Neck Replacement

[pinbacking]

Hi all, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but can Alembic do neck replacement on a Set-Neck bass?  And how much would something like that cost?
 
For instance, lets say I buy an Epic bass, but I want the neck to be short scale and I want laminates, is it even possible for them to remove one neck and make another to put on?  Just wondering

[terryc]

They can do it..but the cost is enormous, they have to remove the body wings, make a new neck, carve it, sand it and re finish, the neck is a big chunk of the instrument itself..maybe more cost effective to buy a short scale straight away.

[terryc]

Oops..sorry  you said set neck..not neck thru'  maybe not as much but still some work
Disregard the previous post(unless you mean neck thru')..soon be the week end!!!!!

[keith_h]

You should talk to Alembic directly about a neck replacement. They will be able to tell you what  can be done and how much it would cost.  
 
Keith
 
(Message edited by keith_h on October 25, 2007)

[David Houck]

I'm guessing that if the neck were replaced, then the bridge and tailpiece would need to be replaced too.  Just guessing, but it does seem that with the shorter neck, the geometry will have changed.  Also, I'm guessing that a refinish may be required as well; at which point it may be more cost effective to just order a new Epic with a short scale neck.  But again, I'm just guessing; I don't recall this question coming up before on the board.

[bsee]

Dave, the only geometry that matters is the position of the frets along the neck relative to the total distance from bridge to nut.  If you replaced a 34 scale neck with a 31 scale neck, the position of the 12th fret would be 1.5 closer to the bridge.  The 24th fret would only be 0.75 closer to the bridge on the shorter scale.  You wouldn't have to touch the bridge and tailpiece, but you would end up with fewer frets than you started with and the relative positions of the pickups would move a bit across the string.  I would guess you'd lose 2-3 frets if you chopped 3 off the scale.  If you had room before reaching the pickups, you might cut the neck pocket deeper to gain room to save a fret or two.

[mica]

Yes it's possible, and yes it's very expensive. I'd suggest it would be more cost effective to sell the long scale bass and put the money toward a new short scale build.