hellatone
New member
MJW Custom Guitars in New Jersey, owned by Mark Woodward, did a terrific job on a neck for me. I'd never heard of them before so I wanted to let people know. I'm working on a Strat project and everything on this guitar is pretty high end -- factory Fender 62 RI body with nitro finish, Callaham hardware, Kinman pickups, custom wiring from TFN Technologies, aged plastic parts from Gregg Rogers. I also want the perfect neck shape, which for me is a Mighty Mite Vintage V. I kid you not. I got a MMVV for a prior Strat project, which I was doing on the cheap. It was kind of by chance, but that neck just feels perfect for me. I've had it for years and it's never given me any problems.
However, the finish work on my old MMVV is a bit rough, and for my RI project, I want a perfect neck. Unfortunatley, neither USACG or Warmoth could tell me which of their necks could replicate the neck shape of my lowly MM. Nor do they shoot nitro. I guess I could have sent them my old neck as a template, but that's a large pain in the butt and I still would have had to find somebody to do the nitro finish. Anyway, Mighty Mite has a forum, and I was asking there if anyone had any ideas. From there I got to the MJW website, since Mark uses a lot of MM stuff. I asked him if he could get a MMVV neck, strip and refinish it in nitro with vintage tint, apply the decal, level and polish the frets, replace the plastic nut with a Tusq, and otherwise make it perfect. Mark said no problem, and also said that he didn't want any money upfront. So far so good. He started working on it and he kept me apprised of his progress, including pictures.
It took about two months, since you really want to let the nitro dry. At some point after he'd already sprayed the nitro, I asked him to drill it out and install Callaham clay dots, which I supplied. No problem. Anyway, I got it this week. It's stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. The frets are beautiful, the finish is like glass, the color is exactly right and the decal is perfect. It fits like a glove into the neck pocket. Total price was less than $200, which is crazy cheap compared to the big guys. Here's the website if you're interested: http://mjwcustoms.4t.com/index.html :smokin:
However, the finish work on my old MMVV is a bit rough, and for my RI project, I want a perfect neck. Unfortunatley, neither USACG or Warmoth could tell me which of their necks could replicate the neck shape of my lowly MM. Nor do they shoot nitro. I guess I could have sent them my old neck as a template, but that's a large pain in the butt and I still would have had to find somebody to do the nitro finish. Anyway, Mighty Mite has a forum, and I was asking there if anyone had any ideas. From there I got to the MJW website, since Mark uses a lot of MM stuff. I asked him if he could get a MMVV neck, strip and refinish it in nitro with vintage tint, apply the decal, level and polish the frets, replace the plastic nut with a Tusq, and otherwise make it perfect. Mark said no problem, and also said that he didn't want any money upfront. So far so good. He started working on it and he kept me apprised of his progress, including pictures.
It took about two months, since you really want to let the nitro dry. At some point after he'd already sprayed the nitro, I asked him to drill it out and install Callaham clay dots, which I supplied. No problem. Anyway, I got it this week. It's stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. The frets are beautiful, the finish is like glass, the color is exactly right and the decal is perfect. It fits like a glove into the neck pocket. Total price was less than $200, which is crazy cheap compared to the big guys. Here's the website if you're interested: http://mjwcustoms.4t.com/index.html :smokin:
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