My Fender Precision Bass (Mexico manufactured in 1992) has been unused for some years after I become parent and I’m now starting to play again. I have taken it to a luthier for a fine adjustment but it seems that the neck is not at the best shape and the wood shows some deformation that cannot be corrected with truss rod adjustment…
Taking this into consideration I have a couple of questions that you may be able to answer from your experience:
Should I go for an original part or can I use a custom made neck from a third party manufacturer who uses same wood (maple + rosewood)?
Does it make sense to change the neck or you would go for a new instrument?
If I decide to go for a neck replacement, would you install a Jazz Bass neck or a Precision Bass neck? I have small hands and it can be more confortable to me to make a hybrid precision body with jazz neck.
I’m an amateur who plays for fun with some occasional gig with friends, nothing serious.
Got pics?
I don’t trust many Luthiers, some are just lazy.
As for replacement you can just buy a MIM Fender Jazz or Precision neck to replace it. It’s a LEGO assembly. It should fit just fine. I’ve done it 100+ time, literally,
Price wise, they are not that different from Warmoth It’s higher sure but not 2x or 3x higher. You can even order it straight from Fender the regular neck is about $315 and the Roasted Maple about $420.
But first thing first, let’s see what’s wrong with your neck, unless it’s been left out soaking the sun and or you live in an extreme temperature change through out the day region, I doubt that’s the problem. Sometimes the adjustment may take a little while to take change if the neck has been sitting for a while. show me the Deformation, maybe we can salvage this without spending bucks.
Listen to Al, start there. Also, try a different luthier; one that specializes in repairs and not just setups.
I had a twisted neck with a truss rod that was maxed out so couldn’t bring relief down on my P-Bass and was quoted $120 USD to fix. Said it’d take a couple weeks of clamping and steaming to slowly bend it back.
I opted not to (story in my post history a couple times) and converted to short-scale jazz neck. I’ve recently converted back to standard scale with a new neck off eBay. In my case, I have no idea what brand or model the body is other than being plywood and I bought it used off eBay 27 years ago for cheap so I wasn’t concerned with a name-brand neck.
You can find good necks for low prices but new, they’re going to be coming from China. If you want something probably more befitting your MIM, I’d probably either go with a Fender replacement neck or a Warmoth. Either a P or a J neck will fit your neck pocket.
You can even order a Jazz neck for Precision basses direct from Fender that will have the proper Fender Precision logo on it because there’s so many people that convert. As far as which, I’d recommend going and playing some different ones of both models at a shop and see what your hand likes best. They all get to the same width up by the body. Jazz neck is just a more dramatic change in width from nut to body.
I visited a second luthier to get another opinion and he showed me that the truss rod nut was completely stripped (previous luthier must have used a metric allen instead of imperial or something like that).
He recommends me to change the neck for a new third party one that he knows personally (we will go to the store and check all the available necks to select the one that fix best in my bass body) and he will also do a full adjustment, shielding, pots replacement and so on. It sound like a good improvement to my instrument besides the neck replacement.
In the meantime he will try to get the nut out of the neck to recover the original one but it seems not easy at all…
FYI for the future, changing the neck is as difficult as assembling flat pack furniture. Even YouTube influencers can do it! If you’ve got a screwdriver and opposable thumbs, you’re there.
Well depending on how bad it is. But this StewMac gripper may work. Gripper Truss Rod Wrenches - StewMac
As for the fix. The “real” cost of fixing your neck would be around $40 but of course the shop would have to charge you at minimum $100 just to stay in business but normally it would be $150-$200 it would be a fair price. Bricks and Mortars shops have overhead they need to cover.
Many shops would own this rescue tool, it makes sense, even I want to get one. It’s about $400.
I’d take @Barney advice and get the replacement neck then take your time and fix this one as a spare.
