Fresh off the bench

ICTGoober

ICTGoober

New member
This one is a rebuilder... I have no idea who made the body and neck, but they used a drill motor for every hole. None of them were perpendicular or consistent in any way... But they are now. The finish on the maple neck was fine, I left it alone. The body had been painted with what looked like red house paint (check the back cover on the pickup selector). I stripped it, and stained the 2 piece mahogany body with amber. It looks kind of like koa now. I stained the flame maple top with red, of course. The top radius was all beat up, I got out the router and tried to even it out some. Nope. Switched to a 45 degree bevel, and then softened the hard edges with 220 grit and a foam sanding block. NICE. Used the same chrome body hardware, new Klusons, and a Hot Rodded Set in zebra. Did the satin finish with something new for me - teak oil. Gawd, does that stuff reek when curing! About 4 coats looks pretty good. Got it strung up yesterday and let it sit overnight at tension. Neck is straight, set the action, and the intonation was fun. The stock screws for the saddles needed to be twice as long. I little digging in the parts box and I found a half dozen new screws that were a half inch longer. It's all good now. You like the knobs? Since it's a thinline this thing weighs very little. Plays nice, sounds fantastic. I think one of my clients wants to pop for it. We'll see. I call the Strawberry Tele.

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I like it. I like the 45 degree body bevel idea (instead of the usual roundover). I think I would have made it even a bit larger, though.

Are the controls master vol and master tone, or vol for each pup and no tone?
 
Well, the potential buyer backed out on me. I'll list it soon.
By the way - figured out why I had to change the bridge adjustment screws.... It has 22 frets. Most Tele necks are 21. It's still 25.5" scale length.
Everybody that has played it liked the way it felt, and thought the tones were terrific.
 
" - figured out why I had to change the bridge adjustment screws....it has 22 frets "

If the scale length is 25.5", it doesn't matter whether there are 21, 22, or even 24 frets. But, the way that a neck (nothing to do with the fretboard) fits in the neck pocket can have an effect on intonation, because that can slightly change the scale length.
 
Look... If what you said is true, then a 24 fret Ibanez Jem neck would fit on a stock Tele body with no intonation problems. But it won't work, because THE NECK IS LONGER. Think about it.
 
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I think you're both kinda right.

Pocket size can be different with the same scale length. You can't always swap necks of the same scale length because the pocket may put the neck in the wrong location and it won't actually be a true 25.5 when you screw it in.

But as long as you've got a 25.5" neck and it's positioned correctly it doesn't matter how many frets there are.
 
ICTGoober said:
Look... If what you said is true, then a 24 fret Ibanez Jem neck would fit on a stock Tele body with no intonation problems. But it won't work, because THE NECK IS LONGER. Think about it.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I said...the NECK is longer. Has nothing to do with the number of frets on the fretboard.
Is the Ibanez neck (from nut location to end of the neck, not fretboard) the same length as the 21 fret Tele neck? No. Otherwise there would be the length of 3 frets on the fretboard hanging over the end of the neck.
 
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GuitarStv said:
I think you're both kinda right.

Pocket size can be different with the same scale length. You can't always swap necks of the same scale length because the pocket may put the neck in the wrong location and it won't actually be a true 25.5 when you screw it in.

But as long as you've got a 25.5" neck and it's positioned correctly it doesn't matter how many frets there are.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
ICTGoober said:
He is overlooking the obvious...
Click to expand...

YOU are overlooking the obvious.

Number of frets don't matter. The length of the NECK and the scale length (you do know what that is, right?) are the important considerations.

If you have a 25.5" scale length neck (25.5" from nut to saddles) with only 19 frets on it (instead of the usual 21), the last inch of the fretboard would be fretless. If you added 1 more fret, you're not changing the scale length...all of the frets are still in the same locations and still in tune and intonated...but now there is only about 1/2" inch of fretboard with no frets on it. Add one more fret and you have a 21 fret Tele neck. Nothing about the scale length or intonation has changed even though you added 2 more frets, because the NECK still sits in the neck pocket exactly the same. If you take that same neck, still sitting the same way in the neck pocket, and put on a 24 fret 25.5" scale length fretboard with the nut in the same position, everything is still in tune and intonated. Yes, the fretboard is about an inch longer but the neck is the same length, the nut is in the same location, and it's the same scale length.

You could put a 36 fret neck on a Tele (the neck is the same as a normal Tele neck, still 25.5" scale length, but the fretboard has 36 frets), the fretboard would extend about 4.5" past the end of the neck. If you put a 25.5" scale 36 fret neck (where the neck was as long as the fretboard) on a standard Tele body with a normal neck pocket...well, let's just say you'd have some big problems. Because the NECK is too long. The longer NECK has moved the nut further away from the saddles and has changed the scale length of the guitar (even though the frets may be spaced for a 25.5 scale length).

I know this can be very confusing to most people, even professional guitar players, but you keep claiming that you're a luthier...how come you don't understand one of the most basic principles of guitar design?!

I don't just repair guitars, fixing what is already there...I design and MAKE them from scratch. It is critical that I know these concepts. And I DO.
 
ICTGoober said:
3 replies in a row tell me you are all twisted up in a knot over me. How can I deal with your adoration?
Click to expand...

Just sit back, relax, smile, and enjoy.

Just trying to be careful in identifying and clarifying the potential problems (and non-problems) of changing necks, with some examples. Not really twisted up in knots about it. But thanks for your concern.

Perhaps we could start a Mutual Admiration Society.
 
Okay, got your attention. I went back and read your original reply... I guess I dismissed your opinion without comprehending it. You get it here. Scale length must be maintained so something has to move - bridge, neck, whatever. In this case - double the length of the saddle adjustment screws to make it work. The bridge humbucker sounds REALLY bright that close to saddles.

Currently working on a real freak that shouldn't work at all. I'll post pix when it's done. The neck on that Strandberg copy I bought a couple years back? I never bonded with it - just too narrow. Sold it online last week. So I was going through my boxes of necks to get something to replace it with... Found this little piece of crap from a First Act. Those guitars are disposable junk, but this neck felt good. 21 in scale, brass frets, nut made of injection molded cheese - you understand. I'll refret it with some jumbo frets, make a proper bone nut, and redrill to mount to the body. I've got a string lock to put above the nut so I can cut the peghead off. Probably use a set of .011's on it. Should be fun.
 
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