Beer of the Bass Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I have a bass I built using an OLP 5 string neck, which is my main gigging instrument with one of my bands. While it's not obviously broken, the truss rod is unable to bring the neck straight enough, even when trying washers on the nut to give me more adjustment range. I have around 0.7mm of relief at the moment, which is playable but I'd like a bit less. The neck still has some relief with the strings off and truss rod slackened, and the rod doesn't change the relief even with the strings off. If it was a Fender sized neck, I'd just try a new neck, but there are almost no MM sized 5-string necks on the market (barring Status, but I can't afford those!). I have no back-up for this bass and very little budget to sort anything out. I'm loath to buy a different bass as I spent quite a while making the body for this one and it does sound good. As far as I can see, my options are as follows; -Live with it as is. It not unplayable, but it could be a lot better -Experiment with heat and clamping to straighten it out -If the rod is still ineffective, I could attempt surgery as per this thread; [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/160580-olp-mm3-broken-truss-rod-update/page__hl__olp"]http://basschat.co.u...e/page__hl__olp[/url] -Alternatively, I could think about building a new neck. I've done it once before, and I'm sure the tools I don't have I could borrow. What would anyone else do in this situation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Assuming the tr still works to a degree could you shim the pocket and start the setup afresh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 I still have enough range on the bridge saddles for a string height I can live with, but necks with slightly less relief just seem a little more pleasant to play. As far as I can gather, the "normal" range of relief would be about half what I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 Thinking about it a little more, I'm going to bite the bullet and build a new neck. It's probably overkill, but it'll change the bass from being a bitsa with a homemade body to being a bass I built. Also, if I make it nice and stiff with a double action rod and CF reinforcement, it may help my B-string response, which isn't the greatest on this bass. I have a couple of metres of Fender sized fretwire knocking about already, and I think I can find a friend to borrow a router from. Now I need to source woods. The body blank was from David Dyke, and they were quite helpful so I may try them again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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