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Fender Jazz neck - 1973 fretless


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[attachment=89101:P1000177.JPG] [attachment=89103:P1000176.JPG]


This came from the stockpile of the famous Beedster - I believe he imported it from the USA (but I'm sure he'll fill in the history..if required).

The details - a 1973 Fender Jazz neck, originally a one piece maple (has skunk stripe on the back), but a long time ago the fingerboard was flattened off and a new rosewood fretless board was added..with the binding either re-glued or replaced (I've no idea, but I'd assume it was replaced). Now has a lovely aged colour and many, many cracks in the poly finish...but none has fallen off. Fingerboard is virtually unmarked (its worn flats). Has original (or at least period correct) tuners, well aged but working fine. Nut is superbly cut and ready to go. Has "J. Torres" stamp on heel.

Neck profile is great - bit chunky for a Jbass, but slim nut width. P bass on a diet maybe? The fingerboard plays superbly, with some fall-off added at the heel...and off course, the truss rod does its job (or I wouldn't be offering it for sale here).

One thing needs to be mentioned - I found the neck to be slightly deeper than normal, so to get a higher action the bridge saddles need to be cranked higher than normal. I assume this is because the new fingerboard added some overall depth. Easy fix is to drop the neck route on the body, would only need around 2 or 3mm to make a big difference. I've never settled this neck to a body, so haven't done this, as it wasn't strictly necessary.

More photos when the sun comes out again

I'm asking for £400 collected from Bristol/Bath area.

Any questions ???

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No problem - I'll get it out and measure in the morning.

I should add that it plays very well on a normal J bass body...provided you like a fairly low action. I've "eyeballed" it against two other J necks to compare the depth and there's not much in it. My guess is whoever fitted the fretless rosewood board didn't want to go too far down on the original fingerboard/neckface to avoid the truss rod (installed from the back, a it was a single piece maple neck).

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Sun came out just now, so here is another photo for info - depth at heel and comparison with a generic (de-fretted) J bass neck ( good quality Japanese manufacture).

[attachment=89277:P1000541.JPG]

The generic neck measures approx 25mm from fingerboard face to back of heel at the deepest point. The '73 measures a hair under 26mm at the same point. Not much in it (the binding also makes it look bigger) but it does require a higher than normal setting on the bridge saddles, and would prevent a "high action" set up without increasing the neck pocket depth slightly to compensate. You could shim up the bridge instead, of course.

Happy to answer any other questions.....

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I think Duncan has answered all the questions above, but I just wanted to add that this really is a very very nice neck. I sold it as I simply prefer wider and deeper necks, but there's no doubt that this is a very fast and easy to play unit. The board was planed and the nut changed by Paul Herman in early 2009, and it really didn't get a whole lot of abuse from me after that, so the board will be in good nick given that Dunc's only used flats. Also, and as Duncan mentioned, the nut was very well cut, which adds to the playability. Re the depth of the neck, I played this on several Jazz and Precision bodies and never noticed any issues around excessive saddle height etc; in short, I doubt that you'd notice any issues at all unless your pocket is excessively shallow or your bridge very low (or you like REALLY high action, but having said that, I play a pretty high action and never had any problems with a stock Fender bridge).

C

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