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Why you prefer a wide neck?
- Thread starter Brodizzle
- Start date
I prefer a wider p bass neck. My favorite is the 1 3/4 width. My warmoth is 1 11/16 and is really comfortable to me.
Machismo / big hands / used to upright bass.
Gold star for Warwick, and anyone else who offers a 20mm option for a 5-string.
Gold star for Warwick, and anyone else who offers a 20mm option for a 5-string.
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
- 14,723
- 20,970
- Disclosures
- I suck, but nobody really notices
I simply don't understand what "fast neck" means. Everyone plays as fast as both hands move. The only thing I see as any sort of speed problem is the finish. Gloss sticks when you sweat. Thick or thin, your hand is gonna move as fast as you can play it.
I don't mind a wider string spacing, but don't like a really thick neck front to back. My G&L L2k has a P nut width, but it doesn't feel like a typical P "baseball bat" because it's a flat "D" profile.
If the strings are widely spaced, it literally takes more time to move from one to the other than it would if they are more.closely spaced, a tiny amount of difference of course, but maybe noticeable in fast runs. For me a "fast" neck is one that I have to expend less effort playing, and that's going to be a different combination of factors for different hands. For me it's right string spacing and narrow cross section. I can absolutely play faster on a neck that fits my hands than I can on one that doesnt.
The only time I ever feel uncomfortable is when the spacing is too narrow or the neck is too thin. Some of the first Alembics I owned were very narrow at the bridge as was a beloved vintage Höfner Deluxe. I managed to make peace with the Höfner because it sounded so good but I had to let the Alembics go. I don't have any issues going between my J and P even though the J has so much more taper than the P but that sort of plays into the DNA of each design. All of my 5 and 6 string basses are 19mm at the bridge.
I grew up playing violin. Basses are huge, no matter how small they are. Wider is fine, narrower is better... I play with my fingers as curved as needed without thinking about it because I'm used to fingering the strings with curved fingers and have plenty of power in them that way.
So many ways to accomplish the same goal - whatever works for everyone is great, and not everyone's backgrounds are the same, so someone (like me) might have a weird skillset due to my circumstances.
So many ways to accomplish the same goal - whatever works for everyone is great, and not everyone's backgrounds are the same, so someone (like me) might have a weird skillset due to my circumstances.
I like the statements like "space to breathe" or "space to maneuver". Do folks actually breathe through the side of the skin of their fingers? Do folks actually maneuver between the strings and therefore need space between them?
Just laughing at how English works, not at the responses themselves.
I think, really, if you're more comfortable with wider fingerboards, then it's perfectly natural since it's a subjective thing for many people to say what feels nicer.
But the saying in English that something gives you room to breathe when talking about your finger spacing LoL, it's like saying you prefer your chicken separated from your mashed potatoes so you can hear better.
I'm being sarcastic - not serious, don't take it seriously. I know they are common English language expressions - just funny, don't ya think?
If my fingers breathed, I can tell ya one thing - I'd wash they WAY more often every day!
Just laughing at how English works, not at the responses themselves.I think, really, if you're more comfortable with wider fingerboards, then it's perfectly natural since it's a subjective thing for many people to say what feels nicer.
But the saying in English that something gives you room to breathe when talking about your finger spacing LoL, it's like saying you prefer your chicken separated from your mashed potatoes so you can hear better.
I'm being sarcastic - not serious, don't take it seriously. I know they are common English language expressions - just funny, don't ya think?
If my fingers breathed, I can tell ya one thing - I'd wash they WAY more often every day!
I look at people playing those old J basses and damn that looks cramped. But I hop on one and don't even notice. I'm more about thin from front to back. Got an old Heartfield 5 with graphite under the board. And that neck is so thin it feels like an old wooden ruler from school.
I do like some string spacing around the 30th fret for popping.
I do like some string spacing around the 30th fret for popping.
For me it's comfort & stamina related. With a thinner neck I can play faster and it's more comfortable for a short jam, but if I'm playing for longer I get sore and my hand starts to cramp. So for me, the larger neck please.
I also play guitar, so string spacing is not a factor for me, I prefer a larger neck on 6-string gats aswell.
I also play guitar, so string spacing is not a factor for me, I prefer a larger neck on 6-string gats aswell.
For the same reason I cant play guitar worth a damn.....
Cause I got Fred Flintstone hands and big ole sausage fingers.
P necks rule!
Cause I got Fred Flintstone hands and big ole sausage fingers.
P necks rule!
Curved fingers is NOT a weird skillset! It's a good and efficient way of improving accuracy and reach.
A. I set my fingers up for the next note while the last note is still sounding. And
B. If I'm playing so fast an extra mm of travel makes a difference, I'm almost certainly playing sloppy. If I need to play something really fast I'll woodshed that in long before I take the stage.
Same reasons as you.
Six different bass guitars and all of them have distinct profiles and various finishes. Nothing wrong with variety, I always say. The chunky Warwick and P necks are very comfortable at times and at other times the slim necks just feel unencumbered and free to movement.
At least for me, it's turned out that the width of the neck along with the depth under the fingerboard combine to give me a decent fit.
I have a comfy playing J-bass with the typical 1 1/2" nut width on its Warmoth neck, but it's rather chunky and the string spacing is also very wide - I replaced the original nut for another one with wider spaced grooves and also filed new notches on the bridge saddles for extra spacing. This neck isn't as deep as an old-school "baseball bat" profile, but it's relatively meaty and fits me like a glove.
My other bass is a P/J with a more shallow depth under the fingerboard, but it has the 1 5/8" nut width I associate with a typical P-bass. I thought that this neck would be tougher to navigate than my Jazz, but it's turned out to be a remarkably easy player. Given the combo of the neck's width and its semi-shallow profile, my fingers can fall to the proper fretting positions very naturally - I don't need to stare at my fingers when playing this bass at a gig.
My latest addition also has more of a chunky Jazz neck (1 1/2" at the nut), but it was very rough on my fretting hand after a few months of playing, even with the action dialed down rather low. The string spacing on this one was much too tight for me. I'm currently getting both the nut and the bridge swapped out to get a spread that's closer to the Jazz I mentioned above. **fingers crossed**
Either narrow and deep/chunky or wider and a little more shallow seems to work great for me. But in either case I'm apparently better off with wider string spacing.
I've simply always had a bass with wider string spacing at the nut. To this day, all of my basses except a Sting Ray, which I've never actually played, have wide spacing at the nut. Just a few millimetres is instantly noticed and feels cramped. I can play basses with narrow spacing if necessary (sitting in on a tune, for example), and could adapt if I absolutely have to, but I don't have to so I won't.
That's basically what it comes down to for me as well. I have fairly large hands/long fingers, so a little width in the neck fills my hands better and allows me to move a little more freely. Like most, I'm capable of playing on a narrower neck, but I personally like em wide and chunky
When I chose to buy my Precision, I was a new player, and I thought I would play cleaner if the strings were farther apart (!). A couple years later, I played a Jazz in a GC and liked the narrower neck a lot more. It wasn't until many years later that I sold the P-Bass and finally got a J-Bass. Now, I play a Jaguar short scale, and I'll never buy a wide or long scale again. I see no reason to "challenge" myself. I prefer comfort. By the way, I didn't find the P-bass body comfortable either, which is another reason I sold it for the offset J-Bass and Jag SS.
