LeftyBassist.com

Hi All,

So I took the plunge and purchased one of those bargain Am Standard P bass bodies from Stratosphere. It came in yesterday, in its original Fender packaging, and the finish looks great. I do plan on getting an Am Standard neck to go with it, but in the meantime I planned to use an older non US Fender neck. The catch is that the heel pocket on this body seems really shallow. According to Warmouth and others, the pocket should be 5/8" deep, but it's only 18/32". This brings the fretboard really high off the body, and I'm concerned that it will make my life miserable when it comes to setting it up. So my questions are as follows:

Is this normal for an Am Standard? I have had MIM's and Squiers before, but this is my first Am.
Are the Am standard necks thinner to compensate?

The neck I'm using is 1" deep, which seems to be pretty standard. I will try to attach links to pics that show what I'm waffling about. Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,
Dave

http://imgur.com/a/v4Nw4
http://imgur.com/fQLdXaX
http://imgur.com/c1wdL8F
http://imgur.com/vwpJrra
http://imgur.com/ZvNO2EY

Appears the neck is sitting too high in the neck pocket.

Quick update. I spoke with Fender, and they said the following:

The spec for the neck pocket depth on an American Standard Precision Bass is 0.57" (+/- .10). So a measurement of 18/32" seems pretty normal.

So it seems the spec for the AM Standard is below the normal 5/8" . Although 5/8 does fit in the spec range above, it's not the target spec. Just a heads up for anyone else going this route.

On the plus side, I went to see Green Day last night in Portland. After 26 years of listening to these folks, I finally got to see them play, and it was a killer gig. They played a massive set, were full of energy, and the sound and lighting engineers were totally on point. Mike D was killing it with his P bass and Fender Bassman combination. Now I need my P bass project to work

Nice! Those new Bassmans sound fantastic but they're just so big.

I'm seeing the other Armstrong this weekend: Rancid w/ the Dropkick Murphys.

Very cool! Always loved Operation Ivy, and Rancid are cool too... Green Day covered "Knowledge" last night

I think I have a bootleg of GD doing Knowledge. But the original is track one on my Op Ivy CD and I never skip it.

[quote="NoXX"]Hi All,

So I took the plunge and purchased one of those bargain Am Standard P bass bodies from Stratosphere. It came in yesterday, in its original Fender packaging, and the finish looks great. I do plan on getting an Am Standard neck to go with it, but in the meantime I planned to use an older non US Fender neck. The catch is that the heel pocket on this body seems really shallow. According to Warmouth and others, the pocket should be 5/8" deep, but it's only 18/32". This brings the fretboard really high off the body, and I'm concerned that it will make my life miserable when it comes to setting it up. So my questions are as follows:

Is this normal for an Am Standard? I have had MIM's and Squiers before, but this is my first Am.
Are the Am standard necks thinner to compensate?

The neck I'm using is 1" deep, which seems to be pretty standard. I will try to attach links to pics that show what I'm waffling about. Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,


Dave

A neck with 1" heel is thicker than a Fender neck. I believe Fenders are 7/8". I put an Eden neck on a MIJ Fender body. The Eden was thicker similar to the neck you're using. I had to adjust the bridge and pickup higher to compensate but it didn't cause any problems that I recall. Plays fine.

Hi All,

I ended up returning the body, as it was going to be a hassle getting my temporary neck to work, and I wasn't ready to spring for an Am Standard neck.. no worries- will build one some day.