LeftyBassist.com

Hi Guys, I finally decided to swap out the Rosewood neck that came on the SB5000 I bought some months ago from darkkent, for the Maple neck that came with the deal. It looks and plays great! Somehow the back of the neck feels just a little bit thinner in my hand. It feels a bit more comfortable, and easier to play than the Rosewood. The action also feels a bit lower and faster, without any truss-rod tweaking. I need to adjust the intonation just a tiny bit on a couple of strings, but it's very close, and chords sound like they're being played on a piano.

An interesting observation - the back of the neck is smooth, yet feels as if it has almost no oil in it - in other words, very natural. This is quite the opposite of my Carvin LB75, which I bought back in '97, which has a satin-lacquer finish. Any suggestions on what type of oil to rub into it to maintain this feel would be appreciated...

I left the single pole pups in, and put on the set of Dunlop medium-gauge Nickles (45-to-130) that darkkent sent along in the case. They sound very good, with a piano-like quality, and can go metallic to mellow surprisingly well. The Rosewood headstock has a 3-2 tuning configuration, while the original Maple has a 4-1 peg line-up.

Although I enjoyed the look and sound of the Rosewood neck, I always had the urge to put the Maple on and see what the difference might be. I'm glad I did! The Maple looks way cool in my opinion, and so far, with limited playing time, sounds very appealing. Have a gig coming up this Thursday and Sunday, so I'll give more impressions soon. Here are some quick pictures....






Nice Birdseye in the fretboard.....

Solid bridge, with strings strung through the body....

No question about it, it's heavy - about 11 pounds - but a comfort strap helps over a long gig. I've been looking for a bass that can take the place of my custom bass, and until the SB5000, nothing was able to do that until now. I can finally put my Custom in the capable hands of my guitar tech, and give it the TLC it's been needing for several years now.

This sounds like more of a review than I intended, so if it needs to be moved to the Reviews thread, then make it so Mods!

Bottom line, great bass for a steal of a price.... thanks again darkkent!

One more thing.... regarding the Rosewood neck - what is the best way to store it? Should I back the truss rod off a bit and relieve some tension, or just keep it the way it came off the body? I notice at this point it has a bit of back-bow to it. Thanks for the suggestions....

I'm not a certified repair guy or anything, but... truss rods are made to counteract the tension strings apply to your neck... so, if I was you, I would completely remove all truss rod tension since there is no string tension at all to counteract the truss rod right now.

You can wait to hear more advice from other people, but I think they might agree with me.

agree 100%

Thanks guys, I felt that was the safest thing to do.

Release the truss rod tension => I concur (Once, I bought a bass left with no strings for a long time, the owner had not release the truss rod and the neck was bowed)

I am a maple neck fan on a Jazz Bass...Slap, Slap, ping, ping...

Thanks guys, just released the tension, and the neck is lying flat. Played the bass at a low volume rehearsal tonight, and was pleased with the sound and playability. Have a gig the next two nights, so I'll open it up and have fun.

Just a quick update... am very happy with this current setup. Played it last weekend with blues-based power trio, and it sounded great! very clear, especially with the Dunlop 45-130 string set, and I was able to dial in as much low end as I needed. I'll play it this way for a couple of months, then try the stock stacked humbuckers that originally came with the bass. Am liking the jazz pups at the moment though....