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Your preference for necks??

#3
thunderkyss said:
Bound, unbound... fretless, fretted... Rosewood, Maple, Wenge, Ebony... One piece, three piece, five..

There's a million ways to do it. Over the years, have you come to prefer a particular neck? If so, why?
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I've not played enough basses to really know the sonic differences between a one, three or five-piece neck.

I always loved the aesthetic appeal to a maple neck, but I have played and owned only rosewood basses. I found I really like them more than the snappier maple necks.
 
#5
I used to believe that bass necks needed to be at least 3 pc for stability... And then I bought an MTD.

Anymore I find that my preference is for un-bound fretted necks, though I do own a fretless.

Wood type and if it's made out of 1pc, 3pc or 5pc doesn't matter. As long as it's stable and comfortable. Currently all the basses in the stable have maple necks (excluding the Steinberger), about evenly split between 1pc and 3pc. Maple, Ebony, Rosewood and Purpleheart finger boards. They are all good, so I guess I do not have a fretboard preference anymore.
 
#6
My favorite neck would be...
Three piece rosewood with a rosewood fretboard, gold colored medium jumbo frets, abalone markers with large cream clay side dots, a heel mounted truss wheel, brass nut, flat headstock, gold string tree bar across all 4 strings, gold hipshot ultralight lollipop tuners and strung with Optima Gold round wound strings all on a 30" scale neck.

I came close to that spec with my Warmoth build...
178.jpg

158.jpg

...plays like a dream, rock solid and feels so fast and smooth.
 
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#10
Jazz bass neck, bound maple fretboard and block inlays. Or, bound rosewood with pearloid (or MOP) block inlays... Depending on body color/finish.

I don't think fretboard material influences tone in the slightest (unless it's ebonol on a fretless - blech!). So its all about aesthetics to me.
 
#11
  • Birdseye Maple neck
  • Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard
  • Telecaster headstock
  • Jazz/Precision hybrid fretboard (in-between fretboard dimensions) width
  • Jazz neck depth back to front
  • Gotoh Res-O-Lite tuners
  • 6230 fretwork
  • DR Sunbeam strings.

Now that's what I call a neck!

Davo
 
#12
As others have said. I'm a firm lover of the Jazz Bass neck. Something special about mine. Not too sure what it is but it's different than all others I've played. Typical Rosewood fingerboard (tonal difference aside, I just think it "looks right") I recently had the Poly finish sanded off and had a Gun Stock Oil finish applied (a la Musicmans) I highly recommend it to any and everyone, it's really an easy way to improve the feel of your bass.
 
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#13
skwee said:
I really like the jazz neck's width and thickness--but I've been in love with the '51 p-bass headstock shape. Can somebody make me one of those?!

I've always had a rosewood fingerboard on my basses--I'd like one with a maple board at some point.
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Warmoth has the '51 style P bass headstocks, I used to have a real-deal '52. I loved it to death and I regret selling it. The neck was huge on it!
 
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#15
I like a neck that doesn't have fret buzz, is easily adjustable and prefer no binding. Beyond that I don't really care, although all my current basses are rosewood. No reason beyond that's what the bass came with. I like fat, skinny, long scale, short scale and even ultra short scale. It's all good. I play four stringers. Never owned any basses with more, except for a Chapman NS Stick which was 8 string.
 
#17
I like them not too wide, not too thick, comfy in my average-size hand. I prefer the look of a darker wood fingerboard; to me a maple board looks like they were too cheep to put a board on it or they forgot it- but it's just an aesthetic preference. Stable is a very good quality too, as is resistance to twisting and warping! I prefer fretted. I do like the sound of fretless, but never could get any good at keeping the intonation right. I'm not much for binding, but I'll take it if it looks right on the instrument (like the Ric I had many years ago, although the neck was one big reason I got rid of it).

But comfort to my hand is the most important quality.

Oh and I think that volutes are sexy as all hell! :p

EDIT: I just measured my three basses and they range from approximately 1-7/16" to 1-9/16" at the nut, and all have nice round cross-sections, I guess smaller radii? This seems to work for me. I've kept these three, all of which are 1980s Asian-made, as they suit me best. I've parted with everything from pawn-shop basses to a Warwick Streamer Stage II because of my hands not being fully comfy with them.
 
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#19
Thick neck, narrow string spacing (16.5 mm for 6 string basses). Such as the Ibanez BTB necks or the Yamaha TRB1006 neck. For the wood types : not really something special. If I like the sound of the bass, I'm fine.
 
#20
How is the sound of a rosewood neck?

GBassNorth said:
My favorite neck would be...
Three piece rosewood with a rosewood fretboard, gold colored medium jumbo frets, abalone markers with large cream clay side dots, a heel mounted truss wheel, brass nut, flat headstock, gold string tree bar across all 4 strings, gold hipshot ultralight lollipop tuners and strung with Optima Gold round wound strings all on a 30" scale neck.

I came close to that spec with my Warmoth build...
178.jpg

158.jpg

...plays like a dream, rock solid and feels so fast and smooth.
Click to expand...
 

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