70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

[Farkus]

A little background...

I have a 74 or 75 Strat that has a great feeling neck. The neck pocket on the body isn't so great; there's a lot of play going on. My little bro put an abrasive 'shim' in it, so it doesn't move so much now. While doing that I found out, much to my surprise, that some 'gifted' individual tried to fix the problem too...he drilled two extra neck bolts flush with the body under the 3 bolt cover. The problem? He didn't have the neck on straight to begin with! Geez.

Anyway, since this neck has extra holes already, I was considering taking the neck and bolting it onto my 90's Malmsteen Strat body. Does anyone know if there's any difference in the heel size of the (real) 70's necks and the newer necks? As the neck already has five holes, I'm not worried about resale and I love the Malmsteen body, so I thought I might give it a try. Anyone forsee any problems?

Mark

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: 70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

It should fit if it's the std. 2 3/16 pocket ? I have a 73' neck on a
stewmac body setup as a 3 bolt. A good fix for the 70's 3 bolts is a
piece of Mesh in the pocket. I have no wiggles in mine. But if your
going to a 4 bolt,Unless the tolarances are WAY OFF !! you shoud have
no problem.

 

[Hellion]

Re: 70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

I don't think you'll have a problem. Strat & Tele necks, so far as I can see, are still amazingly retrofittable.

 

[Hellion]

Re: 70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

By the way, Farkus, who's the lady in the avatar?

 

[Farkus]

Re: 70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

Hey guys,

KMC...did you buy a body blank and make it 3 bolt, or do they set 'em up that way? I thought about having Warmoth make me a replacement body, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't be correct. For example, I got some Fender replacement tuners, and the bushing was too big to fit onto the 'real' 70's neck. I'm afraid they'd set it up using the 70's re-issue specs...which maybe are the same for the neck routing, but I'm not really willing to drop $300 and find out that it doesn't.

Hellion...thanks for the reply bro. The lady in the avatar is kinna a private joke between my friends and I. A couple of years ago, I dated this Indian girl that all my pals REALLY disliked. Anyway, she gave me the 'Farkus' nickname, so I thought I'd use an Indian girl in the avatar...heheh. Her name is Angela Devi, and I won't post a link because there's some questionable content, but if you do a search, you'll find her.

Mark

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: 70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

Hey guys,

KMC...did you buy a body blank and make it 3 bolt, or do they set 'em up that way? I thought about having Warmoth make me a replacement body, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't be correct. For example, I got some Fender replacement tuners, and the bushing was too big to fit onto the 'real' 70's neck. I'm afraid they'd set it up using the 70's re-issue specs...which maybe are the same for the neck routing, but I'm not really willing to drop $300 and find out that it doesn't. ;

Mark

I used a blank and drilled it myself( A drill press is the way to go) the hard part was installing the micro tilt setup.

 

[Farkus]

Re: 70's Strat neck on a 90's body?

I used a blank and drilled it myself( A drill press is the way to go) the hard part was installing the micro tilt setup.

That's what I figured. If I was to have Warmoth to do it, I suggested to them that I'd need to send the hardware to them to ensure they carved it correctly to work with my hardware. They assured me that it would, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't and I'd be stuck with it.

Mark