petergales

Thanks to all you guys who responded to my post. Once again Basschat comes up trumps with some excellent advice. I really appreciate such well-informed comments and as a result I'm going to leave well alone and either pursue a sale or a part-ex. Kindest regards to you all Pete

Thanks for your reply. The simple answer is I'm not at all hands on to the degree necessary so wouldn't attempt it.

Hi Andy Think I'll just leave well alone and go for a sale. It's in the For Sale thread so I'll leave it a while longer or just withdraw it and hang on to it.

Thanks for your input. It's really appreciated and I think I'll leave well alone and keep pursuing a sale. Kind regards Pete

Hi Andy Some very sensible comments you've made. I think I'll take them on board and just leave things as they are and persist with the sale. Kind regards Pete

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I was surprised, when I checked it, to see that the stated spec was only 40mm. The distance from the string to the fingerboard edge I measure to be 5mm. I bought it new but it was about a couple of years ago.

Thanks for your reply. To answer your questions 1. I would only want to increase the taper from the 7th fret to the nut. 2. It would probably need a refret of some length of the neck, perhaps from the 6th fret to the nut. 3. There is quite a generous margin between the strings and the fingerboard edge so the existing string spacing may not need to change. I hope that answers your questions adequately Kind regards

Thanks Paul. I think I'll do just that. I do have a luthier locally, however, that I use for my repairs and mods who is confident he can do it.

Sell the bass? Definitely an option as I have some very nice instruments including a Fender CS 64 Jazz that has a very comfortable neck and curiously wider than the Elrick at the 12th fret (58mm v 55mm) but slimmer at the nut by 4mm. Also a recently purchased new Overwater Progress 3 that has a great neck and slimmer than the Elrick all the way up the neck. Contact the manufacturer? I once tried to make contact with Rob Elrick but got a very curt response, so I wouldn't think I'd get much joy there. The official spec for the bass gave a nut width of 40mm but when I measure it it's 43mm. A luthier? I have a luthier who lives not too far away and does all my repairs and mods. I've spoken to him and he reckons he could do it but I thinking about the points you made previously about dot positions etc. The other thing is that I would probably lose the MOP side markers. But thinking about it, he could probably make me a new neck to my spec and, that way, I would still have the original if I wanted to sell the bass later. Your thoughts are much appreciated and I'm very grateful for them. Kind regards Pete

Thanks for your reply but I'm not sure a replacement neck would be readily available.

Thanks for your reply. The string spacing is fine. I use the thumb-behind-the-neck approach mainly but also the blues grip at times. Either way the first few positions tend to give me hand cramps.

Thanks for that advice. You've made some very good points that I hadn't thought about. I think my best move would be just to try to sell it for what I can get, or maybe use it as a part/ex for something more suitable.

Is it possible to reduce the width of a fretted neck by shaving it down? The bass I have is 43mm at the nut and is just too wide for my hand. I like the bass in terms of tone but don't play it as much as I should because of the width issue. It would need to come down by as much as 4mm to be ok for me. It's a bolt on neck. Is it worth doing or should I just take a hit and sell it at a loss? It's an Elrick ex-pat 4 string and I've had it up for sale on this site for a couple of months now with no interest shown. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.