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Post subject: Question for the Bass Luthiers Out There
Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 10:30 pm
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I cannot seem to find the specs on bass neck heel sizes. A lot of info on the web, and on eBay, touts that the J bass and P bass necks are interchangable - but this is simply not true.

Just got thru with a project and I had to replace a P bass neck with a Squire Affinity P bass neck. There was a DEFINITE difference between the two that required me to route out the body pocket by about 1/8" in length and 1/8" in width to accomodate the new neck.

Found this info on Warmoth that seems to explain this scenario. please take a quick look at first part, paying attention to the HEEL widths:

http://www.warmoth.com/Bass/Necks/faq2.aspx

My old neck, which was a custom P bass copy with a beautiful 5 layer skunk stripe down the back built in 1977, measured 2.375 at the heel end, and had a rounded heel.

The newer Squire P bass Affinity neck has a 2.5" heel, also rounded.

So, this newer "so-called P bass neck" required both a longer and wider pocket. Nothing interchangable about these two necks.

So, my question is about how all "P bass necks" are not created equal, or have similar dimensions. Is this documented anyplace? Most of what I find talks about the nut width on J bass vs P bass necks, and treats all P bass necks as if they are the same.

But, this Warmoth article shows the two different types of P bass necks, and I suspect there are more.

This leads to these questions:

1. What is the vintage (mid-70s) P bass neck heel width and pocket depth?
2. What is the vintage (mid-70s) Telecaster bass neck heel width and pocket depth?
3. What is the vintage (mid-70s) Jazz bass neck heel width and pocket depth?
4. Have these dimensions above changed a lot in the past few decades? Are they a lot different now or more or less the same, especially where the P bass is concerned?


Is this posted online someplace? (I couldnt find it via the Forum search).

Any help is greatly appreciated, as I no longer feel comfortable buying another "P bass replacement neck" on Ebay or anywhere, without making extra certain about the heel measurements.
Thanks!



:?


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Post subject: Re: Question for the Bass Luthiers Out There
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 1:06 pm
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Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
walk_the_walk wrote:
I cannot seem to find the specs on bass neck heel sizes. A lot of info on the web, and on eBay, touts that the J bass and P bass necks are interchangable - but this is simply not true.

Just got thru with a project and I had to replace a P bass neck with a Squire Affinity P bass neck. There was a DEFINITE difference between the two that required me to route out the body pocket by about 1/8" in length and 1/8" in width to accomodate the new neck.

Found this info on Warmoth that seems to explain this scenario. please take a quick look at first part, paying attention to the HEEL widths:

http://www.warmoth.com/Bass/Necks/faq2.aspx

My old neck, which was a custom P bass copy with a beautiful 5 layer skunk stripe down the back built in 1977, measured 2.375 at the heel end, and had a rounded heel.

The newer Squire P bass Affinity neck has a 2.5" heel, also rounded.

So, this newer "so-called P bass neck" required both a longer and wider pocket. Nothing interchangable about these two necks.

So, my question is about how all "P bass necks" are not created equal, or have similar dimensions. Is this documented anyplace? Most of what I find talks about the nut width on J bass vs P bass necks, and treats all P bass necks as if they are the same.

But, this Warmoth article shows the two different types of P bass necks, and I suspect there are more.

This leads to these questions:

1. What is the vintage (mid-70s) P bass neck heel width and pocket depth?
2. What is the vintage (mid-70s) Telecaster bass neck heel width and pocket depth?
3. What is the vintage (mid-70s) Jazz bass neck heel width and pocket depth?
4. Have these dimensions above changed a lot in the past few decades? Are they a lot different now or more or less the same, especially where the P bass is concerned?


Is this posted online someplace? (I couldnt find it via the Forum search).

Any help is greatly appreciated, as I no longer feel comfortable buying another "P bass replacement neck" on Ebay or anywhere, without making extra certain about the heel measurements.
Thanks!



:?


Most MIA woods from Fullerton is easily interchangeable with other Fullerton made wood with no mods required. Most MIA wood made at Corona is interchangeable with other Corona basses. This includes Jazz and Precision necks/bodies.

I'd beware of trying to mix up Corona and Fullerton stuff. Sometimes it works great, sometimes not.

However it seems the later in the going at Fullerton the looser the neck joints became with not so tight neck pockets.

Squier is not really Fender and has been made in about 5 different countries at least. Not surprising that it wouldn't work.

Fender Japan has been made by at least two different plants in Japan (Fuji-Gen and Nippon-Gakki) and stuff made in one plant is not interchangeable with stuff made in another plant and nether Corona nor Fullerton is interchangeable with either of the Japanese stuff without expecting some mods.

When you put Chevy parts on a Toyota you will have issues too.

The reason is that while the instruments look and may measure essentially the same, the tooling is different at each plant. Fender first went mechanized back in the 60's. No Fullerton machinery made it to Corona.

Sometimes you can make inter-species stuff like this work, but you have to expect it will take mods. Mass production with uniform interchangeable parts works great so long as you stay within the species.

Most of the aftermarket "licensed" necks and bodies out there are built to be a good fit to Corona USA. Some of the MIM stuff mates with the Corona stuff. Some might not.

Take the Mike Dirnt P-Bass for example, MIM. It looks like a 51 with a different bridge and pickup. The pickguard looks just lot like the CIJ 51 RI pickguard but the two pickguards are NOT interchangeable. They are different species. However the parts from the STING P-bass made in the same plant as the '51 RI P-Bass will be interchangeable. Hope that makes sense. Think of each plant's bass output as a species. Stay within the species and you'll minimize headaches.


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