Poorly fitting neck

[BAG]

One of my favorite P body J neck basseshas a much bigger gap and plays fine. Zoom in to see that egregious valley.

View attachment 4259881
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Wow! That's a serious gap. But if it plays well, holds tune and doesn't shift... no problem.

 

[PhatBottomBass1]

View attachment 4259443 View attachment 4259443 View attachment 4259450 View attachment 4259443 View attachment 4259450 Hello all, I recently acquired a jazz neck and popped it on a P body. It has a little gap at the side. Is it going to cause any issues? It feels and sounds okay, I checked the intonation and it’s set up. It seems okay to me so I’m not too bothered but I’d like to hear some more experienced views.

Let me buck the trend from the "don't buy a Bass from ANY of the prior posters on this question!" (These are the same guys with duct tape holding the bumper of their '79 AMC Hornet on after that accident!)

If you know better, get a neck that fits. If Roger Sadowsky thought it was OK, he wouldn't be able to pick his Bass up off the bench face down with no neck bolts in and have the neck stay in place. That's a mighty tight pocket!

But what does a hack like Roger know about neck/pocket fit that TB can't clear up?

 

[Trailertrash74]

I think this was previously recommend by one of our TB "shade tree luthiers", but just saw it in half in the center (lengthwise) and glue it back together. That should tighten up that neck pocket!!

 

[Topkat13]

Don't look at it.

 

[grocker]

Sounds good,play her..

 

[AboutSweetSue]

Yeah, I have the same issue. It is a really nice playing Jazz Bass. Then I noticed the gap. It’s a POS, now.

 

[grocker]

Yeah, I have the same issue. It is a really nice playing Jazz Bass. Then I noticed the gap. It’s a POS, now. View attachment 4260272

Ha!

 

[dkelley]

My wife would go to a chiropractor for a poorly fitting neck.

 

[GreyBeard]

I had a CBS Precision Fretless that had a gap that big. I stored my picks in the crack.

 

[HardNHeavy]

2 part wood epoxy fixes that right up..hard as nails when dry...that neck will fit tight

 

[bobyoung53]

One plus to wide neck gaps is that you can loosen the neck a little and line up the strings right in the center of the neck then tighten the hell out of it so the neck doesn't move.

 

[2tonic]

One of my favorite P body J neck basseshas a much bigger gap and plays fine. Zoom in to see that egregious valley.
View attachment 4259881
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Holy Panama Canals, Batman!!!

 

[cnltb]

Nobody will ever notice.

...too late.

 

[bolophonic]

...too late.

But will his secret be safe here?

 

[cnltb]

But will his secret be safe here?

What do you think...this is talkbass...

 

[Durham52]

That clearance is better than normal for a 70's Fender - a lot of those had very wide gaps. It's a visual thing mostly, but if the neck gets jostled to where it shifts, it can shift further in a loose neck pocket than in a tight one.

Beat me to it. My first thought on seeing the OP's pics was about 70's Fenders (not all of them, but plenty) with sloppy neck pockets.

These days with all the big and some small operations using CNC machines, there's no excuse for inaccuracies like that. Not that there ever really was, at least not with better than budget instruments.