Slimming down bass neck

[ash_sak]

Anyone know how to slim down a neck, i have a Fender Jazz style de-fretted bass but the neck's really fat, front to back not across the fretboard.

I was wondering if any of you knew how to thin it down, if that's possible without damaging the bass.

Thanks.
Enjoy.

[Jase]

Hi ash, maybe you could ask a luthier to re-radius the neck.

[ash_sak]

[quote name='Jase' post='380056' date='Jan 14 2009, 10:33 AM']Hi ash, maybe you could ask a luthier to re-radius the neck.[/quote]

Thanks, i'm gonna get in touch with some guitar repair guys i know.

Just thought i'd check with you lot as many of you seem to make your own stuff and such like.

[Jase]

Did you see the list of Luthiers?

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26654"]Luthiers.[/url]

[henry norton]

[quote]ash_sak Posted Today, 11:07 AM
Anyone know how to slim down a neck, i have a Fender Jazz style de-fretted bass but the neck's really fat, front to back not across the fretboard.

I was wondering if any of you knew how to thin it down, if that's possible without damaging the bass.[/quote]

A standard Jazz bass neck is pretty narrow and if you take off much more wood from the back you may end up causing yourself alot of grief - like playing a matchstick with all the intrinsic strength of one. It might be worth trying out a few different necks to see what you really want before you pay someone to take a spokeshave to your bass. It could also be worth looking at getting an alternative neck which could work out cheaper than paying someone to modify your existing one, but the actual process of shaving down a neck isn't that difficult for someone with a fairly good set of woodworking skills.

[Weird War]

[quote name='henry norton' post='380684' date='Jan 14 2009, 08:53 PM']A standard Jazz bass neck is pretty narrow and if you take off much more wood from the back you may end up causing yourself alot of grief - like playing a matchstick with all the intrinsic strength of one. It might be worth trying out a few different necks to see what you really want before you pay someone to take a spokeshave to your bass. It could also be worth looking at getting an alternative neck which could work out cheaper than paying someone to modify your existing one, but the actual process of shaving down a neck isn't that difficult for someone with a fairly good set of woodworking skills.[/quote]

+ 1

[Al Heeley]

This would make me very nervous - you cannot be certain of the depth of the truss rod channel rout. If you take a little too much off and break thru then that's the neck ruined. I guess one way of seeing if a neck has a lot of spare wood in it is the overall stiffness or sensitivity to small adjustments of truss rod tension, but again if you take a little too much off then its stability will be ruined.

[synaesthesia]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='380795' date='Jan 14 2009, 10:43 PM']... you cannot be certain of the depth of the truss rod channel rout.[/quote]

+1. Be careful.
Sheldon Dingwall once told me that if you shave the neck down anyway, you would change the resonant frequency and it is likely that the neck will sound darker that what it is now.
Stanley Clarke's Alembic had its neck shaved down a bit and its width reduced as well (not by Alembic) , when Alembic serviced the bass they were surprised ...