QweziRider

Off to a roaring start. I've been lurking and reading here for a while now, and it's time to get started. This will be a six string neck through bass, I'm thinking an ash body with a one piece quilted maple top. I like the lack of symetry with a one piece top. I've not yet decided on whether the top will be carved or nice and flat with some sharp binding to it. Haven't even decided on color or body shape yet. Pickups will be single coil made by a person who builds Rickenbacker replacement pups and has said he can make them wide enough for a six string. Worked my hind end off to get the neck complete. Maple and purple heart neck with a pau ferro fretboard, no face dots on it at all. I sweated and sweated and sweated working on this, my first neck. As you can see, my efforts paid off greatly. The amazing skills by which I begged and pleaded with my wife, followed by my incredible use of Paypal to purchase this neck from Doug at Soulmate. http://www.brucealan.com/images/neck2.gif http://www.brucealan.com/images/neck3.gif I put the word "build" in quotes in the thread title because I can't quite bring myself to use that term fully for what I'm trying. Maybe assembly is better. I just didn't care to screw up on a neck this first time out of the gate and liked Doug's work a lot. Now I hope I can make the rest of this thing live up to that neck. I like it all, but I think one of my favorite features he did was no face dots on the fretboard. I don't use them anyhow (just the side dots) and he was right about the grain on this fretboard looking great clean as it is. Been sitting on my hands long enough with this "build your own" thing. So now I own a bridge and a neck. I guess it's time to get busy. A big thank you to Doug for his beautiful work, and I can't wait to get my grubby hands on it!

Thank you for all the quick replies this afternoon. You all were very helpful.

1/2" at the bridge and 3/8" at the nut. Surprisingly comfortable, actually. The only thing difficult is serious slapping, which I couldn't do well in the first place, so no great loss there.

I cannot vouch for how it was stored prior to March, but these days it hangs in a Hercules stand by the head, body supported from the back at the bottom, hanging at about a 10-15 degree angle. Humidity is pretty constant 40-50%. It's been the same with the odd 12th fret wave apparently for at least a year or so (I am told). The back bow did not take place until this weekend when I did remove and straighten the truss rods. Which, although still a back bow, does seem more straightforward to correct than the wave did.

Aha! Very clever. Makes perfect sense and is no longer a daunting thought. I'll go search the forum for proper heating devices now. Thank you!!

Oh yeah, it's definitely back bow. Trying to shorten the story, it started with a wave at the 12th fret. Straight from 12-20, slight hump at 12, and a normal amount of relief between 12th and 1st frets. Moderately annoying. Been scouring through Rick forums and talking with people there who recommended removing the rods, straightening them (some are apparently curved, as mine were considerably, from the factory while others are straight), and resinstalling. Did just that and the odd wave was gone. Now there's considerable back bow. Using a straight edge on the frets, the straight edge is on frets 1-12 and starts to rise off the frets until about 2mm off at the 20th fret. I've re-curved the rods, turned them in the channels 180 degrees, kept the rod nuts completely loose, tried heavier strings (.045-.130, I usually use .032-.100), strung it with only one rod in. Nothing has cured the back bow save for the heavier strings, and they only do enough to make it playable for the weekend, not where I'd really like it set. I've always had Ricks set dead straight with very light strings and had no problems. This leaves me down to heating the neck as the last thing I can find to try, unless there's a better idea here. I think the knowledge level is considerably higher here on how to repair something than a forum of mostly players, which is why I thought I'd throw out the question. One other note, this was once a 4 string Rick and was converted to a 5 stringer. I don't think that should be an issue because I'm under the impression Rick used the exact same neck configuration for the 5 and 4 stringers. The guy that converts them has done numerous Ricks with no ill effects (he and others who have his basses say). And he clearly remembers this one already having that odd wave prior to conversion for the person from whom I bought it. Plus, I would think if the 5 strings added too much tension, the back bow should be cured by that, should it not? Kind of at my wits end on this and wondering if neck heating described in this forum will work on a finished neck or if there's a better idea. Thank you very much.

I have a back bow problem with a finished neck (Rickenbackaer, to be specific). Would a repair question on an existing bass be out of place here, seeing primarilly project guitars are discussed?

It could be worse. Try a year on bass with Up With People. Bruce

I just tried staining my first test pieces ever. A couple thin slabs of so-so quilted maple glued to poplar just to practice. Did two batches of black and blue stains: one black at the factory recommended mixes and one at double strength. Same routine for blue. Took one board, stained one end weak black, the other strong black. Did the same to the other board with blue. Dried it, sanded back. Second coat of weak blue on weak black and weak blue boards. Then strong blue mix on the strong black and strong blue boards. Swwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!! Of course, I got too excitied and threw a third coat of strong blue mix on the black and blue strong mix boards. Makes me want to do naughty things! I can't wait to play with the coats of nitro on them. I definitely prefer the stronger mix than what Stew Mac recommends on the bottle (using half the water). I see expensive things in my future!

Thank you very much for the info!

Please forgive me if I'm starting a topic already discussed. I serched and can't seem to find a thread. Anyhow, I'd like to know if anyone has an opinion on Carvin necks in general, specifically a bass six string neck-through. I'm inspired to finally build my first body but not yet up to doing a neck (that's down the road). If they're not satisfactory necks, does anyone have a supplier they would recommend for the above neck? Thanks, Bruce