I have now fitted the neck that I fretted and lacquered to my Fender 62 reissue Stratocaster.
Apologies for not photographing the stages of fitting the tuners and cutting the nut but these steps are covered elsewhere on my blog.
You can see that I fitted some original F-logo tuners. They are actually from a Fender Mustang or similar guitar as they have plastic buttons but the construction is otherwise identical to tuners that would have been fitted to a 1969 Stratocaster.
I’m pretty pleased with the way the neck feels, it isn’t a slim neck, certainly bigger than the neck that was on my 62RI but it’s very comfortable with the soft V shape at the first fret transitioning smoothly to a rounded profile at the 12th.
The neck relief is adjusted almost straight and the action is 1/16″ across the fretboard at the 12th fret.
Also, what size holes did you need for the Mustang tuners? The F tuners by Schaller and the modern Asian versions fit 10mm holes. However, I heard that the first few years the F tuners were made by an American company and fit the smaller holes.
Ah, in that case I think it might be from guitarbuild.co.uk. I think it was one of their early necks before Fender asked them to stop copying the headstock. That will explain why I had to fret it.
The tuners were late sixties ones and the holes 1/4″ front to back.
Hello,
That is a nice neck! Are these available to buy or did you make it custom?
Sorry I can’t remember where I bought it, AllParts probably but they don’t have anything similar now.
Oh that’s not good news. Definitely not Allparts. Allparts uses the smaller inlays and wide 12th fret spacing of pre-CBS style Strats on all their necks. They have a slightly different headstock shape and the contouring on the back where the headstock meets the neck is different. They don’t do compound radius. Doesn’t look to be Warmoth or Musikraft either.
At any rate, it’s beautiful work. You did a great job with getting it all together. Did you use nitro for both the clear and the tinted headstock face?
Steve,I think you have done a fantastic job on this guitar.I love the neck colour, and it blends well with the cream like quality of the body.I would have liked a bit more, on methods used/pictures/stages of progress, in the article,however it is a “Top Job”
Well done ,Dave
Thanks Dave, I did complete the guitar quickly and wished that I’d taken more photos. All the steps involved can be found elsewhere on my website though. Maybe I should add some links to relevant content?
wow this is exactly something ive been lookin for.i notice u dont have any acoustic guitar tips.im making a neck of mine. is the calculator can work with acoustic?and probably some must know important tips to build acoustic guitar will be great . thx
God, I love big headstock stratocasters!
Wow – It looks Trower-signature-tastic with the white body!
Plug it into a fuzz and I bet it plays “Long Misty Days” all by itself.
Actually, it looks a lot nicer than the RT-sig strat. The off-white body, cream pickups and yellowed headstock face all look far classier and the tuner keys look like a colour coordinated customisation.
Lovely work Steve.
PS: Nice to see you’re still not forking out your hard-earned cash for those fancy metal straplocks ;)