Neck



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Yep, here it is.

This neck was based loosely around a 62 peghead. I fancied a very figured strat neck and this one is superbly figured through the length of the neck - birdseye style. Take a look at the main features of this neck and I'll explain as we go..

	As you can see, this neck is extremely figured, I chose this from over 250 necks available at the time. The peg head profile in my view, reflects the nicest of the designs to date - this is very similar to a 62 design and I knew that this was exactly what I wanted. The profile on this neck is a very special profile offered by warmoth, which allows for super string bending anywhere on the neck, so I chose that as an option. See below*
This logo (on the picture on the right) is confirmation that this neck has been 'authorised' as a replacement part for a Fender strat. This in essence means that the quality is to 'at least' the quality found on a real Fender neck. My own view is that you will have to go a long way to get this quality on a Fender strat - and spend far more money.
	Here's a shot of the back of the neck - look at the birdseye figuring.

Front of Neck

Front view of my neck. Notice there are no frets, but on this one the fret board has been prepared to take the fret wire. Frankly, I did not want to make a great strat, at the expense of intonation, bad fret work etc, so I simply specified exactly what I wanted and warmoth did the business. You might think this is cheating, but I don't think so, I could not have achieved the results by myself.

For the fret wire there were many choices but because I was a gibson and Ibanez guy, I had dunlop 6105 Stainless Steel. Nut with was 1" 5/8.

The little hex screw on the picture to the left is another unique variation on a theme. When I was considering the neck either a truss rod the old fashioned way was going to be (because of the 62 thing) or a truss rod adjustment at the peg head end of the neck. I did not fancy either they are both a pain.

Warmoth did it again, and this is something I recommend - they had a mod that brings out the truss rod adjuster to the lower part of the neck. Hey presto, neck truss rod adjustment without removing the neck. And it's easier to get at rather than the peg head version.

I opted for an Ebony fret board. While this adds extra cost to the overall price of the neck I felt that it was worth the extra because a maple neck sounds different than an ebony or rosewood one. If you look close you will see some lighter streaks on the ebony fret board. This is not because the ebony is second grade or anything like that, but rather a confirmation that this wood really is ebony and high quality at that. Gibson, for example, often use specialist dies to remove these colour variations which are usually predominant in ebony finger boards.

If you don't think the fret board will colour the sound of your strat, take a listen at Hendrix, when he used almost exclusively a maple neck, and compare that sound with that of the period when Hendrix used a rosewood neck - the difference in sound is striking. To my ears the maple only is much more biting and a little too harsh for my needs - hence the ebony as my choice of wood.

About my Neck Radius:

This was a concept that Warmoth introduced over a decade ago to improve both comfort and playability. It has proven to be a very popular feature that they have incorporated into the majority of their necks.

Everyone knows how comfortable vintage Fender necks are for rhythm work and chording, but without uncomfortably high action, string bending is not an option, the strings "fret-out". To achieve low action and no buzz string bending, many necks resort to a 16" fingerboard radius. This certainly works, but the comfort factor is lost.

What Warmoth developed was the theory and technology to make the fret board conical. This retains a tighter radius in the area commonly used for rhythm and chording, while flattening the area used for bending and lead playing. Warmoth selected a 10" radius at the nut for both comfort and compatibility with the popular Floyd Rose locking nut.. A 16" radius at the heel has proven to afford 2-1/2 step bends with action below a 16th of an inch. A great solution to anotherwise aggrevation area.

Now you know about my neck choices move on and checkout the 'nut' section.