Neck choices

After keeping an eye out for deals, I have found the donor for a neck for this project. Thanks to Craigslist, I have purchased a Johnson J style bass on the cheap that I will use the neck from to put on this bass. I will attempt to re-sell the body and hopefully will nearly break even with what I paid for the entire bass. Even so, it is a great deal even if I can’t sell the body for much. Here’s what the donor looks like. I’m not crazy about the headstock shape. I guess for the price I don’t have much room to complain though. It is VERY “blocky” feeling so I will need to do some smoothing around the edges in order to make it feel less cheap. I haven’t decided if I plan to refinish the neck yet either. I might leave it satin, but if I paint the body an interesting color, I might also do the neck. The headstock will be matched to the body regardless. I’m not sure of the condition of the frets; they seem okay and will be dealt with much later in this project if there is a serious issue there.

Upon test fitting the neck to the body, as expected the pocket is slightly too narrow. With a little grinding and some dremel work, the pocket now fits this neck snugly and securely. It might be a little TOO snug though. I will probably open it just a hair more so that there won’t be a fitment issue when finish is applied to the neck if I choose to do that. Now that I have a workable neck, I can finish up the sanding on the body and measure where the bridge is going to be. I could look up the specs on bridge placement, but since I’m not sure how exact this body is to Fender spec I will make sure it’s right before drilling any holes. Test fitting after a slight pocket mod looks pretty good~! It looks like the bridge is going to be mounted close to where some existing holes were. It shouldn’t be a difficult thing to do, just measure twice (or 3 times) and then mark the holes with the bridge sitting on it. Then drill them out and we’re good to go. I’m now awaiting the arrival of the pickguard and the set of electronics I’ve purchased from members of the www.talkbass.com forums which should provide me with everything I need to get this bass assembled! I still have to decide on a color to use though. I’m starting to have an idea what I want to use this bass for eventually, but that will remain a secret! The goal for now is to get all body routing and mounting hole drilling done, and then get the body finished in white primer. Once that is done I can pick a color and have everything else already roughly completed and all the parts will just have to be mounted to it. I also have some work to do on the neck, as it’s not as smooth as I’d like yet. I’m also considering reshaping the headstock, though I’m not sure what I would make out of it.