Ideas about fancy material bass necks?

[Jeffrey Z]

Hi guys, Im a uni student based in London and trying to do some market research and might do it as a par time job during my holiday. The question is : Would you buy a custom bass neck with material such as triple A level flame maple, birds eye maple etc.. in the range of 300-600 pound? Not made by me of course, tuners and everything installed, a ready to use product. 

 

*This is not an advertisement post(at least not yet), just want to know if there's a potential market. I've been in New Zealand for quite some time and I have to say the market is small compare to UK, so I thought I should come to this forum and ask you guys :))

 

 

[Bolo]

There are people that buy their bass in parts, but not me. Good luck!

[Hellzero]

Maybe worth checking the quality bass and guitar spare parts before asking:

 

https://warmoth.com/bass-necks

 

Or even an if not the original maker:

 

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/parts/electric-bass-parts/necks/replacement-necks/?srule=price-low-to-high&sz=12&start=0

 

Or simply check the second hand market to see the real prices and targets.

 

You'll be amazed.

[BigRedX]

When you said fancy materials I thought it was going to be aluminium or carbon fibre. Not boring old wood.

[Cato]

I think it's a very niche market to be honest.

 

I can't see many people wanting to install a fancy neck on a bog standard Jazz or Precision type bass and most basses that have exotic grained body woods that might suit such a neck will already have one.

 

Good luck anyway.

[Doctor J]

Unless you're offering to put the logos of one brand in particular, I can't see you getting mainstream traffic 😉

 

There are quite a few vendors already who offer high quality necks with fancy woods, if desired, but it's a very, very niche market. You have to think about what it is about your necks that will stand out and make people replace such a fundamental part of their instrument and, perhaps, lose the headstock shape and logo they covet. 

[40hz]

I would if it was a neck made of carbon, or aluminium or something a bit different. If it's just bog standard wood, you'd just got to Warmoth.

[LukeFRC]

53 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

When you said fancy materials I thought it was going to be aluminium or carbon fibre. Not boring old wood.

this. 
And if I did want a fancy wood neck I'm going with a luthier I know to make it. 

[itu]

Status had impressive necks in CF (tinted, too), there are few companies selling (anodized) aluminium necks.

 

3D-printed instruments are on their way to customers, so what fancy would your wooden necks represent? Just asking and trying to understand. Special fretboards?

[TheGreek]

I like highly figured timber but I think that your price range will limit your market and clientele. There are luthiers here who would build me anything I wanted for less than you state and that would be custom built rather than "mass produced".

[Nicko]

I buy my basses off the shelf so wouldn't consider a custom neck. I assume there is a market for neck profile, width, fingerboard radius and fret profile but players that are that specific may be in the market for a complete bass.

 

FWIW I recall reading somewhere a review of a guitar with Fender's old fotoflame simulated flamed maple.  The reviewer commented that technically flame maple is less stable than the woods usually used. 

[Dan Dare]

As a tightwad who views instruments as tools to do a job, I don't understand throwing money at exotic materials, unless there is a performance benefit that makes the cost difference worthwhile. In the case of necks, good old plain maple has been found to do the job perfectly, so why change what ain't broke? Quality of build trumps materials every time. I'd rather have an instrument that has been well made from plain (but suitable, ofc) materials any day. That way, I can afford more toys.

 

Interestingly, Stradivari is reckoned to have used ordinary lumber he bought from local timber merchants to build instruments. If it was good enough for him... 

[Hellzero]

You'll say again that I'm patronising @Dan Dare, but Antonio Stradivari may have bought wood from the local suppliers, BUT was building instruments using his ears to tune these woods by crafting them to get the best tone.

 

And this makes a huge difference.

[Burns-bass]

Being at Uni is a great time to explore new ideas and it’s a great idea to do your research!

 

The bass market is small, and those that would buy parts a fraction of that. Of those people, half will want a cheap product. The other half will want a brand name.

 

Building guitars is a labour of love for most people (even Fender and Gibson sometimes lose money!), so the chances of creating a viable business that can compete with the Far East are very small indeed.

 

If you offer something genuinely unique you may find a market, but it’s unlikely.

 

I’d look for another market to disrupt!

