Bass neck weights...

[Muzz]

Hokay, so apologies up front for anyone I'm boring to tears with my neverending search for lighter and lighter basses, but I'm also looking at the Frankenstein approach to putting something together, given how good the Squier Sonic P is sounding after I'd finished with it (replaced bridge, tuners, pickup and EQ).

 

Soooo, I've found a Paulownia-bodied P-bass for buttons (it's apparently 7lbs on the nose including 'normal' tuners, etc, so I'm thinking I can get that down a chunk with Ultra-Lites and an Aluminium bridge), and I'm thinking a replacement neck to elevate it a little - I thought this about the Sonic, but it turned out to be good enough not to bother...I doubt this one will, tho.

 

To the point (hurrah!): anyone have any guides as to what's a heavy neck and what's a light one? Or are they mostly close in weight? I'm looking at a Northwest Guitars jazz neck (amongst others), should I be paying attention to the weight, or am I overthinking the whole thing?

 

Cheers,

 

Muzz

Edited Tuesday at 13:00 by Muzz

[ikay]

Neck weights can vary quite a bit. I used to be obsessed by weight and went through a phase of weighing everything in sight! Looking at my data, I've had clean neck weights (without any hardware) ranging from 725gm ( 25oz) to 850gm (30oz). The heaviest neck I've had was a Warmoth which clocked in at 1.1kg (38oz) - but that one had stainless steel reinforcing rods.

[Beedster]

Wood is wood, they will all vary, but Jazz width, shallow, and small headstock will be lighter all other things being equal. Material of truss rod will be a factor also

[Beedster]

…and narrow frets 👍

[MartinB]

I've got weights for four Squier necks without hardware - three of them Jazz-width, and one a five-string:
824g

827g
829g
868g

Surprisingly, the fiver is the second-lightest!

I'd hang fire on changing the bridge until you've got the neck and tuners fitted. Those paulownia bodies can be so light that you need a heavier bridge to counter neck dive.

[Lozz196]

Good advice there

[Muzz]

Well, if that cheapo really is 7lbs dead with the neck and standard tuners (and if it isn't it's going straight back) then I guess I've got some wiggle room with the neck weight, as it's unlikely a cheapo neck'll be very light, and I'll be fitting Ultralites or somesuch anyway...I note Gotoh do Res-O-Lite cloverleaf tuners (the GRL510C-9) which are almost HALF the weight of Ultralites (36g!), but I can't find them in the UK.

[LawrenceH]

Great info on this thread! From my own thread the other day on jazz bass component weight (which I'd encourage others to participate in):

Jap 75RI jazz: 773g

Jap Aerodyne Jazz: 703g

 

Also from an eBay seller I enquired of, Jap 75RI jazz: 740g

 

Reported on talkbass, 2 Fender replacement roasted maple jazz necks came in around 680g.

I'd definitely aim for under 800 as the 773g one ain't particularly light to me.

 

For tuners there's also the 35g Gotoh Carbon-o-lite but they are pretty spendy. I bought some of the Gotoh GRL510C (the slightly heavier 12mm version) via eBay and sucked it up on customs duty.