Found a Grabber...

[warriorbass05]

I found this today at a local store...


looked decent at first until I started looking at the fretboard(which had been removed and reglued)....incorrectly by the way...

I took it to the counter and the dude gave me tools and I found this



and then closer...




Wanna know how fast I ran to the door WITHOUT it??

[Grog]

It seems that these have more truss rod & issues than most other Gibson basses, also more fretboards coming unglued, could it be because of the maple neck & fretboard combo?

[godofthunder]

 I have no fact to base this on but it seems to me that the truss rods in the G series basses may not have been tempered to the correct hardness. I can really lean on a 60's EB or Thunderbird bass and not snap a nut off. The G series really seem prone to this imho.

[warriorbass05]

Hard to say....AND no idea what type they replaced it with but I can say that it was NOT good..if I could figure a way to replace it again, I would prob go back and get it but whoever did the mod, removed some wood and I think it would hard to get back into form...that one would not even adjust...I tried...

[Dave W]

I have no fact to base this on but it seems to me that the truss rods in the G series basses may not have been tempered to the correct hardness. I can really lean on a 60's EB or Thunderbird bass and not snap a nut off. The G series really seem prone to this imho.

AFAIK the truss rods have never been tempered, they're mild steel. I don't think even the softest tempered carbon steel would be flexible enough to work as a truss rod.

Or maybe Gibson did try it in the G series and that caused the problem you describe.

[godofthunder]

 Are there varying degrees of hardness for mild steel ? or a wide tolerance for what can be called mild steel? Maybe they switched suppliers and the steel was of a lesser quality ?

[Denis]

I think there are varying degrees of steel hardness. For stainless steel this is definitely the case and since there are varying methods of treating it to change the finished properties I can't imagine that mild steel couldn't be treated in the same way.

Regarding the Grabber in questions, I've seen a few Grabber necks on eBay so if the shop would sell that Grabber cheap enough then it might still be a decent deal.

[Dave W]

Mild steel by definition doesn't have enough carbon in it to harden and temper, it can be case hardened to make its surface wear longer but that wouldn't an issue for a truss rod. It's more likely that the problem truss rods were just from a bad batch of mild steel.

Would Norlin have switched suppliers to save a few bucks? I'm shocked! 

[warriorbass05]

any suggestions on fixing it? I thought about getting it but don't want a worthless neck...

[dadagoboi]

Would Norlin have switched suppliers to save a few bucks? I'm shocked! 

Probably made from melted down beer barrel hoops

[Grog]

One guy I work with bought a G-3, the truss rod snapped right at the bottom of the brass nut. We made a special counterbore tool with clearance to go over the truss rod & counterbored the wood enough to expose more thread to screw another nut on. From what I recall, that worked well. After that repair, his fretboard fell off............

[warriorbass05]

wonder if a warmoth neck would fit

[Denis]

There are two NOS Gibson necks on ebay now. Maybe one of them would work.

[godofthunder]

 I am not sure, give them a call an ask. To my knowledge there are no necks that drop in aside from the originals. It wouldn't be to hard to shape a Warmouth, Allparts etc. neck heel to fit.  Warmoth has a V design or you could get the paddle and shape it yourself. Both have the 13 degree headstock angle. http://www.warmoth.com/Bass/Necks/Bass13Necks.aspx

wonder if a warmoth neck would fit

[godofthunder]

  If you can get it cheap great. It's nothing more than a parts bass.

any suggestions on fixing it? I thought about getting it but don't want a worthless neck...