Recommendations for replacement Strat bodies and necks

[6120]

Hi all,

I recently sold two very good Strats, both American vintage and not cheap, because I haven’t used them since I got my Patrick Eggle HSS some years ago.

However, over the years I’ve picked up loads of Strat pups (Bare Knuckle et al), and Callahan bridges and components, basically everything you need to build a Strat and I just need a body and neck for them to go on.

There seems to be loads of suppliers of bodies and necks out there and I’d like to get a few recommendations of quality suppliers you might have used. I’m looking for a standard alder body and maple neck with a 9 or 10-12” radius without it being too exotic or expensive, again not sure of prices to pay but suspect £300-£400 would cover it.

Any ideas will be gratefully received!

[Philbo King]

I've priced Strat necks and they are amazingly pricey. So I reached out on Facebook and a friend gave me a Tele neck he didn't need. After repairing a couple cracks, removing 7 layers of paint on the headstock that alternated between pink and purple, and plugging various holes it was in pretty good shape. I gave it a couple coats of boiled linseed oil, waiting a couple weeks between coats. Since Teles have an extra fret or two and are square at the neck pocket, I had to hand-chisel the neck pocket in the body, ending up about 3mm from the neck pickup. Overall it came out ok. Much more playable than the old maple neck with worn out frets and a back bow that I couldn't fix.

Another source I considered was buying a Squire Strat just for the neck, which was considerably cheaper than buying a new neck.

[Sam Spoons]

My 'goto' gig guitar is a bitsa Strat with a Korean built Squire neck, Richwood (cheap Chinese make) body and Kent Armstrong P90s. The neck is sublime, possibly the best I've ever played in 60 years of guitar playing.

[Wonks]

I recently bought a Strat neck from Hzguitars on eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_dkr= ... _nkw=strat

Their stock varies and they were offering fully roasted necks as well for similar prices. Mine came to £85 including postage and that was with a very good clear nitro finish and decent frets (quite high and wide frets so not low, thin and vintage). The tuner holes were 8.8mm, with smaller post-hole sized holes on the rear, and a set of vintage tuners and bushings (Gotoh SD91) fitted perfectly. And it came with a bone nut with nut slots that I only needed to take down a very small amount indeed (I could almost have left them alone).

Neck shape was a fairly standard C section. The neck was remarkably even with no slight twisting.

The truss rod adjustment was at the heel but has a ‘spoked wheel’ adjuster making it very easy to make tiny adjustments, all without having to take the neck off.

A couple of frets were very slightly higher than the others, so I did do a fret level, but if you don’t like very low actions, then a bit more of a polish would have be all that was required.

It just needed a decal, some more clear nitro on the headstock and a string tree to finish it.

I’d buy another one in an instant.

I have no idea what their bodies are like.

Are you looking for finished or unfinished necks and bodies? If finished, any preference for the finish type and/or colour?

[sonics]

I would go for a used Strat or Strat-style guitar. Find one you really like, and then put your hardware into that. Buying a neck for more than the price of a complete instrument never made sense to me, unless you require some sort of specialised build.

[6120]

Morning all,

Thanks very much for your advice and suggestion that I’ll look into today.

I had thought about buying a cheaper Strat and replacing the parts but I couldn’t find one cheap or good enough to use. Tbh, I’ve no experience of the more budget friendly Strat range and wouldn’t know what to take a punt on.

About 20yrs ago I made a parts Tele using a body and neck from USA Custom Guitars which were excellent, but they appear to have gone out of business some time ago (website is still there but nothing happening), and hence why I was thinking a parts supplier like Warmoth (very expensive) or North West guitars (decent prices but seems to have a lot out of stock) might be suitable and thanks Wonks for your suggestion.

I’ve been watching some Strat parts suppliers on eBay for some time and prices can vary between very cheap and very very expensive so will have to have another look.

The finish doesn’t matter too much so long as the neck is fully fretted, as I’m pretty good with a spray gun and will stick with a basic gloss finish.

If anyone has any other experience of of basic bodies and neck suppliers that would be great!

Thanks again.

[Music Wolf]

I found myself in a similar position a couple of years ago. I already had a loaded scratch plate and tuners from a US Standard Strat so I bought a body, neck and trem from https://northwestguitars.co.uk/. As they were only a few miles down the road I was able to go in a look at the stock and, as a consequence, came away with a different set of parts than those that I went in for. The frets didn't need any refinishing but cutting the nut with a very cheap set of files was a pain.

[Wonks]

This Canadian maker seems to have reasonably-priced kits that look to be good quality.

https://precisionguitarkits.com/product/s-style-mto

1$CAD is roughly £0.6 ATM.

Once I’m in a position to start some new projects, I may well give one a go. But at the moment I’ve got no idea just how good they are.

Of course you’ll pay extra with shipping and VAT, but should still come within budget.

Their solid maple top LP styles look interesting as well.

