Eb vs D neck

[Paddy Morris]

I have 2 basses I use regularly.  One is a laminate Chinese slapper.  The other is a carved Westbury (also Chinese) which I use for jazz and swing.  But they have different neck scales.  So swapping between them plays havoc with the intonation, particularly in the upper registers and thumb position.

 

One solution suggested by a luthier is to carve a new nut to shorten the scale of the laminate bass and make both basses the same.  This sounds expensive, and I would be spending money on the inferior instrument. 

 

I have read that when players hire a bass with a scale they aren't used to, they will slip the bridge slightly off the f-hole notches to tweak the scale.  Do you think that might work for me?  I would doing it on the laminate, which presumably has a more robust top the carved one.  Tone wise it's not really an issue, because the laminate is kept really heavily damped down to control feedback.

 

 

[Beedster]

I had a similar issue playing a 4/4 and 3/4 during the same period, the 4/4 with guts for bluegrass and the 3/4 with steels for Jazzier stuff (I doubt anyone who knows Jazz would recognise my playing as Jazz BTW). I hate to say this but I can't help thinking that - as I found - it come down more to listening to yourself than to instrument mechanics. I'm sure - at least I hope - that others will have more helpful advice 👍

[Owen]

I must admit that playing an Eb neck has me keeping well clear of that end of the neck. If the bass is one you will keep, fashioning a new nut makes a lot of sense. It can sit on the present fingerboard. 

[Staggering on]

The Shen SB 100 that I use for jazz and my pathetic attempts at bowing in my lessons and orchestra is a D neck while the old Czech ply that I play for bluegrass has an E flat neck.

Not too much of a problem because when I play bluegrass I rarely play anything higher than C on the G string and find it easy to switch between the instruments. As Beedster said above, listening to yourself and making adjustments as you play is the way to go and don't worry about it too much. So far that's worked for me but I agree that it would be a problem farther up the neck and in thumb position.