Neck Swap - Fender/Charvel

[How1]

Possibly useful to someone, probably useless to everybody! I have just swapped my Player Series Precision neck onto my Charvel San Dimas body and it fits perfectly (but not visa-versa):

 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by How1

[MacDaddy]

Are/weren't Charvel owned by Fender Corp? Maybe they standardized the measurements on the cnc machines?

[How1]

Yeah, they are. I think I read somewhere that not all the necks fit each other though. These two are both from the Mexican shop as well so that probably matters.

[BigRedX]

And weren't the original Charvels made from Mighty Mite (or similar) Fender compatible necks and bodies?

[How1]

25 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

And weren't the original Charvels made from Mighty Mite (or similar) Fender compatible necks and bodies?

I believe they did start off as some parts place, yeah. 
 

Interestingly, the Fender neck has gone on no problem. The Charvel neck on the P body as proving a massive b**ch to set up.

Edited May 10, 2023 by How1

[How1]

I only swapped it because the Charvel sounds really dark, too much so for me. It seems to be a mixture of the DiMarzios and the roasted maple neck. The Charvel body and Fender neck (along with the DiMarzios) now sounds fantastic. The Precision with the Charvel sounds OKish. Definitely darker with less clarity.
 

I’m now thinking I might get some DiMarzios  for the P bass and another Fender neck!

Edited May 10, 2023 by How1

[Sambrook]

Looks great too. Very pleasing arrangement of thumb rest and preamp deletion. Well done, that man.

[How1]

On 10/05/2023 at 17:42, Sambrook said:

Looks great too. Very pleasing arrangement of thumb rest and preamp deletion. Well done, that man.

I’m guessing they only put those cheap preamps in to to help disguise how naturally awful these basses sound 😂 (joke)

Edited May 17, 2023 by How1

[How1]

Oh well, you live and learn. Turns out it only works one way round - Fender neck on the Charvel body. Looks like I need to brush up on my tape measure skills.

Edited May 11, 2023 by How1

[horrorshowbass]

Wow thats beautiful.

Imagining what green and maple jazz neck would look like now....

[How1]

Pretty nice I would imagine 👍

[BillyBass]

 

I have two of these, one metallic green, the other metallic blue.  I love the look and how they feel in my hands, the jazz neck on a P body is great.  As its a two pick up active bass, the pre amp and pups enable me to get a multitude of tones.  Yes, the G string is dull when used in passive mode but its an active bass, I would only use it in passive mode if I had battery or gain issues, and then there is a treble knob on my amp's EQ.  

 

The worst thing about the bass is the pre amp, so I swapped them out for John East preamps.

 

So @How1 why did you buy the bass?  if you didn't want an active bass and the appearance of the neck and nut width wasn't to your liking?

Edited May 22, 2023 by BillyBass

[How1]

1 hour ago, BillyBass said:

 

I have two of these, one metallic green, the other metallic blue.  I love the look and how they feel in my hands, the jazz neck on a Body is great.  As its a two pick up active bass, the pre amp and pups enable me to get a multitude of tones.  Yes, the G string is dull when used in passive mode but its an active bass, I would only use it in passive mode if I had battery or gain issues, and then there is a treble knob on my amp's EQ.  

 

The worst thing about the bass is the pre amp, so I swapped them out for John East preamps.

 

So @How1 why did you buy the bass?  if you didn't want an active bass and the appearance of the neck and nut width wasn't to your liking?

The neck swap isn’t/wasn’t necessarily permanent. I was just curious how it would sound matched against the Charvel neck. It definitely sounds different/better to some degree at least to me with the Fender neck. If I had money to burn I would probably change the neck permanently just to have the same feel on both my basses.

 

The nut width isn’t an issue though really; I have always played jazz and P basses so either is ok and both have their pros and cons (I like the overall slimmer jazz necks, but they always feel cramped at the headstock end. The Player Precision necks also aren’t the widest or fattest either compared to some other P-bass models. Same with the preamp, not a massive issue. I prefer passive basses, but a preamp isn’t a deal maker or breaker. The rest of the specs looked good. I really didn’t like the Charvel preamp though and felt like it let the bass down. ‘Volatile’ would be a good way to describe it.

 

I also tried it with a standard Fender Bridge, but it resulted in some crazy neck dive that the Charvel one evens out more or less.

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by How1

[BillyBass]

I would agree with you re the pre amp.  Fender/Charvel would have built these to a price point and anything more than a couple of dollars on the pre amp would have gone over this, I presume.  I also have a Charvel fiver, the pre amp in that was ok but I swapped it out for a Nordstrand.  My first 4 string got sent back because the pre amp was faulty (amongst other issues that PMT didn't check before posting it).

 

I would have been happy to spend another £100 on these basses if they came with a decent pre amp but perhaps the general bass buying public wouldn't be.  Still, I paid £699 each for both my 4 strings and the fiver, which are bargains really, considering you are getting 'Player Plus' style hardware for 'Player' series prices.

 

I have 8 basses and these Charvels are my favourites.

[How1]

To be honest, the Charvel has grown on me since taking the preamp out quite a bit. It took a while getting grips with the DiMarzios alone, which I’d never had before, nevermind the mental preamp as well. I just couldn’t seem to get a decent sound I liked. I was experimenting with different strings and stuff as well and ended up getting a bit lost with it all. Once I’d stripped out the preamp, put some familiar strings on and set my amp to flat I started getting somewhere.

[BillyBass]

Have you thought about putting a better pre amp in?  And while you are doing that, shielding it too.

Edited May 22, 2023 by BillyBass

[How1]

I grounded/shielded when I took out the preamp. I also swapped out all the pots and wiring and replaced it with DiMarzios. I don’t know about the preamp. It’s not at the top of my shopping list tbh, I need a new amp.
 

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by How1

[Chaddy]

I still gotta reshield mine cos its just the utter worst.  I put a 3 Band Glock Pre-Amp in my 4er with a set up included but hasn't been 100% right since new ( This is a replacement as well due to the quality issues and arrived with a chip n' crack jack port inside )

 

Even passive it's abit of a noise machine and very "lively" the Pick ups are alittle unforgiving. 

Used it to record some Lamb of God though through sheer gritted teeth, hasn't been out the bag in 2 months now. 

[Wayne Firefly]

I have a green one, it's good to know it's easy to sort a replacement neck if needs be !!