Re: Advice for neck issues on a NON RIC.....
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:59 am
Tony,
These "adjust at the head" Fender necks seem to be designed to be hard to service. Most of my experience is with the old-fashioned "adjust-at-the-heel" type necks where the nut is easily removeable. I have had a look at my P-bass elite (same basic set-up), and it appears that Fender have placed a plug of wood at the top of the truss rod channel which allows you to access the nut but not remove it, unless you can find a non-drastic method of removing the plug. Maybe Paul with his luthier's expertise may have a suggestion as to how this can be done. My worry is that you will end up removing part of the fretboard as well, or at least partially delaminating it.
The sad thing with Fenders is that if the truss rod is broken you do need to remove the fretboard (separate boards) or skunk-stripe (one-piece necks) to remove the truss rods, which is a lot of work for a $150 bass, but this may be the way to go.
There is an ebay auction for a cowpoke with a replaced neck - the seller has used a US J-bass neck, so at least we know that other Fender necks will fit if that is the road to go down. Whether he has an intonation issue due to a change of scale, I can't say.... He may not actually know himself!
These "adjust at the head" Fender necks seem to be designed to be hard to service. Most of my experience is with the old-fashioned "adjust-at-the-heel" type necks where the nut is easily removeable. I have had a look at my P-bass elite (same basic set-up), and it appears that Fender have placed a plug of wood at the top of the truss rod channel which allows you to access the nut but not remove it, unless you can find a non-drastic method of removing the plug. Maybe Paul with his luthier's expertise may have a suggestion as to how this can be done. My worry is that you will end up removing part of the fretboard as well, or at least partially delaminating it.
The sad thing with Fenders is that if the truss rod is broken you do need to remove the fretboard (separate boards) or skunk-stripe (one-piece necks) to remove the truss rods, which is a lot of work for a $150 bass, but this may be the way to go.
There is an ebay auction for a cowpoke with a replaced neck - the seller has used a US J-bass neck, so at least we know that other Fender necks will fit if that is the road to go down. Whether he has an intonation issue due to a change of scale, I can't say.... He may not actually know himself!
