34" scale neck on 35" scale bass?

[Phunbabasquatch]

So I just started a new undertaking of fixing up one of my old basses that I used to really like. it's an old DeArmond Pilot 4 string. I am looking into replacing the neck and it seems that the neck pocket will fit a replacement P or J style neck from Warmoth. The only problem I see is the original neck is a 35" scale and the replacements are 34". Assuming the neck heel will indeed fit the pocket what kind of issues could I run into with intonation/action etc. by changing to a 34" scale?

 

[bagman67]

YOu'll potentially wind up with a not-quite-34" sounding length for the strings if you just drop in the 34" neck.  you may need to relocate the bridge to make it intonate correctly.

 

[DuckBaloo]

The only problem I see is the original neck is a 35" scale

That seems highly unlikely. One of the Pilot basses from 20 years ago? They should be 34" (or probably 864 mm since the manufacturing is probably metric). 35" is not a common scale length in the modern world.

Measure from the nut to the 12th fret.

.... intonation ...

If the 12th fret isn't halfway between the nut and bridge the neck will be damn near useless unless. You can compensate by relocating the bridge. The pickups won't be in the mathematical harmonic locations, but "meh."

 

[Phunbabasquatch]

Measuring from the nut to the 12th fret gives me about 17 3/8". But do i actually measure to the 12th fret or take the measurement from the midpoint between the 11th and 12th? Sorry, I'm a total noob to this kind of stuff. I used to be the type to just pick up my bass and start playing and didn't care about the technical stuff now I'm taking an interest in tinkering around with this sort of thing but there is just alot that I don't know.

 

[DuckBaloo]

To the fret wire. The string breaks over the fret at the 2nd octave. Wow, that does come dang close to 35". Personally, I'm not sure I would invest more money into that bass.

 

[Phunbabasquatch]

Yeah unless I knew it would work flawlessly then I won't invest any money in it. I guess its more of a curiosity thing. That bass has served me well over the years so I was just trying to think of ways to fix it up. Thanks for the help.

 

[bagman67]

I wandered off and did a little googling and a number of sources online suggest the Pilots were manufactured with a 34" scale length, but obviously your own measurement suggests otherwise.  Curious.

 

[Phunbabasquatch]

Well it was about $250 or so when I bought it years ago so it wouldn't surprise me if the quality control was a bit lacking.

 

[DuckBaloo]

Maybe...and I'm not sure I would put my money down on it....it'll b better with a proper 34" neck?

I think what you need to confirm is dimensions of neck pocket (will a Warmoth neck even fit?), distance from bridge to neck pocket. I don't have a good Fender-0style bass around here anymore to measure. DeArmond was owned by Fender by then, but imports don't always match traditional Fender specs.

 

[Phunbabasquatch]

Well I took some measurements before and it does look like a warmoth neck will fit, but I could be wrong. I'm actually planning on building a P Bass using warmoth neck and body but I can't afford to buy everything at once. Maybe I will buy the neck first and try it out just for grins. If it does fit I will mess around with it and see if its even worth the trouble. It might sound terrible. Unless its a drastic change it probably won't be worth the money. Definitely not worth it if I have to mess with moving the bridge.