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should the weather be effecting my neck this much!?

drewphishesp

drewphishesp

Feb 14, 2017
3,831
2,997
#1
I have 3 basses in the same room.

a jazz bass with maple neck rosewood board

a p bass with maple/maple

and a peavey 5 string with a graphite neck (obv uneffected)

The room is not air conditioned and it sometimes get a little humid. The jazz bass neck sometimes bows an insane amount that when I pick it up it looks like a c almost. The p bass neck is almost never effected. I turn the truss rod a couple times on the jazz and it seems to even it back out but I am worried I am going to break something eventually.

is this normal?
 
#2
I don't think that's normal. I live where the humidity goes up and down as well (60 to 85%). I don't have to do a truss rod job on my basses but I have to tweak the tuning.

Sounds like you have one bass (the Jazz) that is overly susceptible to humidity for some reason.
 
#8
I would bet that the would wasn't dried out sufficiently before the finish was applied. I've had a few necks with the problem you're having, and that's why (according to my repair guy who I trust). They need adjusting more often, might only move at the head stock when you adjust, or end up twisted eventually. If it is still under warranty, I would get a new neck put on that thing. I have a Mexican Jazz that I adjusted once when I got it earlier this year, and it lives in a closet that gets quite humid. The neck hasn't budged on it.
 
#11
drewphishesp said:
I have 3 basses in the same room.

a jazz bass with maple neck rosewood board

a p bass with maple/maple

and a peavey 5 string with a graphite neck (obv uneffected)

The room is not air conditioned and it sometimes get a little humid. The jazz bass neck sometimes bows an insane amount that when I pick it up it looks like a c almost. The p bass neck is almost never effected. I turn the truss rod a couple times on the jazz and it seems to even it back out but I am worried I am going to break something eventually.

is this normal?
Click to expand...
I had a fender jazz fmt, loved the tone, but the neck on it bowed & shifted quite frequently, I finally got tired of having to adjust the truss rod so often, & sold it.
 
#15
Adjusting a neck isn't a big deal and usually takes moments to do. Over time wood stabilizes and you'll have to do it less often. As long as it remains straight it is not a wood defect or product defect. If it warps or twists then that is a defect. It is merely the characteristic of the wood YOUR BASS neck has that it swings with humidity. Yes mass produced instruments can be more susceptible because the wood isn't dried as long as a small maker might do but as long as it's straight, maintain it and it should stabilize in time.

It's weird to me that someone would tire of maintaining their instruments: a labor of love. I guess they don't love them enough to deal with it. No sense in keeping something you don't love I guess.
 
#16
Are you always having to tighten the truss rod? Is the neck always bowing in the same direction? Or does it alternate between too much relief, and too little?

And how often does it need adjustment?

If it is alternating, it is not unusual for an otherwise good neck to move with humidity changes (usually seasonal).

If it is always moving in only one direction, it may eventually stabilize, or it may continue until you run out of adjustment.

-
 
#17
I'd agree that construction and quality of wood plays more into it than neck size.

I have an SR 505 with a laminated neck that never moves. It's relatively thin but I'd say the superior build techniques and wood quality keep it from having issues. Same with my 85 MIJ maple board PBass. I think The last time I had to tweak the truss rod was 10 years ago.

My MIM precision neck moves a lot based on humidity, as does my American Fender Jazz Standard Five string, but my Jaco Sig fretless, which is highly sensitive to neck movements gets tweaked about once a year.

With my necks that move, I've been keeping them stored in a dark, climate controlled room with the humidity kept at pretty much the same place via a dehumidifier. So far it seems I've had to tweak them less, but I'm not picking them up every day either to play them as they are stored in a separate house than I live in.

I'd suggest sealing the room and running a dehumidifier in there for a month. See if that changes anything. If it's anything like the crazy humidity changes of the Midwest (changing from 52% to 96% humidity in the next 24 hours) that will help stabilize the wood a little.
 
#18
I am not sure it has much to do with quality honestly.

The neck on my Ibanez Mikro seems surprisingly stable and it's a bass with a relatively slim neck to under 200$ from new.

I guess with budget basses it is just more random and luck dependent what you get, seems like I was lucky.

And unfortunately there is not any real way to check this particular issue out when buying a new bass.
 
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#20
96tbird said:
Yes mass produced instruments can be more susceptible because the wood isn't dried as long as a small maker might do
Click to expand...
It's not the drying time that's the determinant, it's the material selection. Mass producers use the wood at hand and don't select each individual piece for its suitability - they can't afford to do that. Sure they will reject really bad pieces, but in volume manufacture "good enough" is what's chosen. And "good enough" falls within a defined manufacture failure rate. So "good enough" means everything from "superb" to "barely acceptable".
 

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