Bass guitar truss rod and a bit more.....

[Dennis Peacock]

Well, I'm already researching bass guitar hardware and such as I truly want to build my own 5-string jazz bass. I already have an American made Fender Jazz 4-string but I sure do like that low B string when I need more bottom.

I'd like to know about a preferred truss rod, do I really need "stiffeners"? And what about non-bank busting pickups for a passive setup?
There's much less info out there on bass stuff than guitar....so I'm asking here to better help me focus a bit.

Oh yea......where do y'all buy your Dremel sized router bits for the inlay work? I simply refuse to pay a StewMac price for something that's smaller than a pencil lead.

[Mike Sherman]

Already planning the second build before the first is completed - the seeds have been sewn!

I use Hot-rods in my basses with the adjuster on the head stock end. Stiffening rods really aren't needed if you build a strong neck. I only use strait grain quartersawn lumber in the necks for my instruments as slab-sawn necks feel too whippy to me and are more prone to twist.

As for "non-bank busting pickups" Jazz pickups depends on the sound you are after. If you're going for the classic JB sound, the Duncan 1/4 Pounders will be your best bet. If you're looking for more of a hi-fi sound, go with the Bartolini. I prefer the Barts over the Duncans as they are more of a scooped sound and fit well with multiple genres of music. Both the Duncans and Barts run in the $140 range per set.
If you feel frisky and want to step up the budget, Fralins are around $200. Nordstrands would be my first choice in a JB and are around $240-$270, but they are worth every penny! They offer several different pickup winds/magnet combos depending on the sound you are after.

I always try to encourage my customers to not skimp when it comes to pickup selection. I've seen it all too often where customers opt for the lower end pickups only to be disappointed with them - then go out and drop more money trying different sets with the same result, then finally break down and get the pickups they should have bought from the start. Trying to save that $100 in the beginning turned into $400-$600 in the end in some cases!

As for the spiral bits, all the suppliers for them seem to be competitively priced (even outside the luthier specific suppliers) as they are expensive little buggers to manufacture. I just get them from Stew-mac as I don't feel like dropping $$$ on bulk orders of them to get a good price.

I'm looking forward to watching your bass build.

[roger wiegand]

I've had really good success buying boxes of used solid carbide bits off Fleabay like this. (I don't know that the linked one is any good, there are many offers for boxes of 50 or so of them for around a buck a piece or less) I think they are used in circuit board manufacture and are discarded after a set number of feet of cutting. The one's I've gotten have plenty of life left for cutting wood. The assortments I've bought have a combination of drills and end mills in a range of sizes, the end mills work perfectly for routing for inlays with my Foredom setup.

[Julie Moriarty]

FWIW, I installed carbon fiber stiffeners in the bass I built. Since I'm still waiting for some assistance with the inlays (a tool), I can't say anything more than the neck has remained stable these past several months. I used one Hot Rod truss rod with the spoke wheel. I've seen several builds where they use two truss rods and no stiffeners.

I got the JBE R-4000 pickups that I bought through our own John C. But again, I haven't had the chance to hear them yet... And I bought the Dremel bits from SM. Wish I could be more helpful.

[Dennis Peacock]

Mike,
I will for sure look at the Nordstrand pickups. This bass that I build will be "mine" and I want it to be sweet. I like a lot of bottom-end in my bass sound and I typically don't like a lot of treble in my bass tone. I'm not a lead bass player but I'm more rhythm section type of a bass player. I lock with the drums and that's almost as far as I go except when the song lends itself to a nice bass lick every now and then.

I'm thinking about a laminated neck for my bass with some different colored woods in the mix. What's been your experience with laminated bass necks?

Roger,
Thanks for the tips on the ebay bits. I'll go check them out as I just need some bits to get myself practicing doing inlay work before I have to do it for real.

[roger wiegand]

I used the Hot Rod from StewMac in the bass I built with my son. We made it with a through laminated neck which has worked fine (I've never actually done anything with the truss rod, so no idea whether it works or not. I put an early version into a banjo I built many years ago, and it helped with taking out a bit of back bow that occasionally crops up with humidity changes-- happy to have the two way in that case. Here's a couple of poor quality pictures of the laminated neck:
adam bass 3.jpgadam bass1.jpgadam bass 4.jpg

[Dennis Peacock]

Roger,
What were/are the challenges with a neck-through design? I've read some bad stuff about building neck-through but I've also read some bad stuff about bolt-on neck design as well. I'm not into the scientific fight over sustain difference between bolt-on and neck-through because I've played basses of both configurations and I noticed no real difference between them.

[roger wiegand]

Not much help, I've never made an instrument with a bolt-on neck (used a dowel stick rather than coordinator rods in my banjo). I suppose that with a one piece design you can't work separately on the neck and body while shaping parts, so it can get a bit awkward. Because the neck in this bass wasn't angled with respect to the body there didn't seem to be anything complicated about it. Doing a bolt-on seemed more complicated to get right to me, plus I like the look. I don't play at all, so I can't comment on that aspect.