 

 

[Dan Dare]

12 hours ago, Hellzero said:

You'll say again that I'm patronising @Dan Dare, but Antonio Stradivari may have bought wood from the local suppliers, BUT was building instruments using his ears to tune these woods by crafting them to get the best tone.

 

And this makes a huge difference.

 

Eh? My point was that materials of good but not outstanding quality, used correctly, are what is important, rather than exotic materials. It seems you are trying to pick an argument for the sake of it. 

 

As for "tone woods", they matter in an acoustic instrument because the instrument alone produces the sound you hear. The sound you hear from a solid electric instrument is entirely the product of a signal produced by a piece of wire vibrating in a magnetic field, which is then amplified and reproduced by a loudspeaker. It is a purely electrical/electronic process. A pickup is not a microphone. It does not respond to vibrations of air molecules.

 

So by your own logic, the material a solid instrument is constructed from has no bearing on the sound produced.

[TheGreek]

4 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Being at Uni is a great time to explore new ideas and it’s a great idea to do your research!

 

The bass market is small, and those that would buy parts a fraction of that. Of those people, half will want a cheap product. The other half will want a brand name.

 

Building guitars is a labour of love for most people (even Fender and Gibson sometimes lose money!), so the chances of creating a viable business that can compete with the Far East are very small indeed.

 

If you offer something genuinely unique you may find a market, but it’s unlikely.

 

I’d look for another market to disrupt!

 

 

 

So many good points made...

[Hellzero]

59 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

So by your own logic, the material a solid instrument is constructed from has no bearing on the sound produced.

I'm trying the best I can, but I really don't understand what you're saying as it's the opposite of my point of view, but is exactly yours, or maybe you're a songwriter or a poet?

[fretmeister]

I've never built a bitsa so I have no real idea how much bodies and necks cost in the first place.

 

 

 

[tauzero]

I prefer neck-through basses so it's unlikely I'd buy one.

[Beer of the Bass]

Headstock shapes might cause some difficulty - alternative shapes can be hard to sell as there's a perception that a Fender style instrument with a different headstock shape signals "cheap". I think Warmoth have some form of licensing arrangement to use the Fender headstock, and smaller luthiers might slip under the radar (also those from countries where trade protections are harder to enforce), but otherwise your options would be to try and get people to accept an alternative shape, or await the cease & desist letter.

[neepheid]

13 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

Headstock shapes might cause some difficulty - alternative shapes can be hard to sell as there's a perception that a Fender style instrument with a different headstock shape signals "cheap". I think Warmoth have some form of licensing arrangement to use the Fender headstock, and smaller luthiers might slip under the radar (also those from countries where trade protections are harder to enforce), but otherwise your options would be to try and get people to accept an alternative shape, or await the cease & desist letter.

 

Either that or a deliberate attempt to put a little sick in your mouth, amirite, G&L?

[SteveXFR]

Not a chance. If it doesn't improve sound or feel when playing, what's the point?

[Jeffrey Z]

On 18/04/2023 at 07:02, Hellzero said:

Maybe worth checking the quality bass and guitar spare parts before asking:

 

https://warmoth.com/bass-necks

 

Or even an if not the original maker:

 

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/parts/electric-bass-parts/necks/replacement-necks/?srule=price-low-to-high&sz=12&start=0

 

Or simply check the second hand market to see the real prices and targets.

 

You'll be amazed.

Thanks! This is actually I started with this idea, I tried to custom built a j neck from Warmoth but it was too expensive, around 1k usd for flame maple and non Brazil rose wood finger board. These raw materials are not that crazy expensive at all, its just the cost of production is high.

[Jeffrey Z]

On 18/04/2023 at 06:24, Bolo said:

There are people that buy their bass in parts, but not me. Good luck!

Thanks!

[Jeffrey Z]

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On 18/04/2023 at 11:34, TheGreek said:

I like highly figured timber but I think that your price range will limit your market and clientele. There are luthiers here who would build me anything I wanted for less than you state and that would be custom built rather than "mass produced".

That's definitely true, my other ideas is to have J necks on P bass( I know it sounds wired but there are people with small hands that likes that I think), with full customizable ie. headstock shape, material from normal maple to Brazilian rosewood. For necks with normal specs such as roast, flame, Birdseye maple etc.. I can do it around 3-400 I think, but that might still be too high for the current market, especially its a off brand product. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion!