PBass neck issue

[Ray Kallas]

Hi all,

I have a Fender Sting bass (the 53' reissue).  The neck seems to "step up" a bit around the 10th. fret.  This causes A. The action to have to be higher than I'd like, and B. buzzing when playing the higher frets.

The tech at the local guitar shop tells me that "maybe" a fret job would help it but I'm not too confident that he's right.

So what are my options for fixing this problem?  Or is it worth it?

 

Thanks,

Ray

[FRANK]

this is like asking a doctor over the phone where to make an incision .my first thought is to seek a second luthier in the flesh so one can evaluate the instrument it could be neck set ,relief ,nut action, saddle action ,it is a variety of things that need to be eyeballed first then measured second accurately and it can only be done in a personal setting with the Bass in hand .

[Mark A. Kane]

The fret job will DEFINITELY help...his wallet, that is. There are so many variables that a second opinion is in order. Have the problem thoroughly explained to you, with illustrations if necessary, as to what exactly is going on. If you get a feeling that the luthier doesn't know with reasonable certainty what the issue is, get a 3rd opinion.

[Russell Vance]

Good advice all round, but my guess is that a lot of places don't have a surfeit of luthiers to get second opinions from.  If this is the case have another go here at describing what the problem is by either imagery or by a comprehensive word picture.  Bass necks are a world of their own when it comes to problems and need to be approached with caution. Rusty.

[Mark A. Kane]

"Bass necks are a world of their own when it comes to problems and need to be approached with caution." Amen to that.  These seem in general to be flexy in unpredictable locations along the neck, under string tension. I do extensive evaluation of basses, looking at them from all angles, sometimes spending considerably more time on them than on guitars, before ever passing judgment. This is due partly to the fact that I see far fewer basses than guitars, so they aren't in front of me all the time keeping my bass chops honed. But it's mainly due to my making the stupid assumption that I "know" what a bass neck will do because I look at guitars all day long. I present a shining example for your amusement.

 

About 15 years ago an Ibanez P-bass with a maple neck and fingerboard came in for refretting. It had high action and relief in excess of .250" I was too ignorant at the time for my radar to have gone off. The truss rod was relatively loose so I thought "no problem, it'll straighten the neck right out". I owned a perfectly functioning neck jig to help me evaluate the instrument, but haste, inexperience and hubris dictated that I skip steps I'd never skip now. Having removed the strings I simply straightened the neck with the truss rod as straight as it would go, found and corrected some minor imperfections in the plane of the fingerboard, cleaned out the slots and fretted away. The slots were not an issue and the fretwire went in as one would expect. It looked great. I put new strings and a bone nut on it and tuned it right up. Here came all that relief so I confidently grabbed a truss rod tool and started tightening, but to very little effect. I got a sinking feeling as I continued to turn it till there was no more tight. It barely moved the neck at all, and took about 5 seconds more to realize all the work was for nothing, and now I had a REAL job on my hands, one that would require that I actually THINK about what I was doing, and, oh yeah, I was going to lose money not only for the wasted labor, but had I evaluated it thoroughly I would have quoted the job at a higher rate due to the unusual difficulty presented by this particular neck. As it stands, I ended up using a fretwire with a much larger tang than normal, in essence a compression fret job. BTW, I couldn't plane that much material off, as the neck was skinny to start with and I didn't want to lose any material, or get into unnecessary finish work if I could help it. The big tang, in combo with the truss rod was just enough to get the job done, but barely. I was sweating bullets the whole time and vowed never to jump so quickly into a bass neck, or any other neck for that matter, but...

 

...I did it again a short time later. It was different in that the rod straightened the neck out easily, but under string tension the neck bent up sharply at about #14 or so. The neck was dead straight from the nut to #14. A bunch of rework followed and I got it right eventually, but not without a lot of unbillable time invested.

 

I've found the use of an Erlewine-style neck jig to be of great help in working on Fender-type or any other skinny bass necks. Also, (newbies take note, this could be very helpful) I used to keep a legal pad with entries in pencil denoting the order of operations for particular jobs. I'd leave several lines between each step so as to have room to add steps as I saw fit. Over time I had several fairly extensive lists for various jobs that I could consult. Most times there were steps I could skip as not all steps applied to every job, but at least they were there in front of me which forced me, in a sense, to make sure a step wasn't necessary before I skipped it. Sadly I no longer have the lists and I don't really know what happened to them. But they're floating around in my head most all the time now.

Do yourself a favor and learn from MY mistakes.

[Ray Kallas]

Great advice from all.  And thanks!

Mark, I loved your story and words of wit.  Actually I have another shop to go to for a second opinion, and it's run by a really good and experience luthier.  He's the only one I let touch my upright bass, so I feel confident he'll give me the straight story.

Thanks again for all the input.  I'll be sure to post the results.

Ray

[gary choppick]

that's what i am liking with this site. the "treasure chest" of knowledge.  well it is easy enough to visualize it can only be done when in the hand so that all the variables can be assessed. thanks mark for that insight

[Michael P. Lemieux]

Ray,

Try adjusting the truss rod till the neck almost straight and then you might have to raise the saddles because the action might be to low. If you don't have a straight use a capo on the first fret and press on 15th fret using the D string to see how much relief their is. Just a thought.

Mike

[Ray Kallas]

Thanks Michael,

I'll give this a try this weekend.

 

Ray