Owen has a problem with his neck

[Andyjr1515]

Lot of photos here.  But in terms of what I do and why (and always the disclaimer to not assume this is necessarily the best/only way):

 

- First, I have to get all traces off of the old glue.  I generally use a single edged razor blade used as a mini cabinet scraper:

 

- As part of the process, I give the fretboard a healthy water spray for two reasons.  Firstly, it reveals remaining glue.  Secondly, it's wood  - it moves by itself and in different conditions.  When the fretboard was first fitted it will have been damp from the water-based wood glue.  That moisture gradually reduces (it's one of the reasons that fret ends can feel sharp on a new bass after a year or so - the timber shrinks, exposing the sharp edges of the frets previously filed flush) and certainly does when a domestic iron has been used to remove it!  Water spraying it damp right through gives it at least half a chance of returning to the shape and length when first fitted.  

 

- I then sand both surfaces.  This is a cheap sandpaper holder I found in, I think, Homebase.  It's great - and especially for my increasingly arthritic hands! :

 

- Next. I use two-sided sticky tape to stick a protective clamping cawl, using some old mahogany offcut, to protect the back of the neck when clamping:

 

- Positioning the forward/backward placing using the side-dot holes as the guide (see previous post), I use a bobbin clamp to position the fretboard side-to-side and then drill two positioning 1.5mm holes through the saddle base to the neck for a couple of panel pins to be used as locators:

 

- and yes - as I said above, wood moves.  And the whole fretboard has a bend in it.  With the above panel pins in place, and a second bobbin clamp holding the fretboard in position at the 5th fret, look how much the natural bend in the board is out of line with the heel end!    :

 

- To correct this bend (it pushes back straight and flush fairly easily) I could just use bobbin clamps at the heel end too, but, for the sake of a teeny hole in the fretboard, I think a better solution is another panel pin locator:

 

- I will be clamping using radius blocks so that I can clamp in the middle, using that protective strip of mahogany at the back, and still have the clamping forces being applied fully either side of the fretboard.  So ready for masking off the trussrod slot and the sides of the neck, Titebond is applied to both surfaces:

 

 

 

 

- and, finally, panel pins are pushed into place, the radius blocks positioned and the clamps fully tightened down.  Once it is fully clamped, and the squeeze-out has been cleaned up a best as can be done, the three positioning panel pins can now be removed so they don't get glued in!   :

 

Later this afternoon, I will be able to take the clamps off and see if we have a satisfactory re-fitting  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28 by Andyjr1515

[Owen]

On 23/04/2024 at 12:08, Owen said:

I am still enjoying this thread.

Yep, still enjoying it

[Andyjr1515]

Looking OK

 

 

Decent join, lined up OK left/right & backwards/forwards... phew!

 

So tomorrow, when the glue is fully cured, I'll try the trussrod and, assuming all is good: add the side dots; lightly sand the edges; add a whisper of finish at the edges to blend in the present finish with the sanded edges 

 

[police squad]

looks fab

[Andyjr1515]

This makes it look like it's closer to finish than it is (I still have to level, recrown and polish the frets), but:

- the side dots are in

- the edges are feathered in

- the fretboard has had an initial dose of Tru-oil

- THE TRUSS ROD WORKS!! 

 

A couple of pics to be going on with:

 

 

 

[Owen]

This thread is bringing me permanent joy. 

[Owen]

The Tru-oil on the fret board is a MASSIVE improvement. Thank you.

[Andyjr1515]

Everything has had time to settle and so now is the time to level the frets, re-crown and polish.

 

With the trussrod adusted to give me a straight neck, out comes my sanding beam to take off the high spots and/or high frets:

 

 

The filings coming off the high frets are a guide - you know you are there when there are just the beginning of an even scrape across the tops of the lowest frets

 

For recrowning, I use a diamond crowning file, first by itself, and then using the file as the former for progressive grades of emery and micro-mesh, all the way from 500 to 12000 grit.

 

And, other than a few final bits of tidying up, it's pretty much there

 

Edited May 3 by Andyjr1515

[police squad]

amazing work

[Owen]

1 hour ago, police squad said:

amazing work

There is no denying it. 

