The 'D' Neck issue..

[Ken Smith]

Well, first off I have to say that my original teachings do not fully agree with the way and/or method in which a D-Neck is measured or what a D-Neck actually is at the Heel.

Here's my take on this. The hand position as taught to me has the thumb behind the upper edge of your 2nd finger or behind it, NOT behind the first finger! With the thumb in the Heel of the Neck with normal left hand playing position, the 1st finger will be a D-note and the 2nd finger parallel to the thumb or close to it will be an Eb. With the current method of measuring the Note parallel to the thumb what was taught to me as a D-Neck is called an Eb Neck. The main contradiction I have is that when I play the D on that Neck, My thumb is already on the Heel. If I want to play an F with the 4th finger, it is a bit of a stretch if the parallel note to the Hell is a D and not an Eb. If the note at the Heel is a D, then with proper hand positioning having the thumb parallel behind the 2nd finger or close to it the 1st finger is playing a Db. Why isn't that called a Db Neck then? Is measuring the Heel stop NOT related to playing with proper technique?

Every Bass I play with the so-called D-Neck feels short to me and hard to reach the F note on the G and even harder to play across the strings in that position. Maybe it's because I grew up on this type of Neck and playing position which is different from 'Luthier position'..

Wouldn't it be nice if we were all n the same page? I asked one older Luthier about this and how we all of a sudden lost the old traditional D-Neck (or was it really 'Eb Luthier minor b6') and he said "it's the Teachers"!..

I like having the Eb parallel to my first finger in the Heel or 2nd finger with proper hand positioning. This is how I learned and played in the beginning. My old Italian Bass was closer to a Db-Neck to me just after its restoration in 1973 but the length was shortened from 44" to just a bit over 42". On that Bass, I re-cut the Heel myself and moved the Bridge to the top of the Notches. It was not 'perfect' but I got used to it. The sound was 'heaven' so all was forgiven.

The 2 Basses I have now that have what I consider a 'proper' D-Neck (Luthiers Eb) are my Batchelder and Hart. These are the most comfortable for note climbing between the lower and upper/thumb positions. When playing the shorter D-version, I feel that I need an extra stretch or shift to play over the shoulders.

So, did this all change at some point or are there just different languages between playing and set-up between Luthiers and Players?