bagpipe
01-27-2008, 01:54 PM
I bought this American Series strat new in 2003. Its a nice guitar and it plays really well, but over the last couple of years the super-skinny neck has really started to bother me. I've also become a fan of rosewood fingerboards rather than maple, another strike against this guitar. I was going to sell the guitar but as you all know, used guitar prices have gone South recently. I then got the idea of replacing the neck with something more substantial. I had been looking at the Warmoth site and liked the look of their 59 Roundback profile, which is slightly less substantial than their standard Fat or Boat carves:
http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=back_profiles
A member on theGearPage (Kenny Blue Ray) was selling a used Warmoth neck with this carve, but with some upgrades: Pau Ferro fingerboard, birdseye maple, vintage tint and honking big 6100 frets. I decided to take a chance and I bought the neck from him. It arrived this week and I bolted it on there. I'd never swapped a neck before and wasn't sure what to expect. I basically just took off the old, bolted on the new one, adjusted the saddle height and intonation, and that was it. I'm delighted with this new neck - it plays like a dream and it fits my left hand to perfection. This is a big neck - way bigger than the Wide Fat carve on my PRS. And those frets are huge - they're like railway tracks, very comfortable to play. So, a success story - I guess Leo Fender got it right with his idea of modular components which can easily bolt together to customize it to the player. All it needs now is some kind of headstock decal - it looks a little naked right now.
Here are some pictures if you managed to read this far. Unfortunately my camera skills don't do justice to the beauty of the wood in the neck:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/bagpipe200/Strat/IMG_0700.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/bagpipe200/Strat/IMG_0701.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/bagpipe200/Strat/IMG_0697.jpg
http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=back_profiles
A member on theGearPage (Kenny Blue Ray) was selling a used Warmoth neck with this carve, but with some upgrades: Pau Ferro fingerboard, birdseye maple, vintage tint and honking big 6100 frets. I decided to take a chance and I bought the neck from him. It arrived this week and I bolted it on there. I'd never swapped a neck before and wasn't sure what to expect. I basically just took off the old, bolted on the new one, adjusted the saddle height and intonation, and that was it. I'm delighted with this new neck - it plays like a dream and it fits my left hand to perfection. This is a big neck - way bigger than the Wide Fat carve on my PRS. And those frets are huge - they're like railway tracks, very comfortable to play. So, a success story - I guess Leo Fender got it right with his idea of modular components which can easily bolt together to customize it to the player. All it needs now is some kind of headstock decal - it looks a little naked right now.
Here are some pictures if you managed to read this far. Unfortunately my camera skills don't do justice to the beauty of the wood in the neck:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/bagpipe200/Strat/IMG_0700.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/bagpipe200/Strat/IMG_0701.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/bagpipe200/Strat/IMG_0697.jpg