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thin necks?? why?

#61
I don't care whether its got a thin or a fat neck, as long as I can get the action low and it has good tone. I love my vintage Guild B301 just as much as my Vintage Jazz, and the necks couldn't be more different. I do think that wider necks do have slightly more sustain, but the tradeoff is they are not as fast. I also don't think it is legitimate to say that because a Jazz bass has great tone neck thickness has no bearing on tone. The Jazz is a brilliant design with a great natural tone, but perhaps it would sound even better with a slightly thicker neck. However, if someone is comfortable with both the feel and the tone of their bass I see no logic in changing it.
 
#62
IMO, we need more clarification on what is classified as thick or thin as those terms seem pretty relative. I also think context plays an important role, as in what sort of instrument is it, action, etc....

While I really like the relatively thin (front to back) neck on my Pedulla Rapture 5, I find that the thinner neck carve on my Waterstone TP-12 is actually a bit harder to manage on that particular instrument, as it seems that the lack of heft under my hand means that I cannot easily get enough clamping pressure to press down the courses of strings. Thus the relatively thicker, chunkier neck on my Hamer Chaparral B12L is easier to play. FWIW, I tend to use a semi-classical left hand technique, where my thumb is centered behind the neck.
 
#64
tomvelsor said:
i still dont see what small hands has to do with the thickness of a neck. your thumb is the only finger affected by a fat/thin neck, and on a fat neck its in a more natural position (if you relax your hand, look at the distance between your thumb and the rest of your fingers. thats the size your neck should be.)
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Thinness/shallowness definitely is important to those of us with smaller hands. While the fret stretch is the same from index-to-pinky, adding that to a greater thumb/palm stretch (accommodating the greater neck mass) makes for a less 'ergonomically sound' hand position. I have three different basses going from an Ibanez-esque flat 'shredder' neck to a rounded, near P-bass (ish) Godin, and the flattest neck is by far the most comfortable.
 
#65
I think the mistake is grabbing the neck. if you put the bass on a stand (with a proper angle), and put your fingers on the board, you wouldn't care too much about the thickness unless it's absurdly thick. you can do the same without the stand as well. you don't want to carry the neck, you just want access to the frets/board.
 
#66
artistanbul said:
I think the mistake is grabbing the neck. if you put the bass on a stand (with a proper angle), and put your fingers on the board, you wouldn't care too much about the thickness unless it's absurdly thick. you can do the same without the stand as well. you don't want to carry the neck, you just want access to the frets/board.
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For most, bending strings is hard without grabbing the neck... --Kent

PS: There are also techniques for damping the lowest string with the thumb, or even playing the lower strings with a thumb (e.g. Jaco Pastorious) that are tough if not impossible with fat necks, unless someone has a big hand, of course.
 
#67
I never really used to notice the neck, until I got my current bass (see sig.) That bass has the same width neck as an Ibanez SR505 (5 string), and i don't like it, only becasue the strings are too far apart. I love playing on 5 string necks, because the strings are nice and close, but you still have a larger neck in your hand
 
#69
ehque said:
My relaxed hand has the thumb touching my fingers. What now?

I like thin necks, AND i play a six. Your projection of your experience on to everyone else strikes me as hubris. sorry.
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you act like i'm trying to argue with you. take a deep breath, and cool down a bit. im just wondering if anyone is stopping to think why so many instruments are designed the way they are..

i have no problem with you if you play and love thin necks. i want to know peoples reasons for it, aside from "i like it"
 
#70
I have thin bass necks and fat necks, and a six string neck and what to me is important is how far from the edge of the fingerboard the strings are not how fat the neck is. I played a P bass with a fat neck and great playability, and a ken smimth proto, where the strings were almost a 1/4 inch back from the edge of the finger board (sounded good but playability stunk) ..... that to me is a bigger peoblem than how thick the neck is...Listen to what guys did back in the 70's with fat Pbass necks....Entwhistles live at Leedds was recorded with a P bass...Geddy Lee used one...Guess tthe bottom line is find what you like and go for it and let others make their own choices!!!

Sorry for the rant

Bill
 
#71
ksandvik said:
For most, bending strings is hard without grabbing the neck... --Kent

PS: There are also techniques for damping the lowest string with the thumb, or even playing the lower strings with a thumb (e.g. Jaco Pastorious) that are tough if not impossible with fat necks, unless someone has a big hand, of course.
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Bingo!

I'm a string damping maniac, and I'll often damp the B-string by wrapping my thumb over while playing slap. Smaller necks help with this.
 