[Owen]

Owen no longer has a problem with his neck. Owen's only problem is with what colour his P bass with an L1000 pickup is going to be. Owen quite fancies a plain oiled body like a stripped pre CBS but is worried about a tort guard just not getting that old tort guard look. He could also go for reliced Oly white with a white plate which would be much easier to make work aesthetically but also much more expensive. 

 

 

[tauzero]

Plain oiled body and veneered pickguard. Go with wood.

[Owen]

The Eagle has landed. It will come as no surprise to anyone that it is all good. 

[LeftyJ]

Or no pickguard, like an actual L1000 (how is your 5-string neck labelled L1000, and not 1005?)

 

 

 

Edited May 16 by LeftyJ

[Owen]

That is an option - but I have one already and kind of like the P aesthetic.

[Guest]

G&L have replaced the underperforming neck on my SB-1.

 

Hoping to make sure they gave me a worthwhile replacement, I got them to fit a set of 50-110 Roto Bass rounds at the factory. However, they sent it to me with a maxed-out truss rod and an action a lot higher than is any use to me.

 

The first thing I did was replace the strings with a lower tension set to Pro Steels, and meddled with the saddle heights. It's now vaguely playable for me.

 

Since its now clear that the G&L factory is currently a basket case, I'm not going to spending another 6 months apart from my bass nor another ££££ on the shipping back to the States.

 

This thread is giving me ideas.

 

First, I'm going to fit a 35-95 set of Roto Bass, see how the neck settles down with just 130 lbs of tension on it, see if the action gets low, see how much I miss the heavy strings. Then a pro setup.

 

Looks and sounds great, obviously. Just hard to play ....

 

.... and I'm worried that the truss rod is another turkey, not actually capable of keeping the neck stable longterm, no matter what strings I fit.

 

[MoonBassAlpha]

On 03/05/2024 at 12:46, Andyjr1515 said:

Everything has had time to settle and so now is the time to level the frets, re-crown and polish.

 

With the trussrod adusted to give me a straight neck, out comes my sanding beam to take off the high spots and/or high frets:

 

 

The filings coming off the high frets are a guide - you know you are there when there are just the beginning of an even scrape across the tops of the lowest frets

 

For recrowning, I use a diamond crowning file, first by itself, and then using the file as the former for progressive grades of emery and micro-mesh, all the way from 500 to 12000 grit.

 

And, other than a few final bits of tidying up, it's pretty much there

 

@Andyjr1515Is the fretboard pao ferro on these?

Edited July 3 by MoonBassAlpha
Tagged Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

10 hours ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

@Andyjr1515Is the fretboard pao ferro on these?

I think this one is rosewood.  Pau Ferro is generally quite orange.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I think this one is rosewood.  Pau Ferro is generally quite orange.

 

From my experience of gazing at G&L listings, this will be Chechen / Caribbean Rosewood. If you want your G&L fretboard to have a more uniform shade, they also offer Indian Rosewood and Ebony.

[Owen]

Of course, my problem is that I now have a neck looking for a body. I am trying to get my head around neck pocket proportions. I am fully aware that it is probably obvious to everyone else already. Writing stuff down enables me to "finesse" my thought processes. And you are all my friends so it is OK. I had thought of getting an unrouted 4 string P body blank and opening the neck pocket slightly more than usual, but that would need a bit of an overhang for the G side of the neck to get things centered. So is this a matter of getting the instructions for some CNC action and going in from scratch? 

Edited December 2 by Owen

[Si600]

Look at the chaos that is my bitsa build, there I fit a 5 string neck to a 4 string body.  There was only a couple of mm on each side to widen the pocket. I can take a picture of the g side overhand if you would like so you can judge whether you can live with it or not.

[Owen]

Thanks, I will go and have a look.

[Owen]

That looks like it might work, but having said that, the heel of this is 11mm wider than a standard P body so to get the balance would have quite a chunky overhang. Obviously I NEVER go up there so this whole thing is academic, but I think it would upset me on an aesthetic level. I think. Of course this means finding something else which is a royal pain.

[Happy Jack]

Once upon a time, in a studio far far away from Angelsey, I found myself contemplating a similar problem @Owen.

 

My solution was simple, direct, imaginative and showed impeccable taste.

 

I asked @Andyjr1515 to build a new body to go with the neck he'd built for me.

 

 

[Happy Jack]