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What do I do with this Warmoth Neck?

DaveCustomMade

DaveCustomMade

Apr 23, 2004
945
3
58
Southwest Missouri
www.geocities.com
#1
I picked up a Warmoth neck (Small Gecko fretted), to replace a Warmoth fretless neck, hoping that it would sound good with the body I currenly have. My body is a solid piece of Birdseye Maple and the fretless neck is Maple/Pau Ferro, and it is an amazing sounding fretless setup.

However, I wanted to have a fretted neck made for it, since it is easier to play a fretted bass (play for church and the fretless takes too much of my concentration) so I had a Wenge/Rosewood neck made, with the Lakland-ish fret size and slotted nut, (had the Gecko left off of it, too, for a cleaner look). . . .put it on, and it made my great sounding fretless bass into an average sounding fretted bass, at best.

What would you do, in my situation? It didn't sound good with the body I have, not nearly as good as the fretless neck (which is back on the body). I didnt' put any holes in it, but am not sure if I could send it back to Warmoth since it isn't anything they did. Not sure what to do. It would probably sound great with some other body that has more of the warmer tone qualities, but that would mean me spending more money on a bass I don't really need.

Advice?
 
#4
what he said,

similarly, i was thinking of defretting one of my fretted basses, but my teacher told me it was better to leave it be, and let it be good at what it is good at, being fretted. he told me to just buy a fretless bass.

if that bass is is excellent fretless, then it should really stay that way. you can get a decent used fretted bass to use for church for pretty cheap.
 
#6
Yes, a Small 5 string. I've had my fretless Gecko, that I made a custom body for (which I won't do again) and got very lucky with, for several years now. Everyone that hears it says that it is a great sounding bass, and it isn't just because they are trying to make me feel good. It really sounds awesome. I've been playing it a lot, but was more interested in an awesome sounding fretted bass, and since this new neck is a Wenge/Rosewood neck, I though that the warm tonal qualities would make the bass have a great sound. It sounded okay and had no dead notes, . . . but it didn't knock my socks off. I can't really return it because it wasn't Warmoth's fault. The neck looks great. I left the Gecko off and the Rosewood is very nice, but I had them put on the 6230 frets, the Lakland size frets, which isn't something the would normally do.

I thought about just having them build a Black Limba body, and getting the accessories and electronics needed and have a very nice looking bass, but that would raise the price more than I wanted to spend (the reason for buying this neck to go on an already great sounding platform).
 
#7
A maple body with a wenge/rosewood neck seems like an odd combination; usually you see it the other way around. Maybe the sounds of the woods just don't mesh as well as you had predicted, which is too bad, because wenge is such a dang fine neck wood, IMO.

From what I have read on here from others who have used Warmoth, they will not take a neck back after you have installed it. I don't know why, but as soon as you put it on, you can't return it anymore. So at this point you're either forced to sell it or put it on another body. I'd go for the latter myself, but for what it'd cost to do so, you could easily buy a decent fretted bass, and still make up some of that money by selling the neck. So it's really up to you.

I second the idea as well that if you already have an amazing sounding fretless bass, then by all means leave it that way - then you'll always have it ready to go if you want to use it. Switching necks over probably isn't something that you want to do on a regular basis.

By the way, what's your opinion on the size and feel of the small 5 gecko neck? I've dreamed of building one for a long time but I'm scared that it'll be too big for my taste, from what I've heard from others about Warmoth necks being a bit chunky. They give a nut width on their site but that's about it. Is there another common bass that you can compare it to?
 

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