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They have their standard profiles and that's it. I believe they used to have more available but I guess they've had to streamline production.
I know their shipping has also doubled. I was going to order a custom P bass neck but I'm in Europe and I'd have to shell out about $800 after shipping, import tax and VAT.
No idea why no other companies offer their level of customization and why none exist in Europe.
As long as you aren’t concerned with width the 59 Fender Precisions and their reproductions have flat thin necks.
Those are actually not thin, they are deeper than the early 60s reissues. Usually the MIM 50s necks in maple are .82" at the 1st fret vs 0.75-0.79" for the early 60s with rosewood.
This is based on the FMIC spec sheets and my own measurements.
Necks started huge in the early 50s, changed to a V in the mid 50s, became more rounded towards the end of the decade and then became thin in the early 60s and later they became thicker again, starting in 63 IIRC.
MIAs and signature models all have different thicknesses, for example the Pino Palladino P bass is supposed to replicate his 62 but the neck is not as shallow as many basses from the era because there was variation among them.
Fender 1961 also. It seems like all the early ‘60’s P-necks. feature that. One TB’er claims the CS Pino, supposedly modeled after a ‘62, has a chunky neck. That would be an exceptional ‘62. Are there other exceptions from the era?
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