What makes a neck worth £100 vs £1000?

[kodiakblair]

11 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Why? Is the position of the strings a mystery before the neck is mounted? Pretty sure I could take a wild stab at where they are supposed to go even without bolting it to a body (although seeing some fenders, maybe I am wrong).

Aye, it's a load of nonsense.

 

The 'may require work to fit' is a standard disclaimer carried by most aftermarket neck sellers but there's no reason for an uncut nut.

 

This is a CNC machined product and pre-cut bone nuts can be bought, its a simple case of setting the nut slot depth to suit the string slots. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

17 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

As you can see on the picture of that neck the nut slots are in fact already cut, they are just not cut to dead on correct depth, which is what I am talking about, and I am pretty certain what they are talking about too in that disclaimer.

 

It constantly amazes me how blind people are, they can neither see pictures or text, or at least fail to make sense of them and connect the dots rationally, and in place of that instead turns to crazy presumptions.

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Woodinblack]

32 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

As you can see on the picture of that neck the nut slots are in fact already cut, they are just not cut to dead on correct depth, which is what I am talking about, and I am pretty certain what they are talking about too in that disclaimer.

 

I didn't see the image no, as it is a quote of the post that had the image, not the image itself. However, I also don't understand why they can't be cut to almost the correct depth, or at least so close on that most people woudn't be able to tell the difference. The angular difference between the first fret and the nut is very tiny compared to the angular difference between having your strings flat to the neck and having your strings at 10mm that even if you set the net to the depth needed if the strings were dead flat to the neck you would be closer than most nuts probably are in the wild.

 

Or you are going to tell me that a standard fender has its nut adjusted in the factory before it is sold routinely?

[Baloney Balderdash]

10 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Or you are going to tell me that a standard fender has its nut adjusted in the factory before it is sold routinely?

Well, that was my point, wasn't it, yours seems however to have suddenly changed.

 

That it ought to be at those kind of price points is a whole other discussion, but simply not possible on a separate new neck, regardless of well made with attention to details it otherwise is, as I already said in my original reply that you chose to argue with.

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[LukeFRC]

and everyone exhale.... and then deep slow breath in, and exhale.... 

 

[Woodinblack]

37 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, that was my point, wasn't it, yours seems however to have suddenly changed.

 

No, my point is you can do the nut on a net that has never been on a body, get it close enough for most and I don't believe that fender redo the nut once an instrument has been made.

 

37 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

That it ought to be at those kind of price points is a whole other discussion, but simply not possible on a separate new neck, regardless of well made with attention to details it otherwise is, as I already said in my original reply that you chose to argue with.

 

I did, and still happy to say it is perfectly possible, with the caveat that you could have a nut that was up to a mm too high, but I would imagine most fenders in the world have that. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

17 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

No, my point is you can do the nut on a net that has never been on a body, get it close enough for most and I don't believe that fender redo the nut once an instrument has been made.

 

 

I did, and still happy to say it is perfectly possible, with the caveat that you could have a nut that was up to a mm too high, but I would imagine most fenders in the world have that. 

 

*sigh*

 

What exactly are we even arguing about at this point?

 

A hypothetical case that you imagined up, coming out of nowhere, totally out of context?

 

Certainly has nothing to do with my point or my original message, or anything I wrote in this thread for that matter (in actual context to the discussion and that specific neck it is evolving around), anymore.

 

Yes, they can do it close to perfect, and that's exactly what they do on that separate neck, then have a disclaimer that says it might still need work to get dead on perfect, cause it is not dead on perfect, I know they don't word it that way, but that's basically what it is. (feels like I've already said this numerous times by now, but seems like it mysteriously gets lost in the transfer to your side of the internet or something every single time).

 

I give up! 

 

You win, here you go an imaginary price for your imaginary arguments. 

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Beedster]

So, Warmoth versus Allparts anyone 😀

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

*sigh*

 

What exactly are we arguing about at this point?

 

I made a joke forgetting you don't get jokes, then you got all upset about it.

 

my fault that I forgot you didn't get jokes, sorry, move on, nothing to see here

 

[Beedster]

On 25/03/2023 at 08:59, LukeFRC said:

Slightly clickbaity title sorry…

 

I have in my head a project/build I would like to do that would involve a fretless shortscale.

 

now the last build I did I picked up a musicman neck which was nice… and was half thinking of building my own next from scratch 

 

for this though I’ve seen the almost perfect spec neck for less than I could buy the neck blank for, from a brand with a reasonable reputation 

 

so other than finish (which I can redo if needed) and care of fret install (which I will be taking out) what really is going to be the difference between the cheap and the expensive? Wood quality/stability?

 

to be fair im pretty sure a £50-100 neck will be better than anything I could make, and far worse than something Jon shuker or Alpher would make - but from a factory what would the differences be? 

 

The answer to this is, IMO, how the neck makes you feel when you play it, and that's a function your motivation for the build. My build algorithm in order of importance....

 

1: Neck: Dimensions? Wrong profile = wrong neck, there's a certain ratio of depth-width that i like, jazz necks that are too narrow/deep and precision necks that are too wide/shallow are both out

2. Neck: Feel and function, how fast is it, how sticky is it, is it easy to fret, does it play well? Does it make me feel good?

