Reccommended sellers for a decent budget Jazz bass neck?

[mikem8634]

Hi folks

I'm familiar with Northwest guitars but I'd ideally prefer sub £100 and headstock truss access. The fret dressing they do does appeal though.

Also familiar with earlpilanz on ebay but he isn't getting any in stock for the forseeable future.

Any other reliable suggestions, personal recommendations?

I've also put an ad in items wanted on here and the Fretboard.

 

Thanks

Edited September 11, 2020 by mikem8634

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 8, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[ahpook]

There are  quite a few vendors on Ebay that have bass necks for less than £100, but none I can recommend personally.

Given then price of some of the cheaper ones (~£70), it may be within your budget to chance your arm and see what you get. I know some folks here have had some luck with 'no-name' necks.

Edited September 11, 2020 by ahpook

[barrycreed]

I'd hold out for a bit and go for a northwest.

[invertigo]

Sub-£130 for a finished neck with dressed frets seems like a pretty tidy price. Looks like most of them are heel access truss rods mind.

[mikem8634]

Thanks folks. I am drawn to Northwest to be honest. they seem less of a gamble than some of the sellers on ebay. I've dropped them an email to see if/when they are re-stocking the rosewood board necks.

There are a few possibilities on ebay, but once you rule out square heels, 42mm nuts, US import costs and the lottery of buying from China, the choices thin a bit.

[mikem8634]

Well, Northwest couldn't tell me when or even if they will have any rosewood JB necks with 38mm nuts. So if I went with them it would have to be either a maple fretboard, or rosewood, with blocks and binding and a 42mm nut, at just shy of £160.

That may well rule them out for the time being.

[paul_5]

Shame - I’ve got a rosewood NW Jazz neck on my ‘bitsa’ P bass and it’s great. Worth holding out for.

[pst62]

I intended to buy a Rosewood JB neck from Northwest, but settled on a Maple board (£127 satin finish one, as the Rosewood was OOS) Sadly I had to return it, as the project I was intending to undertake had to be shelved. From what I could tell it seemed like a quality neck, no sharp frets edges, and no visible flaws in the construction. Their necks sell out pretty quickly, so they must be doing something right.

[barrycreed]

8 minutes ago, pst62 said:

I intended to buy a Rosewood JB neck from Northwest, but settled on a Maple board (£127 satin finish one, as the Rosewood was OOS) Sadly I had to return it, as the project I was intending to undertake had to be shelved. From what I could tell it seemed like a quality neck, no sharp frets edges, and no visible flaws in the construction. Their necks sell out pretty quickly, so they must be doing something right.

I had a rosewood j bass neck from nthwest too and sold it for a shelved project (was decent quality too, I think I might have bought the last one before they went out of stock!) but just ordered a vintage gloss maple j neck for a project on the long finger. 

 

[DarkHeart]

1 hour ago, mikem8634 said:

Well, Northwest couldn't tell me when or even if they will have any rosewood JB necks with 38mm nuts. So if I went with them it would have to be either a maple fretboard, or rosewood, with blocks and binding and a 42mm nut, at just shy of £160.

That may well rule them out for the time being.

I`ve just bought the block and bound rosewood neck from NW, not got round to fitting it yet but its well finished and a better fit in my jazz body than the original fender one!

[mikem8634]

This is all tempting me towards the maple neck. Hmmmm. Food for thought.

[Stub Mandrel]

By a Harley Bento J-bass kit, finish the neck yourself and either put the rest in a bits box or sell it cheap.

[Reggaebass]

@mikem8634 there’s a jazz neck on eBay at the moment , might be worth an offer 🙂

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293730382151

[mikem8634]

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

@mikem8634 there’s a jazz neck on eBay at the moment , might be worth an offer 🙂

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293730382151

Good spot. I'll keep an eye on that. Cheers

 

6 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

By a Harley Bento J-bass kit, finish the neck yourself and either put the rest in a bits box or sell it cheap.

