G&L Reshaping Neck Profile
Noah's G&L Bass |
I have a composer/multi-instrumentalist client who wanted me
to reshape his G&L bass neck to be more comfortable for his
smaller hands. The G&L basses have a nice solid neck with
a shape somewhere in between a C and a D profile. In order to
make it feel more natural for him we decided to shape it more
like a soft V, that way we could keep some of the thickness (and
stability), but make it feel smaller because there's less meat
on the shoulders.
Here is something similar to what the neck profile looks like
stock:
Here is more like what we're going for:
When I was working with Michael DeTemple, there were a few things
he did which I had never seen before. One of them was shaping
a neck with a razor blade. The first time I saw it,
it was like a mad scientist in his laboratory with his hands
flailing up and down the neck and paper thin wood shaving
flying all over the place. Once I started doing it I realized
how much control over the shape I had and how smooth the lines
were.
First I removed the neck, took off the hardware, and taped up
the fretboard. I then began to shape the shoulders and ended
up with quite a pile of shavings. I had him come back the next
day for an hour of so, so that I could shape a little, put
it in his hands and get immediate feedback from him. Then I'd
reshape a bit more. This went back and forth a few times until
his hand nearly melted into the profile of the neck. Then I sanded
it down to a nice satin feel.
I gave it to him "in the raw", as he wanted to finish
it with tung oil himself. We were both very happy with the way
it came out.
Fretboard all taped up |
Shaping the back with a razor |
Shaping the sides with a razor |
Shavings and tools (mainly a razor and sandpaper) |
More shavings and tools |
Other mods, repair, and custom work available
as well.
To find out more, email me! |