[tea for two]

How abouts picking up a JHS Encore Strat.
They usually come in well under a ton around £50-£70.
Thereafter

However, over the years I’ve picked up loads of Strat pups (Bare Knuckle et al), and Callahan bridges and components, basically everything you need to build a Strat and I just need a body and neck for them to go on.

If the JHS doesn't work out for you at least you haven't spent the earth.

[amanise]

The comments here about Squire necks being good resonated with me. I have loved a Squire affinity strat from China which I've had for about 15 years now. It cost under £200.00 and All I've done to it is put on a Hotrails humbucker at the bridge end and Gibson SG tone and volume pots. The neck has always been wonderful, and is showing signs of fret wear now - but not too bad. It feels 'played in'. It's always had spot on harmonic tuning throughout. I've taken it everywhere with me - it being the lowest risk in terms of cost of all my intruments.

My experience would support getting a Squire for the neck - but I have no issues with the body of mine - although I have no idea what wood they used for it. I think it's something native to that part of the world. Nice project!

[Wonks]

In general terms, there are several things to consider when assembling a neck and body from different sources.

Quite often, Asian-made necks can be a bit narrower at the heel than US-made necks, or necks made to replace US ones. So an Asian neck on a US-spec body can sometimes be rather a loose fit in the neck pocket, or conversely, a US-spec neck can be too wide to fit in a body with a narrower Asian-width pocket.

So you need to make sure that the neck and pocket width measurements match if you aren’t buying from a single supplier.

Neck heel depth can also vary by quite a few mm, as can pocket depth. Normally this can be accommodated by adjusting the saddle heights, but sometimes a deep pocket and shallow neck can require a neck shim at the body end of the pocket in order for the strings to have enough height to clear the pickups and not have the saddles fully lowered and there still be a high string action.

Conversely, a deep neck and a shallow pocket can require a neck-end shim in the pocket to avoid saddles being set too high for the screws and the pickups having to be set as high as they will go.

A used neck will probably need its fixing screw holes drilled out and plugged with hardwood dowels and then redrilled to exactly match the holes positions in a new body. It’s not hard to do, but not everyone is at ease with even that level of DIY.

The headstock can pose problems if you are after a small vintage Strat-style headstock and your used neck has a large headstock profile (common on many Squiers) or a non-trademark infringing headstock shape.

It’s perfectly possible to reprofile the headstock shape yourself, (or even create your own unique headstock shape) though it will require some refinishing on the exposed wood areas, and you may wish to sand off any existing decals and add your own.

To ensure compatibility between finishes, it nay be necessary to sand off all the existing clear finish and apply a new finish. Easier to do on a rosewood-board neck than on an all-maple neck. This also gives you a chance to reprofile a chunky neck into a slimmer profile one, or maybe add a touch of a vintage ‘V’ to a modern C-profile neck shape. Taking wood off the sides is fine but avoid reducing the overall neck depth as the truss rod channel may be just below the surface.

But before you think of doing that, if you want to fit vintage-style split post tuners, then measure the post-hole spacing. As the vintage tuners require the tuners to touch each other at the edges for the single screw fixings to work, the post-hole spacing needs to be spot-on. Whilst you can get 10mm adapter bushings to fit modern 10mm post holes (vs 8.8mm vintage sized holes), the hole spacing needs to be correct. Otherwise, stick with modern screw-in bushing tuners.

If the existing tuners are cheap and nasty, then they can be easily replaced, but unless you replace them with better tuners of the same pattern, you may need to plug the old tuner fixing holes and add a touch if finish over them (if you don’t want to live with the holes).

Also consider the truss-rod adjustment location. At the heel is nice and vintage, but you’ve got to take the neck off to make adjustments. At the neck nay not give you a true vintage look, but it’s a lot easier to live with.

The older the neck, the more risk there is of the frets being very worn and pitted. Especially if the frets are vintage-style ones, there may not be enough height left to do a fret level and reprofile, Even if they don’t look worn, they may have been previously levelled and their height reduced so that when they do get some wear, they will need a refret rather than a level.

On a maple board, you’ll very likely need to sand and refinish the neck as part of a refret process. Which can be very costly if not doing it yourself.

And if a neck is being sold on its own, you have to ask ‘why’? I’ve replaced a friend’s virtually unused maple board neck with a rosewood board neck because he didn’t like the feel, and that was a perfectly fine neck.

But it might be sold because the truss-rod won’t straighten the neck enough, or the neck may be a bit warped, resulting in a neck that needs a high action to stop choking on string bends.

[BigRedX]

Here's a controversial thought...

Do you actually need another guitar? And does it need to be a Strat?

If it was me, I'd sell al the surplus hardware and if I really needed another guitar go out an buy one that does what I want without any further modification. It's not the 60 or 70s any more, and there is now a massive range of instruments at all sorts of price points, one of which will be the guitar that you really want.

[6120]

Hi all,

Thanks again for all your solid advice!