I'd be happy to have a go at finishing a neck myself. Be quite the learning curve, especially shaping the headstock (I'm thinking Starcaster 😱 or something like a Vox Teardrop). But I've no access to a router or any serious tools. I read a thread about someone shaping a telecaster headstock by drilling holes along a template, then jigsawing it out, before finishing it off with rasps and sandpaper. It looked excellent. It'd be good to know what kind of quality those HB kits are. I think they sell necks on their own too.

Edited September 11, 2020 by mikem8634

[uk_lefty]

Someone mentioned jinwan necks in a recent thread here. Chinese seller on ebay where you can get a neck for 70 quid. I haven't ever held one but there was one or two people with high opinions of them if you do a search. 

[police squad]

I bought a fretless maple board P bass neck from EYguitar parts. It was cheap and very good. Worth a look I reckon

but they're not listing any jazz necks atm, disappointing

Edited September 12, 2020 by police squad

[Richard R]

10 hours ago, mikem8634 said:

It'd be good to know what kind of quality those HB kits are. I think they sell necks on their own too.

There seems to be a lot of goodwill towards the HB kits over on the build diaries. @stewblack has a couple of HBs and can tell you what the necks are like.

[stewblack]

I like them, very much. There's a fair bit of variety in shapes and sizes. The one thing I can't tell you is what the neck in the kit is like. 

But others here have built them. 

[Lfalex v1.1]

21 hours ago, invertigo said:

Sub-£130 for a finished neck with dressed frets seems like a pretty tidy price. Looks like most of them are heel access truss rods mind.

If it's an Allen key, you could always rout the body as per Fenders. (It'd  be nice if someone made retro-fittable capstan wheels that fitted into the socket so it worked like a Musicman truss rod adjuster.)

 

[Stub Mandrel]

12 hours ago, mikem8634 said:

Good spot. I'll keep an eye on that. Cheers

 

I'd be happy to have a go at finishing a neck myself. Be quite the learning curve, especially shaping the headstock (I'm thinking Starcaster 😱 or something like a Vox Teardrop). But I've no access to a router or any serious tools. I read a thread about someone shaping a telecaster headstock by drilling holes along a template, then jigsawing it out, before finishing it off with rasps and sandpaper. It looked excellent. It'd be good to know what kind of quality those HB kits are. I think they sell necks on their own too.

All you have to do is shape the headstock - Yes I did mine paper template, fretsaw and patience, rasp then a good long session with a sanding block. I didn't dress my frets aside from light sanding of the corners with and dry to improve the feel. I did have to cut the nut deeper, I used a scalpel and scraped it, more controllable than files IMHO.

 

[mikem8634]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

All you have to do is shape the headstock - Yes I did mine paper template, fretsaw and patience, rasp then a good long session with a sanding block. I didn't dress my frets aside from light sanding of the corners with and dry to improve the feel. I did have to cut the nut deeper, I used a scalpel and scraped it, more controllable than files IMHO.

 

That looks like an excellent result. Kudos.

5 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

Someone mentioned jinwan necks in a recent thread here. Chinese seller on ebay where you can get a neck for 70 quid. I haven't ever held one but there was one or two people with high opinions of them if you do a search. 

Those Jinwan necks looks really nice. I am very tempted. Presumably the extra import costs would keep the whole thing sub £100 and if it arrived and proved fatally flawed then I'd be protected by ebay. However, knowing that others rate them highly reassures me about the quality.

[DarkHeart]

There`s this... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Boston-Neck-Jb-Style-Maple-Pau-Ferro-21-Frets-Paddle-Head-9-5-Radius/324237329467?hash=item4b7e0d043b:g:8xoAAOSw2VpfF9nP

[mikem8634]

Thanks to everyone for the sage advice.

Special thanks to @Reggaebass for pointing out the Squier. Just got it.

Edited September 12, 2020 by mikem8634

[Reggaebass]

11 minutes ago, mikem8634 said:

Thanks to everyone for the sage advice.

Special thanks to @Reggaebass for pointing out the Squire. Just got it.

Nice one ☝️, it looks like a nice neck.