Bass Neck Radii

bricksnbeatles

bricksnbeatles

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Searched to see if it’s been mentioned before, but didn’t turn anything up (also looks like the suggestions sub forum has been merged with general discussion?)…

Anyone know if other neck radii are off-menu options for jazz and precision bass necks? I’m personally a big fan of the 7.25” radius of old jazz basses, especially for fretless since it feels a bit more similar to an upright neck that way.

If not, this is a suggestion to warmoth: offer more than just a 10” radius for bass necks.
 
There are no options for those for bass necks, which is why it cannot be found on the website.

You could try contacting Warmoth sales via email or calling them to see if it is an off menu option, though I suspect it is not.

Though, if you want a 7.25 radius for fretless, it would be an easy mod to turn a 10" radius into a 7.25 with a radius sanding block or have someone do it for you.
 
I've been playing bass more lately and am wondering if this instrument benefits from compound/conical radius as much as guitar does? This option seems two steps removed from the current Warmoth offerings on bass necks and I was surprised to see there's no choice for bass neck radius at all; at least for custom option builds. Are conical radii pointless on a bass?
 
hexspa said:
Are conical radii pointless on a bass?
Click to expand...

A low enough action can be achieved on a bass or guitar without a conical radius. Bending strings is rarely done on basses, and that is probably the main advantage of a conical radius on a guitar. A conical radius gives less likelihood of notes choking out when bending at the higher frets with a low action and comfortable chording at the lower frets.
 
stratamania said:
A low enough action can be achieved on a bass or guitar without a conical radius. Bending strings is rarely done on basses, and that is probably the main advantage of a conical radius on a guitar. A conical radius gives less likelihood of notes choking out when bending at the higher frets with a low action and comfortable chording at the lower frets.
Click to expand...
Ah, makes sense. Bending is the first issue people talk about when mentioning 7.25 vs 9.5" but I forgot all that and assumed it was playing feel for linear lines that made people want a flatter radius up top. Thanks.
 
Wizard of Wailing said:
No magic pups. Just reached a point of playing so long, making so many partscasters, (and having watched so many videos), that my response to pickups now is just, "Yep. Sounds like a guitar." 😀 I never knew about Jazz III picks until I'd been playing for 20 years and it was a huge deal. Always carry some in my wallet in case I come across a guitar in the wild.
Click to expand...
Same. I used to be really picky with guitar sound but something changed. Maybe the number of candles on my cake.
bonesofwrath said:
Agreed. Everyone says its not wood its basically all pickups. And I hear the videos that seems to support this. But then pickups are very much like mics. The differences may be more than wood, but they're still small. One mic might work better than another for a given source but... an RE20 isn't going to make you sound like Brian Johnson if you didn't already sound like him through an Sm57
Click to expand...
That's true but the pickups are usually supposed to only hear magnetic changes whereas microphones are only supposed to hear acoustic changes. Most agree that wood matters more for an acoustic guitar so I think to the extent which a particular pickup is not microphonic is the degree to which wood does not matter. Whether that's a linear relationship, I don't know.

It's probably my ignorance on pickups and microphones but I feel ruffled when people make this comparison of mics to pickups because I feel like it's implying "since mics are kind of like pickups, wood must matter". You're likely not saying that but my personal feeling is that the two are sufficiently different that any crossover is usually subtle and non-primary. Put succinctly, I had an intuitive feeling that pickups hear magnets and that's it unless there's an exception.
 
I've been playing bass for over 20 years. I've never found the need or desire to alter a fretboard to make chords easier on the low end and shredding at the upper end. Of course, I'm no Charles Berthoud.... :)
 
hexspa said:
Did I post a reply in a different thread? If so, I definitely did not mean to.
Click to expand...

Possibly a copy paste error. Your reply is to a quote from a different thread.

What picks are y'all using?

I've been a Dunlop "rounded triangle" guy for probably the past 25 (?) years. Damn, I guess I'm getting old ... I always felt like I was getting a 3 for 1 deal when buying them. You don't have to pay attention to direction. Just "pick" it up and play. I started with the .88 Tortex. Then, after...
unofficialwarmoth.com unofficialwarmoth.com
 
stratamania said:
Possibly a copy paste error. Your reply is to a quote from a different thread.

What picks are y'all using?

I've been a Dunlop "rounded triangle" guy for probably the past 25 (?) years. Damn, I guess I'm getting old ... I always felt like I was getting a 3 for 1 deal when buying them. You don't have to pay attention to direction. Just "pick" it up and play. I started with the .88 Tortex. Then, after...
unofficialwarmoth.com unofficialwarmoth.com
Click to expand...
You're right. Noob error :) Won't happen again.
EDIT: I think I was using the multi-quote feature for the first time. If I'm not mistaken, it preserves your selection across threads. That seemed strange to me also unless I was using it wrong.
 
Yeah, it's a feature of the forum software. You can select text for quoting multiple times, from different users, and even in different threads. It all gets saved until you hit the "Insert quotes..." button. It's very useful if you wanted to refer to another thread in a quote. And confusing when you didn't expect it.
 
bricksnbeatles said:
Searched to see if it’s been mentioned before, but didn’t turn anything up (also looks like the suggestions sub forum has been merged with general discussion?)…

Anyone know if other neck radii are off-menu options for jazz and precision bass necks? I’m personally a big fan of the 7.25” radius of old jazz basses, especially for fretless since it feels a bit more similar to an upright neck that way.

If not, this is a suggestion to warmoth: offer more than just a 10” radius for bass necks.
Click to expand...
I don't have any info, just wanted to chip in and say I am also a huge fan of the 'big radius' necks. A friend of mine has an early Fender Jazz from 61 or 62 and it has the nicest feeling neck I can ever remember laying hands on :)
 
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