What's the matter with me?

[Day-mun]

Dunno what's the matter with me, but I got a wild hair up my crack this morning and decided to go to the showcase and grab this:

to put it on this:

...why can't I just leave well-enough alone?  :dontknow:

Maple/Maple T-head with 1.5" nut width & slim-taper contour. White Tusq nut and SS6105"s requested. -I'll do my usual Minwax clear satin poly after knockin' off the teansey, nearly-non-existent radius on the headstock edges and the treble side of the 'board.

 

[stratamania]

Nice, and you end up with a spare neck.

 

[Day-mun]

That's the problem. Guitar and bass parts 'round me regenerate into complete instruments! They're like starfish; cut 'em in half and, sooner than expected, there's two!

The installed neck in the picture above is the wider P-bass nut width, also with the Tele headstock, which has been happily residing on an Oly-white '54. The neck that will soon be displaced is actually a fretless maple/ebony J-bass neck... might end up in a gear-for-sale/trade thread, -who knows? I just had better not let it grow whole again.  :laughing7:

 

[fdesalvo]

I'd like to suggest that it is what's RIGHT with you!

 

[stratamania]

Exactly that's what happens  :icon_thumright:

 

[Day-mun]

Thanks for the understanding, guys!  :hello2:

So, now what to do with the soon-to-be-homeless mapes/'bony fretless...  ???

I've thought of getting some inlays, maybe even trying my hand at fretting (-pretty scary stuff, to me, plus the side-dots are all wrong for frets), selling it (-but I can't see anyone clamoring to get their mits on a second-hand fretless neck with a rattle-can poly finish for much if any $$$), or (heavens-forbid!) just boxing it up and putting it away for a rainy day.

:laughing7: -My, oh my. Problems, problems*sarc*...

 

[Cagey]

Fretting isn't as tough as you'd imagine, given the right tools. But, the right tools can cost you quite a pile. Unless you intend to do a lot of that sort of work where you can amortize the cost over a number of instruments, I'd pass on that option.

Selling the thing is always an option, but you'll lose your ass on it. On the plus side, you'll be all done with it. It's a clean exit.

If it was me, I'd build another instrument around it. Then, you can either love it or leave it. Use it or sell it as a solution to someone else's problem.

 

[Day-mun]

Thanks for being the voice of reason, Cagey.

The neck is fine, -there's nothing wrong with it. I just so happen to have another like it, and the finish turned out just a little bit better on the other. (And the lined fretless ran away with my son into the world to seek their fortune.) A ways back, I went ape-sh*t building multiple basses of basically one format 'cuz the frontman for the three-piece I was playing with loved to switch tunings at least every set; Few Jimi & SRV songs in Eb, roots-rock/americana in standard tuning, now some D blues and southern rock so grab the whole-step-down ax... -made sense at the time to have a clutch of similar instruments dialed in to match his pile of Strats an' Teles that were all tuned a 1/2-step apart from each other.

*Sigh* But our paths have parted, and so now it seems silly to have a whole bunch of the same thing, so...

:laughing7: I guess it's as good a reason as any to feed the beast! (-I'm such a GAS-hole!)

 

[Day-mun]

Fretting isn't as tough as you'd imagine, given the right tools. But, the right tools can cost you quite a pile. Unless you intend to do a lot of that sort of work where you can amortize the cost over a number of instruments, I'd pass on that option.

-Sorry, Cagey, -good sound advice, but I'm gonna have this puppy fretted (-by somebody with far greater sets of tools and skills than my own!). -Please see my thread in tips and tricks for the rest of the story on that, -and to share your wealth of woodworking knowledge. The hobbyist luthier that is going to perform the process has asked me to poll you guys on how you've set up and executed this precision operation. (-I might PM StübHead on this one; I seem to recall threads about him doin' this sort of thing before...)

 

[DocNrock]

That's the problem. Guitar and bass parts 'round me regenerate into complete instruments! They're like starfish; cut 'em in half and, sooner than expected, there's two!

The installed neck in the picture above is the wider P-bass nut width, also with the Tele headstock, which has been happily residing on an Oly-white '54. The neck that will soon be displaced is actually a fretless maple/ebony J-bass neck... might end up in a gear-for-sale/trade thread, -who knows? I just had better not let it grow whole again.  :laughing7:

Is that the bass with the Steve Harris pups?  Is the body alder; I don't remember.  If so, now with a maple neck, you might run to the hills, after all!  Only thing is, you won't have the galloping fret clank.  :laughing7:

I love that:  "They're like starfish; cut 'em in half and, sooner than expected, there's two!"  So true, and a great analogy!

I'm going through something similar right now with my Iceman and a couple of other builds, as in a cascade of changed necks.  Only thing is, there will be a left over neck, in the end.  Hmm, what to do with it... :laughing7: