Thinking aobut buying a bass and need some opinions about this situation

[AntKnee]

I'm looking at a bass on reverb. It is a Fender American Standard Jazz bass. I was about to pull the trigger on it and suddenly the seller ends the listing. So I sent him a message, and it turns out he had decided he was going to remove the neck and save it for a later project and sell the body only. He had already removed the neck, but he offered to reinstall the neck, or another neck if I desired, and to relist the bass so I could buy it.

I am looking for an all original bass, and he said the neck is original to this bass. When he offered other necks and told me he had removed the neck, I mentioned I was a little dismayed, and he replied:

"Ok, no problem. To be honest not sure why that would bug you, they're made to be taken apart and assembled, hence the bolt-on design. I can't imagine you'd find any Fender bass that hasn't been taken apart. In fact, any good luthier will do that for a setup. At any rate, keep me posted!"

Now I feel uncomfortable with this whole situation. First, that comes across a little bit condescending. Second, I think that most fender basses won't have had the neck removed unless it was damaged or needed major repair. Third, there is no reason to take the neck off for a setup and a luthier will agree.

I really wanted it originally, but this seems dodgy. I understand customizing your gear and I've taken guitars apart, but I don't know anything about this guy or his luthier skill. He just decided to remove a perfectly good neck off a perfectly good bass and sell it separately? Something about this rubs me the wrong way. Am I crazy? If I really like the bass, should I just blow off his BS and buy it? Should all this neck-removing business not bother me?

[sjaustin]

It wouldn't bother me. True, necks don't necessarily get removed for every setup, but I believe he's right that it's part of the design that they can be taken off without consequences. You'd most likely want to set it up or have it set up after purchase, and getting the neck positioned right could be part of that process.

That said, the most important factor is your own comfort. If you are concerned about it, and you think there's a chance you'll be disappointed and want to return it, I'd give it a pass. Good luck either way!

[AntKnee]

I think too much.

Any opinions are welcome.

[Aristatertotle]

The neck being taken off wouldn't bother me in the least really unless of he does it a lot to where he's stripping the screw holes, or if he's a troll and dented around the neck pocket.

Not sure why you would take it off for a normal set up unless if you only have heel adjustment for the truss rod. It's definitely easier to level and dress frets with the neck off if that's what he means.

I'd definitely ask for additional pictures though. With it off and then back on.

[Marshall Arts]

I think too much.

Any opinions are welcome.

No problem. Buy it.

[jimilee]

I usually will shim the the neck on most all of mine.


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[Aentons]

A part of the draw to Fender for a lot of people is the ability to mix and match the parts. My Strat came with a rosewood fingerboard and I HAD to have maple, so I traded for a similar model and year neck on Craigslist. It is very, very common to do something like that.

That being said, my main guitar is a Gibson and main bass is a Rickenbacker without bolt on necks because I like those way better, and a part of that is the heel profile, but is also that it's  considered a more premium and refined match. I know the fit was taylor made by the original luthier and not some jackhole futzing around at home. 😁

Edit: I also have a Modulus Quantum 5 string and it is a bolt on neck. Its neck fits in the pocket more snug and is more refined than any Fender guitar or bass that I have ever worked with which is about 3 dozen

[diablochris6]

What other necks was he offering to put on the bass? If he is offering a non-Fender neck like Mighty Mite or something, he might have figured that he could make more money selling parts than a whole guitar. If the neck is of the same quality as the original neck, I would still buy it.

[thesameage]

Old thread, but just seeing it: I work at a bass shop and we make instruments with bolt on necks.

I have a few opinions about this whole dilemma (which is clearly far over).

A) When we build instruments, we very closely match the neck and body. There's a lot of sanding and math that goes into getting the angle and fit as perfect as possible. People sometimes ask if they can just get a replacement neck and the answer is no, because we fit them so carefully. Keep in mind, though, that these are 5K basses. I mean, we will put on a replacement, but you have to send the whole bass in so that we can do it properly. Sounds dickish, but if our name is on it and you expect a certain level of quality, we're going to want to do it right.

B) For personal, partscaster instruments, I've done a lot of neck swapping and that has worked out great. My number 1 bass is a body I bought off of talkbass and a cosmetic reject neck that I got at work. I did a fit and it's a great bass. If you know what you are doing, you can get great results.

C) My other main bass is a Lakland-- the only new bass I've ever owned. The neck pocket was never right on this bass and I always had some weird string buzzing that I could not solve with a setup. During quarantine I finally fixed this by removing the neck and sanding the pocket and heel flat. It ends up that there was a bunch of overspray in there that was preventing a solid fit. I couldn't really see it, but I could feel it. I also installed some of those neck bolt inserts to get an even better connection. This is exactly why I tell everyone who gets a new instrument to get an intense setup from a really good luthier. This brand new bass when from "okay" to "very good" after an intense setup.

D) Buying a used bass where some random guy is going to just put a neck on it is a bit of a crapshoot. 75% chance that it will be totally fine. You don't know if he knows what he's doing. Getting it mostly right is fairly easy. Dialing in that last 20% is where the real skill of luthiering comes in. If I really wanted a bass like this, I'd buy it and fix it up myself-- which I'd end up doing anyway. It also depends on how much you will use the bass and how sensitive you are to a fine vs. really good instrument. If you can tell the difference, then it's gonna be an issue. If not, it will probably be fine.

What did you end up doing?