Author Topic: Mica: Another neck thickness question (Read 93 times)

bassjigga · « **on:** January 04, 2007, 09:08:16 AM »

Hi Mica, I asked this in this thread http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/34635.html?1167873069 but I don't know if you've seen it. You mentioned that the neck thickness is 0.9 and I was wondering where along the neck that measurement is taken since there is a taper - the neck is thinner at the nut than it is at the 12th fret or even higher. I'm having a custom built and this is an issue I need to figure out. If you can tell me where to measure I can compare to my current basses to get a better idea of what I want. Thanks,

Dave

mica · « **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2007, 09:24:02 AM »

Only take 2 measurements for a custom thickness: one near the nut and one near where the body joins. Just specify which frets (and on which side of the fret) you are measuring.

The .9 inch measurement is the thinnest part, and it's taken on the nut side of the first fret. The thinnest you can specify is .8 inch. We need some room behind the truss rods for structural integrity.

Note, the thinner you get the neck carved, the less massive it will be. It will affect how much the neck moves in response to changes in humidity. You will notice the neck reacting to a smaller change than if the neck was thicker. This doesn't mean the neck of a thinly carved bass wiggles all the time, but it's something to consider if you keep your action extremely low and you live in an area with many swings in humidity.

bassjigga · « **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2007, 09:30:30 AM »

Perfect. Thanks Mica.

s_wood · « **Reply #3 on:** January 04, 2007, 04:15:37 PM »

Mica is right, as always. My custom Alembics have thinner necks than the standard ones I have bought used, and in general (though not always) the thinner-necked basses are slightly less stable. No big deal, though - a 1/8 or 1/4 truss rod turn fixes them quickly, and with just a little bit of practice a truss rod tweak takes literally 2 minutes to complete from start to finish (including the time it takes me to find and pick up the truss rod cover screw that I invariably drop!)