24 fret deluxe 5 bass question

[kimbass]

So, I'd like to put together a Deluxe 5 P bass with the 24 fret fingerboard.... has anyone done this with the heel truss rod adjustment access, and been able to adjust the rod without removing the neck? I know that the fb extension covers the Warmoth body tool access rout, but I'm wondering if it's practical to extend the rout to allow access, or perhaps make a rout from the back, or if the thing to do would be to go for the angled headstock with adjustment at the nut, which I'd like to avoid in order to get the stock Fender style headstock and a Warmoth finish (i.e., not practical with the angled paddle headstock).

thx

 

[Cagey]

I can't answer your question, but I wonder if you might be worried about something that really isn't going to hurt you. Even on cheap necks, you don't need to adjust the truss rod very often, and with Warmoth parts it's pretty rare. Plus, we're talking about a bass here, where a couple thousandths of movement isn't going to affect things much because of the large allowances made for string vibration in the first place.

Rather than spend money on a special modification, throw $30 at a good accurate straightedge and on the rare occasion you need to adjust the neck, you can use that to set it right while the thing is off the body. Plus, you'll have a good straightedge.

People adjust truss rods far too often and usually for the wrong reasons. In reality, unless it's a piece of junk once a neck has more or less settled in, it doesn't move much unless you subject it to some prolonged temperature/humidity extremes.

 

[Wyliee]

I don't know that it would be practical, to be honest.  You'd have to cut the trend in a ways and it could end up looking a bit weird.

 

[AprioriMark]

I agree entirely with Cagey.  In the 11 years I've had my main W bass, over all the continents and climate zones it's been through, I've adjusted the truss rod exactly once.  Just take the neck off and do it when you change the strings and it needs adjusting.

-Mark

 

[kimbass]

Thanks for the replies... I don't really mind it looking weird, as long as it functions. I've had the experience of a neck going nuts on hot outdoor gigs, resulting in back bow. Can usually make it through with bridge adjustment. Will probably just buy the parts and see if it  seems reasonable to modify.

 

[Cagey]

That's pretty unusual. You may have had a particularly bad neck, or something else was wrong. Usually, the degree of temperature/humidity change needed to put a neck out of whack takes at least a week or longer to have an effect. Perhaps your neck had been removed too many times and the mounting screw holes had loosened up to where the thing was just swinging in the breeze, so to speak.

If you think you may remove a neck more than 4 or 5 times during the lifetime of the instrument, it's worth the $50 or so to get threaded inserts installed and attach it with machine screws. I do that to all my guitars whether I need to or not, just on general principles. Wood isn't meant to be screwed repeatedly. It's fibrous and compressible, and every time you run a screw in/out, you remove and compress a bit of material and eventually the hole is shot. Before you know it, you can't keep alignment or angularity on the thing, and it's so loose you lose sustain.

 

[AprioriMark]

Wood isn't meant to be screwed repeatedly. It's fibrous and compressible, and every time you run a screw in/out, you remove and compress a bit of material and eventually the hole is shot.

This quote would be in my sig if I thought it was remotely acceptable to be on every post in a family forum.  I also don't know what this says about my fondness for early 30s women.

-Mark?

 

[Cagey]

Hehe! After reviewing that post before I committed it, I wondered how long it would take to get a reaction to that language. But, I couldn't think of a better way of saying what needed to be said.