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Rosewood as a neck?
- Thread starter Jerry J
- Start date
A solid rosewood bass would weigh a ton. But a solid ebony bass would weigh more. It would sound sweet, but it would weigh more than a ton.
My first Curbow (got it back in '90) has a Brazilian Rosewood neck and fingerboard with a one piece mahogany body.
Here's some pics:
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The bass is passive with Bartolini pickups and TI Jazz Flats.
The neck isn't top heavy at all--in fact, the bass weighs about 6-7 lbs. Extremely light and easy to play for long stretches of time.
I love it!
Here's some pics:
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The bass is passive with Bartolini pickups and TI Jazz Flats.
The neck isn't top heavy at all--in fact, the bass weighs about 6-7 lbs. Extremely light and easy to play for long stretches of time.
I love it!
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
Just FYI, we can and have made bass necks out of lots of exotic woods including ebony, palisander rosewood, bocote, ziricote, goncalo alves, bubinga, padouk, wenge, purpleheart, and bloodwood (satine.) Of all these, ebony makes both the brightest and heaviest neck.
Unfortunately, we rarely hear reports from people who have strung these things up, so we don't have a lot of first-hand tone information for basses.
Unfortunately, we rarely hear reports from people who have strung these things up, so we don't have a lot of first-hand tone information for basses.
Uh, I just checked to make sure our website was accurate, and I think you'll find we only list brazilian as a fretboard wood. Our neck shafts are always palilsander rosewood, although you can get a brazilian fingerboard on one.
somebody asked about Brazilian Rosewood as a neck wood. This stuff is ostensibly commercially extinct, as well as it should be! Is warmoth working on old stock? as I know many suppliers (like Luthiers' mercantile don't stock it anymore)
let's let the supplies replenish themselves so our grandchildren can have cool fingerboards too! (and the rainforest can continue to help keep us all alive!)
karl hoyt
curmudgeon luthier on cape cod
let's let the supplies replenish themselves so our grandchildren can have cool fingerboards too! (and the rainforest can continue to help keep us all alive!)
karl hoyt
curmudgeon luthier on cape cod
Yep, you know your products! Never hurts to ask though.
I know a few wood sources and luthiers offer Brazilian that either came from stumps that were cut down for non-CITES members or were recycled from old furniture and doors.
Then again, there is a site, Link Removed , who sells new and old growth Brazilian rosewood boards.
As for me, I like the big chunk of Panamanian cocobolo rosewood on my bass better anyway.
Taylor Livingston
Commercial User
I would love to see a bloodwood neck (and I'd love to hear an ebony neck). Is the bloodwood you use the really red stuff, and does it stay that way once it's finished?
I have a rosewood neck on a g&l 1500 modifed with a bartolini Hi A pickup in the bridge position. It was custom made about 20 years ago by a luthier in Oakland, CA. Jazz width, ebony fretboard, fretless. Not heavy. Sounds a bit on the dark side, but still responsive. Feels great.
The original neck had been modified for one of those magnatone fretboards. Weighed a ton and the magnet had worn out so the fretboard would slide off as you played.
The original neck had been modified for one of those magnatone fretboards. Weighed a ton and the magnet had worn out so the fretboard would slide off as you played.
YES!!
In 1983 I bought a solid Rosewood Jazz neck for my Fender precision bass from Axe music in Edmonton when it was on Whyte Av before they moved to Wayne Gretzky drive. It was about $400 at the time, a huge number to pay for a neck-only part at that time, and I was a gigging musician, but that said we got steady work in those days and played bar and arena rock shows constantly. It was a Schecter neck, during the time that Schecter was a guitar-parts speciality, and it had a wonderfully shaped rounded triangular back, perfect for finger position. It was a "lighter" dark rosewood, more of a mocha, and Japanese Rosewood as I recall, with a slightly different coloured cut in the back to insert the truss rod.
I sold the bass in about 1990 or so, and as I recall the entire bass, a 1972 US cream coloured Pre (refinished to varnished wood) and the solid rose neck, along with twin EMG passive P-pups (yes a double split-P arrangement), with phase switches for each half of the split Ps (that really allowed some honky sounds), and a battery powered internal rumble filter/line level pre-amp (made that using the Don Lancaster active filter cookbook and 741 op amp) made this Bass a crying shame to be sold for about the same price I paid for the of the neck alone.
I have spent days at the PC doing searches on solid rosewood necks, and only found one once on eBay and it was expired/sold.
They were uncommon animals at best, I only saw the one neck at Axe and bought it, and have never seen another since. After that Schecter changed their marketing from high quality and exotic guitar parts to mid-quality whole product. Sad.
Oh, and to the initial question, it sounds and played better than any other Fender (or bolted neck) bass I have played. Did I say I was sad??
Musicman seems to have offered solid rosewood necks on some of their models...
I have one.
It's a Schecter Jazz-width all-rosewood neck that I have on my recording bass. Here's MY impression.
The bass is the MOST even-sounding string to string of any I've ever played. It has a dark, clear piano-like tone, and even old strings still sound articulate with this bass. I went through several "improved" (read hotter) P-bass pickups with this bass, but found most of them a bit too harsh for my tastes, before finally getting a set of Fender CS 62's in there. Their range is a fantastic pairing with the rosewood neck and walnut body. Yeah, it's a bit heavier than many would like, but I record sitting down usually so I don't care, I love the responsive, yet dark natural compression of this combination.
(I built this bass out of acquired parts in the mid 90's to soothe my GAS for waiting a Fender 82-83 all-walnut Precision special to show up. Well, I finally bought one, liked it, but eventually sold it, as I liked the parts bass better
It's a Schecter Jazz-width all-rosewood neck that I have on my recording bass. Here's MY impression.
The bass is the MOST even-sounding string to string of any I've ever played. It has a dark, clear piano-like tone, and even old strings still sound articulate with this bass. I went through several "improved" (read hotter) P-bass pickups with this bass, but found most of them a bit too harsh for my tastes, before finally getting a set of Fender CS 62's in there. Their range is a fantastic pairing with the rosewood neck and walnut body. Yeah, it's a bit heavier than many would like, but I record sitting down usually so I don't care, I love the responsive, yet dark natural compression of this combination.
(I built this bass out of acquired parts in the mid 90's to soothe my GAS for waiting a Fender 82-83 all-walnut Precision special to show up. Well, I finally bought one, liked it, but eventually sold it, as I liked the parts bass better
I have. Musicman did a some rosewood neck basses. I think it's limited for a couple reasons. For one its a taste thing. There's probably just not as many people who'd want it for cosmetic reasons. Brown necks only look good on so many different color bodies. Unlike just having the rosewood fingerboard the headstock was also rosewood on the one I tried. But I have to wonder if all the new laws on shipping rosewood have spooked some companies. It is illegal to ship rosewood into some countries as some types of rosewood are now considered endangered species. There has been a couple horror stories already about basses being held up on customs and stuff