3. Body/neck joint: Is it tight, does the bass sing unplugged when the neck is attached to the body, does it feel tight and stable?

4. Action: how close can I get it to almost zero without shims etc? Will probably never play it that low, but I ned to know the neck is good enough to go there if I wanted to

5. PUPs: is there magic when I plug it in (to one or other Mesa rigs that is)?

6. Circuit; does the roll off work for me, does it give me the tone control I need?

 

So the neck is critical to the first three criteria in importance, and not something I leave to chance, whilst bodies and bridges are not even a factor, which is why I'm happy to put a Warmoth neck on a Squier body with a BBOT bridge) 👍 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LukeFRC]

45 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

The answer to this is, IMO, how the neck makes you feel when you play it, and that's a function your motivation for the build. My build algorithm in order of importance....

 

1: Neck: Dimensions? Wrong profile = wrong neck, there's a certain ratio of depth-width that i like, jazz necks that are too narrow/deep and precision necks that are too wide/shallow are both out

2. Neck: Feel and function, how fast is it, how sticky is it, is it easy to fret, does it play well? Does it make me feel good?

3. Body/neck joint: Is it tight, does the bass sing unplugged when the neck is attached to the body, does it feel tight and stable?

4. Action: how close can I get it to almost zero without shims etc? Will probably never play it that low, but I ned to know the neck is good enough to go there if I wanted to

5. PUPs: is there magic when I plug it in (to one or other Mesa rigs that is)?

6. Circuit; does the roll off work for me, does it give me the tone control I need?

 

So the neck is critical to the first three criteria in importance, and not something I leave to chance, whilst bodies and bridges are not even a factor, which is why I'm happy to put a Warmoth neck on a Squier body with a BBOT bridge) 👍 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks (for the answer and getting thread on track) 

things to mull over, we offered to buy a new house today so the whole thing might go on the back burner anyway.

 

the back story is years back I tried @Frank Blank’s Rob Allen mouse, it was fretless and short scale when all my basses are long scale fretted. 
I figured my next bass build project might be make something along a similar recipe and on the cheap!  … I had thought of making a neck from scratch, mainly as I had never done that before… but then seeing retrovibe necks at £60 and knowing my propensity to mess things up…

 

[3below]

47 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

The answer to this is, IMO, how the neck makes you feel when you play it, and that's a function your motivation for the build. My build algorithm in order of importance....

 

1: Neck: Dimensions? Wrong profile = wrong neck, there's a certain ratio of depth-width that i like, jazz necks that are too narrow/deep and precision necks that are too wide/shallow are both out

2. Neck: Feel and function, how fast is it, how sticky is it, is it easy to fret, does it play well? Does it make me feel good?

3. Body/neck joint: Is it tight, does the bass sing unplugged when the neck is attached to the body, does it feel tight and stable?

4. Action: how close can I get it to almost zero without shims etc? Will probably never play it that low, but I ned to know the neck is good enough to go there if I wanted to

5. PUPs: is there magic when I plug it in (to one or other Mesa rigs that is)?

6. Circuit; does the roll off work for me, does it give me the tone control I need?

 

So the neck is critical to the first three criteria in importance, and not something I leave to chance, whilst bodies and bridges are not even a factor, which is why I'm happy to put a Warmoth neck on a Squier body with a BBOT bridge) 👍 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really good summary.  Does the bass sing unplugged is an important one for me.  I have been heavily using my Corvette fretless on a daily basis for the last 4 months and it has really opened up in this respect in the last few weeks.  No idea why this would be with a solid body bass, if you had asked me that several months ago I would have not believed it possible.

 

Stating the obvious, really unlikely random parts can produce staggeringly good results.  One of the best P basses I have ever played was put together by a teaching assistant for a special school music room.  It had been hammered in the time I I knew it.  Made with a Peavey neck, unknown body, BBOT bridge and a cheap Chinese pickup.  It was seriously good, it had the 'sings unplugged' factor in spades. An absolute banger of a bass, as good as anything USA I own.

[LukeFRC]

9 minutes ago, 3below said:

 

Stating the obvious, really unlikely random parts can produce staggeringly good results.  One of the best P basses I have ever played was put together by a teaching assistant for a special school music room.  It had been hammered in the time I I knew it.  Made with a Peavey neck, unknown body, BBOT bridge and a cheap Chinese pickup.  It was seriously good, it had the 'sings unplugged' factor in spades. An absolute banger of a bass, as good as anything USA I own.

Yeah - sometimes everyone gets very excited over some brands when there is an element of chance in everthing. I do like a nice resonant feel.

 

Add into that I’ve played basses that sing in my hands and awful in friends (and vice versa) as their right hand technique is different 

[bloke_zero]

15 hours ago, Beedster said:

So, Warmoth versus Allparts anyone 😀

Warmoth has the edge. I've got a beautiful P fretless here and medium scale neck - they are both really great necks - stable, not to chunky, not too thin. The allparts was a great neck - accurately made, super stable, great finish but slightly more factory and felt more baseball bat. Which you may prefer! (These are all variations on the P neck for context).

Edited March 28, 2023 by bloke_zero