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Basses without truss rods


Roland Rock
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Status have truss rods, and Modulus.

Zons don't.

My Modulus just stays the way it is, I never have to adjust it. I can leave home on a frosty morning, stick it on the luggage rack on the train to London, back into the cold, onto the tube, back into the cold and finally to uni. So it gets bumped and cold, the warm, then cold.

Really amazing :D

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Newer Status basses have truss rods but are still very stable necks, never needed to adjust one unless drastically changing string gauge.

My older ones have no truss rod and are completely rigid, I can take 4 strings off the bass and the remaining one is still in tune, no movement at all. My feeling is they're a little too flat and could have done with a little more relief built in, but I use fairly heavy strings and like to dig in when I play. A lot of Status players seem to like ultra light strings and super low action.

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Wishbass don't have truss rods. They have 2 lines of Purpleheart wood in the neck. The necks are also slightly on the thick side.

Mine has a slight bow backwards when no strings are fitted. With the strings fitted it has about 1mm relief. So the relief is a bit more than I would set it up for. But the mwaaa is fine.

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[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1389520184' post='2334924']
Newer Status basses have truss rods. My older ones have no truss rod and are completely rigid, I can take 4 strings off the bass and the remaining one is still in tune, no movement at all. My feeling is they're a little too flat and could have done with a little more relief built in, but I use fairly heavy strings and like to dig in when I play.[/quote]

My series II was made in 1986 so that firmly puts it in the "older" camp!

I use heavy-ish strings (45-105 at the very least) and like the action to have a bit of height for my heavy-handed playing! I just raise the action at the bridge.

It never (and I mean [i]never[/i]) goes out of tune. Ever. I guess the entire neck is the truss rod! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All, new to the site and certainly not to basses nor composites for that matter! Reading this topic with interest as I've now decided to turn my aerospace experience and methods into designing my first carbon basses. One of the debates I was having with myself was whether or not it was worth incorporating a truss rod. My thoughts are you could overbuild it to the extent that the neck will not warp what so ever with whatever string set choice the customer would fit but I also know I like to have the facility to change the action on my basses. Technically a nut change/bridge adjustment could do the same thing. Hmm it's a dilemma. That being said it's not all about the composite to me as I do want to do some very interesting wood/carbon hybrids which I really cannot go into now for obvious reasons!! Cheers

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Welcome to the forum John.

The way I see it, if a neck was manufactured with the correct amount of relief built in, then I'd be happy to do all action adjustments on the bridge. To me, changing relief is just a means of counteracting neck movements due to string changes - getting rid of the associated buzz, not adjusting action. If a neck never moved, regardless of string type, then a good bridge should be all you need to adjust action.

You'd need to be pretty damned sure that it will never move though!

Good luck with the project.

Edited by Roland Rock
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My vigier series 2 has a graphite neck with no truss rod. I love it because there's hardly any relief. I've had later series 3 basses also sans truss rod but they were built with a bit more relief (still not much by normal standards) but I preferred the older neck.

I remember someone saying how not having a truss rod helped the sound if the bass, too. Not sure how important that is in the grander scheme of things but I guess it all goes into the mix.

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I've got an old Status 2000 without a trussrod , and my main (only one I ever use) Stingray with a modulus quantam neck , also has no rod . Never adjusted a rod in nearly 30 yrs of playing . I think the latest Vigier incarnations are the 90/10 system , or something like that - no trussrod , but carbon rods in the neck . Patrick Vigier thinks a trussrod is detrimental to sound .

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[quote name='E sharp' timestamp='1390508415' post='2346279']
Patrick Vigier thinks a trussrod is detrimental to sound .
[/quote]
Mmmm...that is Patricks belief - but the vast majority of beliefs are emotionally based opinions.

To be fair I owned a Vigier graphite necked Arpege back in the day, it had no truss rod and the neck was totally reliable and stable. It was an incredible instrument.

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[quote name='ped' timestamp='1390501052' post='2346144']
My vigier series 2 has a graphite neck with no truss rod. I love it because there's hardly any relief. I've had later series 3 basses also sans truss rod but they were built with a bit more relief (still not much by normal standards) but I preferred the older neck.

I remember someone saying how not having a truss rod helped the sound if the bass, too. Not sure how important that is in the grander scheme of things but I guess it all goes into the mix.
[/quote]

It's all subjective I guess. I prefer the sound of the newer Status necks (with truss rod), they give the bass a slightly more complex tone and there's less fret noise. For me they fit into the mix better as a backing instrument (I'm a groove player, definitely not a soloist).

But there are people on Basschat who like the purity of the older fully rigid necks and the aggressive note attack that gives, it can put the bass much more centre stage.

Edited by Fat Rich
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[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1390555453' post='2346660']


It's all subjective I guess. I prefer the sound of the newer Status necks (with truss rod), they give the bass a slightly more complex tone and there's less fret noise. For me they fit into the mix better as a backing instrument (I'm a groove player, definitely not a soloist).

But there are people on Basschat who like the purity of the older fully rigid necks and the aggressive note attack that gives, it can put the bass much more centre stage.
[/quote]

I agree. I'm a groover too and I love the velvety clank that cuts through the mix. I haven't played many statii but it would be interesting to compare them.

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