This is a very weird scenario, different color neck

[Chris Wilke]

Ok I have a bit of a pet peeve [not OCD though! ] against poorly matched woodgrains in bass bodies (that is not what is happening here, as it's the same piece of wood). You can see this on natural finishes and translucent finishes, including sunbursts when one side is darker than the other. In shopping for a bass I try to avoid finishes where these imperfections seem obvious, but I have acquired a couple good basses that are thus afflicted, including one from a boutique builder, and I pretend to ignore it. In a manufacturer's defense it's not always visible until a finish is applied, and some people probably don't really care.

Sometimes this effect changes with the angle at which you are looking (ie light/dark sides reverse at different angles based on orientation of the grain). I even have one, a fender jazz Jaco model, where the difference is quite visible on the back of the bass, but not the top. Go figure - wood is weird, and cool. I am glad basses are still made of wood!

In this case it's one piece of wood and thus a feature of the grain rather than a mismatch in the construction. I'd rock it with no regrets! And I don't think it would reduce value, though some might pass. I'd also disclose it if you're selling it online, but I wouldn't think you'd need to reduce the price. It's just a one-of-a-kind feature of the wood.

 

[MCS4]

Looks like wood doing wood stuff to me. I can't imagine this "devaluing" the bass other than in the generic sense that some people might not prefer the look cosmetically and therefore the total pool of possible buyers might be slightly lower.

 

[jd56hawk]

Sure, it won't affect playability, but did you buy what you thought would be a nice, clean bass or one with a glaring blemish?

 

[magic8161]

For what it's worth, I'd keep it. Someone didn't continue wiping the stain all the way down the neck. Maybe the bell for lunch break rang.

Whatever the reason, it's one of a kind.

It's a roasted neck. And it changes color when you look at it at different angle. Very weird, but I passed on buying it and bought another one.The same that looks perfect.

 

[metron]

I saw IMA on SBL use this term! He and Scott got a good laugh over it!

Yeah it sounds eggheaded. I knew there was a word for it, had to look it up.

 

[Trouztrouz]

Is "AI generator" our default search engine now? I'm way behind the times I guess.

Only for people who don't understand AI language models.

 

[metron]

Is "AI generator" our default search engine now? I'm way behind the times I guess.

Eh it’s just my term for however people “interact” with information. Could be anything. A dictionary is a good choice here.

 

[Yahboy]

Okay i'm looking at this Sadowsky bass and it has a roasted neck. Now it looks like wasn't finished, but if you look at it from one angle, the part by the headstock, all the way down to the dark spot is light. But if you look at it from the other angle, it's dark, what causes that, and does this devalue the bass

Try asking @Sadowsky

 

[bassman10096]

I love idiosyncratic wood features and would love to incorporate something like this neck into one of my own builds. However, enough people prefer straighter, more uniform, less visually interesting grains - for reasons ranging from stylistics to OCD to limit resale. Even if resale isn’t a concern, it sounds like you might have concerns about the look of the neck. If that bothers you I’d take earlier posters’ advice and pass on this particular instrument.

 

[Gopherbassist]

Chatoyance?

I didn't know there was a word for this. That's what I'd say it is.

 

[funkinbottom]

Personally, it would bug the livin' $#!+ outta me. Maybe If it was kinda a gradual change, bus a stark line like that? Looks like a finishing mishap. Unless significantly discounted, a hard pass for me.

 

[wompwomp]

Okay i'm looking at this Sadowsky bass and it has a roasted neck. Now it looks like wasn't finished, but if you look at it from one angle, the part by the headstock, all the way down to the dark spot is light. But if you look at it from the other angle, it's dark, what causes that, and does this devalue the bass

from here there's a second line I can see closer to the body btw, the neck gets lighter again, very strange. I worked in a cabinet shop for awhile and i've never seen a piece of wood quite do that, it is remarkable.

i sort of wonder if the torrifaction process isn't the reason? like maybe the wood stacking? in a ceramic kiln you will see unexpected flashing or staining but those temperatures are way more extreme

 

[murphy]

It is awful and worthless!!
I will send you 500 bucks for it.

 

[96tbird]

You’re vacillating over the strange wood effect. That’s enough to tell me that you’ll be obsessed with it if you own it and life is too short to be unhappy with the things we choose to spend our money on.

 

[Yahboy]

It is awful and worthless!!
I will send you 500 bucks for it.

I give 550....

 

[billythec]

As someone who has worked with wood a little, that looks exactly like prolonged UV sunlight exposure. If that bass is a few years old, there’s a good chance. It was in a position where the sunlight hit it for a long time and the stand or something else created a demarcation line.

I was surprised as anybody when an unstained but polyurethane finished cherry wood table showed dramatic difference after a year when I moved the lamp off the table to clean it. That section eventually caught up to the other part of the table, but I had to look at it for a year

 

[Wood and Wire]

It's just the angle the light is hitting the grain - the more figured the wood is, the more you see these optical effects.

Move it around, and to end, under direct light, and you'll see it changes - almost positive to negative.

I have an 80's StingRay with some really beautiful figuring - a mix of flame, with a little birds eye, and end grain / quarter sawn on the shoulders of the neck - as the angle of the light changes, you get this amazing lenticular effect (the neck being gloss finished enhances it, like wetting a stone).