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Conference napalm::guitar

Title:	GUITARnotes - Where Every Note has Emotion
Notice:	Discussion of the finer stringed instruments
Moderator:	KDX200::COOPER

Created:	Thu Aug 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	3280
Total number of notes:	61432

1619.0. "Japanese/American necks" by ARIANE::HUDELOT (DECBringue ...) Wed Jan 03 1990 13:09

    I've got a Fender PBass built in Japan. Some of you will probably
    say it is not a Fender anymore, but this is not really the purpose
    of this topic. 
    
    However, I noticed that Japanese Pbass necks are not the same than
    American ones. A friend of mine has an US one (black neck) and I 
    think that his Fender is easier to play. I feels softer and warmer,
    and the sound is much better when you slap it. 
    
    Therefore, I would like you ask you bass players the following
    questions:
    
    	1. Have you ever had the same feeling regarding the quality?
    
    	2. Do you know if the body is also different?
    
    	3. What do you think about swapping from a Japanese neck to 
           an American one? Is it really worth it? How will that
           cost?
    
    Patrick -DECBringue-
    
    P.S.  Happy 1990 everybody !! 8-)

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1619.1		EARWIG::BRIGGS	They use computers don't they?	`Thu Jan 04 1990 07:21`	11
	The fact that you say your friend's has a 'black neck' implies that it has a rosewood finger board and that you have a light or maple fingerboard on your guitar. These two different types of fingerboard produce totally different playing feel. For instance, maple necks are more 'slippery' and therefore good for bending strings etc. So it could be the difference you see is not a US vs Japan difference but simply maple versus rosewood. Richard Basingstoke, UK
1619.2		PELKEY::PELKEY	Life aint for the squeamish	`Thu Jan 04 1990 14:07`	24
	On the Strats, and teles, the difference between maple and rosewood is quite obvious when you play it. A maple neck certianly has it's own 'feel' to it. So reply .1 has a good point for the base note author. Second, if you're really interested in buy a replacement neck from fender, get ready for a gouging. I don't know what the bass necks run, but a Fender Strat neck runs for a lot more dough then one would expect. After installation is done, I got a price of somewhere very close to 200 dollars when I checked for someone who thought they wanted to put a new neck on. The other issue in this instance was the neck was unfinished with no label. So you'd also hve to have finish work done besides if you bought a FENDER neck. You could check on other companies as there are a few that make Replacement necks. Personally I'd rather go buy a new guitar, sell the one in question. Works out a lot easier in the end. The Japense necks are not bad necks, infact they're made in very close dimensions to their US. big brothers. People seem to have this big wall built up with Japense instruments. I think the wall is silly. The Japense companies are making good guitars today. time for that wall to come down.