#72
bassmanrocke said:
I don't care whether its got a thin or a fat neck, as long as I can get the action low and it has good tone. I love my vintage Guild B301 just as much as my Vintage Jazz, and the necks couldn't be more different. I do think that wider necks do have slightly more sustain, but the tradeoff is they are not as fast. I also don't think it is legitimate to say that because a Jazz bass has great tone neck thickness has no bearing on tone. The Jazz is a brilliant design with a great natural tone, but perhaps it would sound even better with a slightly thicker neck. However, if someone is comfortable with both the feel and the tone of their bass I see no logic in changing it.
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i used to have a vintage guild b301, from the mid 70s. it was a great bass! i couldent stand the neck dive though, it was poorly designed. still sounded sweet though.

i think some issues with this thread is that people arent understanding what im talking about. im not talking about string spacing. im talking about how thick the neck is, not how wide. i think a few people diddnt understand that.

and obviously a great bass with a thin neck is still a great bass. but if it was up to me, i'd always prefer a treetrunk. (like a wishbass :bassist:)
 
#73
I have a 1.5" nut-width Yamaha and a 1.59" P-bass and the two differences I feel are the width of frets and the flatness of the neck, in which the Precision has the flatter neck. The Precision has 20 frets which are, I assume, extra large or at least large and the Yamaha has 24 medium-ish ones.

The Precision can be uncomfortable in first position if I don't keep the four fingers/three frets hand-position, but that's because of the frets, not the width of the neck. It's also true that I can move up and down the neck faster with the thinner neck, but the Yamaha has no sustain or real bottom-end compared to the Precision.
 
#74
tomvelsor said:
i think some issues with this thread is that people arent understanding what im talking about. im not talking about string spacing. im talking about how thick the neck is, not how wide. i think a few people diddnt understand that.

(like a wishbass :bassist:)
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Personally I noted that what I refer to as a thin neck differs. In terms of depth, which is what I believe you're talking about, it makes no difference to me as long as the bass feels comfortable. I feel comfortable on many different necks, and uncomfortable on others.

It would be very difficult to describe why one neck feels more comfortable than another. A typical Alembic or older Ric neck generally feels best to me, but as stated a lot of that is because the string spacing suits. A Jazz bass neck generally isn't that comfortable to me, but that's more to do with the extreme taper.

I also tend to use a more classical left hand position. And I have to add that I also appear to have double-jointed thumbs like Jaco, so maybe that has some impact (in fact I'll never forget being fascinated hearing how his thumbs were double jointed, thinking it was an incredible thing, and upon seeing a picture being amazed that they were more or less the same as mine are).
 
#75
tomvelsor said:
you act like i'm trying to argue with you. take a deep breath, and cool down a bit. im just wondering if anyone is stopping to think why so many instruments are designed the way they are..

i have no problem with you if you play and love thin necks. i want to know peoples reasons for it, aside from "i like it"
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I'm sorry. Just too many of these "i can't understand why people put cheese in their burgers" threads, because a lot of it really IS just personal opinion.

I like thin necks because my hand fatigues much slower on a thin neck (i have a 6 string double bass which is something like playing a baseball bat on the thick end).
i have a small hand which makes stretching harder on a thick neck. the closer my thumb is to my fingers, the more leverage i have to move my fingers around on.
i hate neck dive. thicker necks have more wood and are heavier, and thus neckdive more easily.
i don't wrap my thumb around the back so i don't need it to feel comfortable, which is what thick necks usually purport to feel. In fact i could probably play on a neck with a rectangular cross section with little difficulty.

None of this applies to any other player in the same way it applies to me , so i'm not sure how useful it is, but I hope that answers your question in my case.
 
#76
LifeIsBass said:
Overall, I tend to agree. I'd rather have a thick neck than a very thin one. However, I've come to the point where neck profile is a very small factor in determining whether I like a bass or not. I can deal with them either way.
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+1! I don't even trip anymore about neckprofile, spacing at bridge etc.
If you like a basses sound/look, you will adjust to minor ergonomic changes. I think it is easier to play a neck that has a little beef to it as your hand wraps around it a little more naturally than a flat neck.
 
#78
I like a thin neck. My main bass is a 1973 maple necked Jazz, probably the skinniest neck Fender ever made. I also play with my thumb on the back about where the skunk stripe is (you know "proper" technique, whatever that is. As an aside, any technique that get you what you want is just fine by me).

I also like close string spacing. To me, the combo of those two translates into efficiency of movement; less distance to go, the faster, or easier I can play.

I also play upright, and the strings are pretty close at its nut, but really fan out to the bridge.
 
#80
tomvelsor said:
whats with people that seem to gravitate towards a thinner neck? i always feel MUCH more comftorble on a very fat neck, and they seem to have so much girth that the bass sounds better. the thickness i like is almost like an upright..i like to feel like im playing something..it also will make the neck stiffer..

does anyone agree with me, or is there something im missing about the "i need a bass with ______...and a thin neck" ? i feel like my hand cramps up on a thin neck, now that ive been playing on real beefy custom made necks..
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Different people like different things. I have short fingers. If I play most Warwicks, Spectors, or a P bass with a C neck, my left hand will cramp.

I can play a 6 string for hours if it has a wide, thin profile neck.

That's just the way my hands are.

That's why it is great that not all basses have the same neck profile. Some like them thin, some do not.
 

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