Why the love (by some) for thin necks?

[dkelley]

i mean, i think if someone is "faster" than billy the difference would be negligible. not that "fast" in and of itself is meaningful in a musical sense, but it's part of this discussion.

i can't recall who i first learned this from, but if you place your hand in front of you (air-bass) as if you were playing, moving fingers 1 and 4 up and down as if you were fretting, move your thumb closer and further from your hand. notice the thumb distance to the hand has zero impact on the movement of the other fingers?

thicker neck would certainly have physical repercussions, just like anything else. the thumb being slightly further away from your hand, to my understanding, has no direct influence on your ability to move your fingers quickly.

i'm sure there could be something i'm missing. but i just struggle to find a logical reason why a thinner neck would facilitate faster movement?

that's exactly what I Was saying... speed due to thin necks IS important with guitarists... much moreso than most bassists. We don't utilize those extreme techniques like guitarists do, and a thin neck is the difference between doable and maintainable without strain versus being able to do it but not keep it up without strain.

So regardless of how fast Billy is, he is definitely a common name with fast playing on bass. But he's not fast compared to really fast guitarists... he can keep up in some techniques, tapping and finger picking etc along with standard fast left hand fingering techniques for speed that we all can do with practice. But it'll be different for some other complex techniques.

Again, I mean that for extreme shredding techniques on guitar. Truly fast guitarists (not the fast players we hear in rock, but the true speed players) play MUCH faster than bassists, even faster than Billy. So that is where neck thickness can make a critical difference, although again it is STILL just up to personal preference. Everybody is different. But thin does assist with specialist guitar techniques.

 

[IamGroot]

The last time I had a hot dog I got food poisoning. I'm not sure how that adds to the analogy.

Well, you could clarify the analogy by stating whether you like skinny hot dogs or big fat ones.

 

[gln1955]

Well, you could clarify the analogy by stating whether you like skinny hot dogs or big fat ones.

It depends on the construction of course, but in general skinny hot dogs are floppier than big fat ones.

You can definitely eat a skinny hot dog faster, but how many of us are into competitive hot dog eating?

 

[Tom Bomb]

The mystery meat thread is … down the back.​

 

[Gluvhand]

How unique! Another “why don’t you like what I like???” Thread

How unique! Another "I have nothing to add but snark instead of just passing by what doesn't interest me" post.

 

[Seth DuSith]

Comfort. I prefer the comfort. I don't generally believe a neck will change what the audience hears, so I don't really worry too much about any tone a neck can add. My Jackson JS2 Spectra feels amazing, it ruined fender necks for me lol

 

[s_wood]

Only on Talkbass could this thread be 8 pages long and counting….

 

[Ric Vice]

I once owned a 1966 Jazz with paddle tuners. The neck was quite thin. It may have been considered a second at the time, hard to say.
It worked great for singing and playing which is what I did back then. Then a 58 Precision came my way with a soft c neck. I prefer
the width of the Precision’s neck. For what it’s worth, I have small hands

 

[Nebula24]

Love my eb0s neck. Just feels right. Feels comfy. Just fits my hand for whatever reason.

 

[Stranger Danger]

How unique! Another "I have nothing to add but snark instead of just passing by what doesn't interest me" post.

Snarks are cool. I prefer to use a pedal tuner

 

[mongo2]

I love skinny necks such as on my '85 Performer and Hofner necks.

I've narrowed several factory necks for DIY projects. The most recent is a shortscale SX neck I bought when they were on sale years ago at Rondo Music. I decided to narrow and re-profile it after playing a Vox Hawk IV at GC and loving the neck but I couldn't afford the bass. The SX neck is my attempt to mimic that neck but even a bit more narrow. The SX neck now measures 1-3/8" at the nut and 1-3/4" at the 20th fret. I use either a Hofner stick bridge or a Wilkinson 3D bridge with it. It's my best playing neck.

 

[chadds]

Snarks are cool. I prefer to use a pedal tuner

Which is best for metal? Was that a thinly veiled attempt at snark?
My snark isn't registering. Could my neck be too thin? Could my bass neck be too thin?

 

[WG Plum]

> They are frequently more prone to shifting as environments change
> They contribute less to tone compared to their thick-necked relatives
> Thin-neck basses give the impression that their action is higher when compared to thick-necked basses having the same string relief
> Having owned thin and thick-necked basses I don’t find thin-necked basses easier to play (I have average-sized hands)

I haven't noticed my jazz neck moving any more than my P neck, I've definitely never noticed a lack in tone, I've most certainly never noticed an 'impression' of higher action, and, they're just plain old more comfortable for me.

Your mileage differs, as is often the case.

 

[RichterScale]

Based on how ridiculous the bullet points in the opening post are, I find it hard to believe this thread was meant to be taken seriously. I find it hard to believe it's 8 pages and still going. I find it hard to believe it invoked the snark police.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Which is best for metal? Was that a thinly veiled attempt at snark?
My snark isn't registering. Could my neck be too thin? Could my bass neck be too thin?

Girth is important for tuners