Kiwi

Hate depping, was traumatised by a stressful experience sitting in with a blues band that played Robben Ford songs. They weren't straight forward I-IV-V songs, they had sudden key changes, stops and starts and changes in time signature. I had two weeks to learn 14 songs along with all the little details that they contained and barely managed to keep it together. Didn't manage to screw up enough to stop the rest of the band from playing or miss a key but it was a struggle. The band were really kind but I'm no Lee Sklar sitting in with Toto.

If your 89 SR4 has a birdseye maple neck, they're fairly sought after due to coming from a time when EB was trying to re-establish the brand and when they weren't being charged any more for figured maple neck blanks compared to plain maple. Not sure if that helps you reach a decision one way or the other but it comes from a good period...unlike the pre-sale-to-EB early 80's rays which were a bit of a crap shoot for body woods.

Update: This weekend the mould for a SR5 neck with a 42mm wide nut will be constructed. Neck heel will be 68.7mm wide @ 21 fret and 28.4mm deep. Initially the neck is for myself, a sample for marketing so it'll feature some custom options such as inlays, rosewood fingerboard and maybeeeeee fingerboard binding. No fretboard extension though because of the capstan truss rod adjustment.

Yes, exactly.

The mould has been made and the first layers are being put down...I would share a photo of the first neck in a vacuum bag but it's not pretty.

Well, baby steps for now. We are still establishing but none of it would be possible without the trust of those who put deposits down for the first batch of necks. So Im incredibly grateful for their support. I'll find a way of better recognising them at some point.

Thanks for the mention!

Weve got a set of measurements now and will begin the mould making this week.

I'm a teacher, I have to manage no end of annoyances with near heroic levels of self control. Repeated bad aim at the urinals for example ("Stand closer! They will not bite you.") and a lack of familiarity with western toilets ("We don't squat on them. We sit. Yes, sit! ... Well don't use them then."). Bass stuff is a walk in the park by comparison.

I would expect the weight of JB4 and SR4N string necks to be relatively close to one another.

I need a set of measurements from a 4 string jazz bass neck just to check against the 3D model. Can anyone provide widths at nut, 12th fret and20th fret? Likewise depth of neck at nut, 12th fret and end of the neck heel? Also length of heel to the start of the shoulder?

It's a difficult question to answer without speculating. A hollow monocoque neck (like the design of Auerswald) can be made strong enough to resist string tension without core material or truss rod. But hollow construction can introduce resonancy peaks. which may or may not be welcome. Those peaks can be also managed by choice of core material or the use of outboard eq. The more solid (and denser) the material, the less pronounced the peaks are and the more easily an instrument can adapt to different musical situations and sit in the mix. But solid necks do tend to weigh a bit more. There is a school of thought amongst luthiers with very traditional approaches that a guitar neck has to be just stiff enough to resist string tention, and if it's too stiff it will reduce midrange and warmth. I've realised over the years that basses featuring multi laminated necks tend to sound very similar to one another once there are more than 7 laminations. Status experimented with different core materials and (I think) their Stealth II basses had epoxy foam in their monocoque construction to dampen certain resonances in addition to fingerboard choice and selected weave orientation. One thing I've noticed with my Status bass is that it still sounds like a Status regardless of what electronics are installed! Yes! That's the reason why wooden fingerboards are an option. They provide some dampening of the higher frequencies. Plus it's possible to investigate wood options for dampening properties more than strength so mahogany, padauk, alder and other softer hardwood species can be potentially considered too.

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Im really satisfied with my fret jobs now but there was quite a bit of trial and error to get to that point. Particularly in levelling. I try to ensure the frets are levelled evenly avross their entire width as sometimes the edges got missed. I also now use a glass block to help achieve more precise tolerances. Depending on how that goes I will sometimes follow up with a fret rocker and fret file to catch missed spots but this level of neticulousness comes with a time cost. So much of a high quality outcome depends on how well the frets are seated in the first place and Ive encountered some surprisingly shoddy fret installations from nanufacturers who have really no excuse, considering their price points. Big shout out for Fender MiM and Epi necks btw, getting great action has been very easy.

Im not an expert on Vigier by any means but their all graphite necks were excellent. The 90/10 ne ks have a curve carved into the fingerboard which changes according to string tension. Its less than ideal and may actually be an example of over design. But the bass does sound good. Late night discussions last night sugfested that PEEK wont be rigid enough for a Vigier neck. Not a stupid question at all! Yes, the graphite composite neck should be stiff enough to resist string tension on its own which means the fingerboard material can be selected for tone shaping potential. The early Alembic necks by Modulus, Vigier necks and Status necks were really well made, stiff, flat and very low action was achievable. Later necks, by multiple manufacturers in the nineties, tended to rely more heavily on a phenolic fingerboard for strength and if the recipe for the resin wasnt mixed precisely, the necks bowed under string tension. Conversely if the resin was too stiff, the bass would sound brittle and glassy. My Alembic has an ebony fingerboard, I've tended to prefer wooden fimgerboards for this reason. It removes one variable.

There is still time! The jb mould will be started this week.

In my mind at least, there's a difference between levelling and polishing.

Unfortunately, it's not available at the moment because it would be necessary to do some research first to figure out whether a standard PEEK fingerboard would resist the string tension sufficiently. And, if not, what thickness would. I'm talking to my fabricator about getting the phenowood fingerboard on my Vigier 5, which is truss rodless and pre-curved, replaced with PEEK. Perhaps after this point I will be in a better position to know whether PEEK will be stiff enough for truss rodless necks.

It's a couple of passes to remove file marks, no big deal.

The process I use is 1) 320 wet and dry 2) 600 wet and dry 3) 1500 wet and dry 4) Mini dremel-style multitool (chinese made) fitted with polishing felt disc and some buffing compound. It gets the frets mirror shiny but not as sparklingly mirror shiny as the best I've seen but it's good enough for me. The masking takes as long to do as the rest of the work so I've started using those metal slot guards instead. So far so good.

Hiss is normal. The source of the hiss is probably your signal chain. But if by hiss you actually mean hum, then there's a broken earth connection somewhere and you'll need to go through a process of elimination to isolate where between your fingers and the speaker the problem is.

Just found it also. Failed miserably already...two basses, guitar pedals and some guitar rack gear.

I was born in Fareham and grew up in Warsash until my family left for NZ. I've gone back there a few times over the years and very little has changed apart from more houses and less fields. Oh yes we do, but there's a separate forum for that...welcome aboard!

Bernard's musical taste shaped much of the Chic sound. I also think Jerry Barnes overplays which is a shame, but Nile did tell him to be himself when he joined so...there's that.