Vintera '50's Precision Bass Roasted Maple Neck Review

The end result is great but a few things to keep in mind.

I got this neck as I wanted to do a P bass mod project with new pickups and a new pickguard and of course a new neck. I have a variety of basses with slim, fast necks, and wanted something very different as my P bass serves a very specific niche in my arsenal. It's my dedicated flatwounds bass and is overall used for mellow and more retro things. So I wanted a 50's profile neck… read more to sort of hyper focus the P bass onto that style of playing for when I need that. Ultimately I took it to a professional and this is what he had to say about that work that was done to get it to fit my fender Player Precision bass. 1. The neck pocket and the pickguard had to be widened to accommodate the wider neck. It wasn't a drop in replacement. 2. The tuner slots needed to be drilled wider to fit the original fender player precision tuners which was a surprise to me since this is just a Fender to fender replacement. 3. Of course, the nut needed to be filed. I just had someone install the neck for me so that didn't impact me at all. But I feel it should be kept in mind for anyone wanting to buy this or any other fender style replacement neck and plans to install it themselves. Now some of the points I like about the neck. 1. The 50's profile feels great. It's a big chonky boi. Definitely the fattest neck I've ever played and it's just very inspiring when you want to play something mellow or old school. 2. The fret work is pretty dang good. A huge step up from the original player precision neck and frankly significantly better than my MIM Geddy Lee signature, specifically the fret edges are trimmed and rounded and considerable smoother. 3. The roasted maple is nice and appropriately roasted. Darker than an unroasted maple, but not absurdly over roasted like some other basses I've seen, and I'll include a photo of an example to show what I mean. The biggest downside and why I can't give this a 5/5 for this neck for what it is is the truss rod adjustment location. I understand this is a 50's style neck. I wanted the profile, I didn't necessarily want the extremely inconvenient truss rod adjustment method requiring you to remove the neck. Hopefully the roasted maple neck means this is not truly an inconvenience going forward. But I feel even for a 50's style neck, I don't think there's a logical design reason to have a screw in the neck.

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I really like this neck.

This is a solid neck that looks really beautiful and is very fun to play. It looks and feels like the 50s to me; for whatever that is worth. You should know that it has a 1.75 nut width. That is pretty big. Probably the widest pbass neck I've played. That is partially why I bought this neck though, so its not a downside but rather it is worth pointing out if you are looking for… read more a replacement neck. Overall the Vintage C shape feels great. It is much flatter and wider feeling than the '63 style pbass neck on my Am. Pro. and much wider than the modern C. I like this, but if you are looking for the fastest playing neck, its not this one. I give it 4.5 stars for a few reasons. The Pros: First and foremost I really like to play it. Thats the point right? Its really pretty and definitely has a unique aesthetic and vibe. I really like the tiny vintage style frets. It has a great sound. The cons: The nut is junk. Chipped while I was filing the slots. Not my first time filing nuts; and I was using proper tools and procedure. The walnut strip in the back is beautiful but not entirely set into the maple. Not terrible, it's just going to require some sanding to smooth it out. For the price I wish the nut wasn't junk and I didn't need to sand the back of the neck (I sand the back of all my necks anyway so its not really a deal breaker or anything for me.)

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