A bit of background: over the last 40 years of playing guitar, and like many of you, I’ve acquired so many guitars and components that I thought I’d use or need but now know I’ll never use all of them in anger and have been selling-off much of them on eBay.

I’m now down to one set of Strat pups, a Callahan term Bridge, a set of tuners, and all the pots and wiring I need to build one with a decent body and neck so my thinking is that I can do it for a much lower cost than buying a second-hand one.

I probably don’t ‘need’ it but I do like a Start for slide and blues guitar so would like to have that option.

I only want to buy a new body and neck from one supplier that says their necks fit their bodies well to reduce any problems with this and I’ve been looking at Guitar Anatomy and North West Guitars who say this is what their parts do, only problem is that they’ve quite a few parts out of stock for what I’d like so will probably have to wait a while yet.

Thanks for the very helpful advice Wonks as there’s much there I wasn’t aware of but am now!

Thanks again.

[Music Wolf]

If you are planning to use NW Guitars it would be worth giving them a call as I'm not sure that their online stocking info is up to date. I seem to remember that the body I came away with wasn't showing as in stock on their website.

[Johnsy]

This Canadian maker seems to have reasonably-priced kits that look to be good quality.

https://precisionguitarkits.com/product/s-style-mto

My first question WRT parts suppliers is always how they compare, pricewise, to Warmoth, so I did a bit of a comparison.

Precision neck/body = $341.00 ($484.54 inc. UK delivery, ex. VAT/duty).
Equivalent Warmoth neck/body = $382.00 ($605.74).

Not much difference in the base price, then, but delivery charges are obviously higher for Warmoth.

However, since we're talking specifically about necks, I dug a bit deeper, just out of interest.

If you buy the Precision neck alone, it's $231.00, or $374.54 including UK delivery.

The equivalent neck from Warmoth is priced at $187.00, or $346.21 with UK delivery.

Upgrade to roasted maple and stainless steel frets, and the difference becomes more pronounced, with the Precision neck now costing $411.00 ($554.54 delivered), compared with $277.00 ($436.21 delivered) for the Warmoth.

1$CAD is roughly £0.6 ATM.

Unfortunately, the Precision parts are priced in USD (~£0.82).

[Wonks]

I don’t know how they are doing now, but a couple of years ago I knew a couple of people in the US who were saying that Warmoth’s quality wasn’t what it had been.

I did have a Warmoth parts Tele (with Warmoth-finished neck and body) that I’d bought on eBay. It certainly wasn’t bad, but I didn’t find anything to rave about either. I’d have to say that the £85 eBay Strat neck I mentioned earlier was just as good, and maybe a bit better quality, than the Warmoth Tele neck.

[Johnsy]

I don’t know how they are doing now, but a couple of years ago I knew a couple of people in the US who were saying that Warmoth’s quality wasn’t what it had been.

To be honest, Wonks, I'm not even sure I could provide a credible statement of what quality means anymore, particularly as it relates to price. I've seen £40 (!) Chinese necks that - God help me - I can't find anything wrong with. The Chinese guys are putting the same numbers into the same CNC machines as the Americans. Both are using the same Canadian maple and Indian rosewood (or whatever, from wherever). You're maybe more likely to need to level the frets, and do a bit of general tidying up, perhaps (though not on the two I saw), and of course, you can get unlucky if the QC's really bad, but... fourty quid!

I did have a Warmoth parts Tele (with Warmoth-finished neck and body) that I’d bought on eBay. It certainly wasn’t bad, but I didn’t find anything to rave about either. I’d have to say that the £85 eBay Strat neck I mentioned earlier was just as good, and maybe a bit better quality, than the Warmoth Tele neck.

I don't actually have much hands-on experience of Warmoth parts, but I use them (the company) as a bit of a yardstick. Their reputation over the long haul is very good, of course, and perhaps most importantly, you can specify down to a finer level than with any online competition that I know of (making it easy to match the spec of that Precision neck to compare prices, for example). I suppose the basic principle in my mind is that if something is more expensive than Warmoth, then it had better be exceptional.

[Wonks]

That’s fair enough.

Having made a few Chinese kits over the past few years and an associated Australian-based forum, I would point out that a lot of Chinese necks (and bodies) are not actually CNC made. I wish they were, but unless the factory is run/managed by a big name, a lot of the bodies and necks are still hand-made using routers, jigs and templates. Which does lead to inconsistencies in quality as the templates get worn (plus there’s a lot of use of young, untrained labour).

So not all £40 Chinese necks can be relied upon to be wonderful.

[Johnsy]

Interesting - I'd kind of assumed everyone was automated now, but it makes sense that many of them are doing it the old-fashioned way. Long on cheap labour, low on investment. Goes some way to explaining why there might be so many duds out there too.

I guess my mate got lucky - he bought them of ebay on a whim, not really expecting much himself, but they surprised him and me too.

[tea for two]

I made an enquiry aboot CNC Router. Reply I got was an Exel M1S at £17K+ vat would be able to churn ooot Electric Guitar necks by the thousands.