T40 necks

I have bought and sold close to fifteen T-40s. They're all different animals, obviously. However, I HAVE noticed that the earlier the T-40, the better the neck. What I mean by that is, the T-40s I've owned from '81 on have given me more trouble than '78-81 T-40s I've owned.

I have an '81 that I'm trying to get set up. There is a bow in the neck that I can not straighten out. I have done my homework. The strings are very close to the frets on the first 4-5 frets and gradually, the slope gets more pronounced the further up the neck you go. I've tried to adjust the saddles and neck-tilt to try to compensate for the curvature but it doesn't work. When I hit an open E string....there's a noticeable vibration in the neck, or somewhere, it's annoying.

I had the same problem before on another bass, but with the A string on a bone nut. The nut was filed too wide and made the string "vibrate" in the slot. That's not the problem here. Metal nut.

Oh yeah, after everything else has failed, I tightened the truss rod...it helped a little but I can't get the action where I like it. The truss rod is maxed out, I'm afraid to turn it any more. It's that tight. The neck is completely playable, the action is fairly low...but my '78 T-40 neck is probably at half the tension of this one and it's perfect for me.

For a 25-30 year old bass, you're bound to find something that irks you, especially when it wasn't taken care of in the first place.

That's strange. Didn't Chip leave Peavey in '81? Coincidence?

Interesting point, Tony. I may have to send this one to Chip. He has said that he hasn't found a T series neck that he couldn't fix. I'm extremely picky when it comes to this, to a fault.

Could the tension of the strings have anything to do with it? I forget what strings are on there right now. I have some DR Black Beauties that I'm going to swap out and try tweaking it, it's worth a shot.

Damn, Scott. You are a T-40 pimp.

I prefer the metal nut on a T-40. I got one with a crappy other white bone kind of nut. and it sucks!!!!!

Pimp?? Hardly. I'm a hack, and damn proud of it

this is an old post, but I'd like to add that if you've bottomed out the nut, you can put a small washer under the truss rod nut. I've done this with some cheaper basses that I have worked on, and it gave me enough "play" to straiten out the neck.