Better strat heel joint . . .

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

Could you just buy a regular strat body and sand down the heel joint a bit to make it less obtrusive and easier to play up high on the neck? I figure that you would need some shorter screws afterwards to avoid causing accidentally popping through the fretboard, but is there any other reason that this wouldn't work?

As others have stated, they do make shaved heels for fender. A customer of mine brought me a warmoth body where he had the heel shaved (he wants me to paint and assemble a Yngwie clone). So, it does require shorter screws. To add to this, he had the neck scalloped as well. So.. now I have to shave the shortened bolts even farther so they don't protrude through the fret board lol.

Also, some of the higher end fenders have a contoured heel. The elite series for example. The bottom side is rounded.

With that said, I played guitar for 28 years before I ever realized that it was annoying having a standard heel. Then I bought an elite series strat and never want to go back to a square heel. Most of my own designs are rounded because of this lol.

The only other way to eliminate this issue is to get a guitar with a set neck. (Which has probably been mentioned)

mythicguitars.com

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

I know there are better heel joints guys. My exit 22 has one (although mine's a righty, not a lefty like this image):




Was more wondering if anyone has ever shaved down the existing heel of a strat with any success.

Yes.... you need jigs, an angle finder, a belt sander, precision calipers, a decent level of wood working skills, patience and the ability to re-paint or re-stain the guitar. That's if you are reusing the neck plate. If you are using ferrules, you won't need some of those things, but you'll need a drill press lol.

I'd buy a $20 pawn shop guitar to practice on haha.

mythicguitars.com

[Dave Locher]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

Or just an angle grinder and the willingness to just go for it! I'm not even sure what you'd use the calipers and angle finder for?

[Mincer]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

I think the current Strats with the contoured heel are better, but Fender doesn't execute it as well as other companies do. I think they have to keep some semblance of 'tradition' or Fender fans would probably freak out if it deviates too much from their clunky design.

[Dave Locher]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

Angle grinder, 80-grit disk, and maybe 20 minutes. The body doesn't follow the neck plate because this neck already had the 4th hole in the traditional location.

[kramersteen]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

I think i would rather use a template and a router rather than an angle grinder.


I guess either will do.

[Dave Locher]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

I think i would rather use a template and a router rather than an angle grinder.


I guess either will do.

To be fair, mine looks just "ok" in person. But it was a really cheap body and I play punk and I cared way more about function than looks on this one so I just went for it.

[kramersteen]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

To be fair, mine looks just "ok" in person. But it was a really cheap body and I play punk and I cared way more about function than looks on this one so I just went for it.

I wasn't commenting on yours directly sorry i just saw the word angle grinder and decided i would go with a router.

[kramersteen]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

This was a fun mod, and is still holding up fine.






Before

[Dave Locher]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

I wasn't commenting on yours directly sorry i just saw the word angle grinder and decided i would go with a router.

No offense taken. If I were doing it again with a higher quality body I would take a more careful approach myself.

[MythicGuitarCo]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

This was a fun mod, and is still holding up fine.






Before

This is pretty awesome. I've also seen luthiers drill out the screw holes and insert and glue in carbon fiber rods, then fill in the holes with plugs. The rods aren't a necessity, nor are the plugs, but they couldn't hurt lol. It's more glue surface and another counteracting force against the string tension. Overkill never hurts.

You can get tools to make plugs at harbor freight for a few bucks, and you make the plugs from the part of the heel that you're about to hack off. Then glue them into the correctly sized drilled holes, sand it down, use a little filler if needed, prime, paint, clear, sand, buff, polish, wax and it can look 100% factory built.

Dang.... I'm going to have to do one now..

mythicguitars.com

[kramersteen]

Re: Better strat heel joint . . .

Yeah i did think of that but because the neck pocket was extra long (17to24th fret long) i had a lot of area to glue down on.

Thanks for the kind words though and i'm going to check out mythic guitars now .