POS Mary Kaye Strat

[ICTGoober]

I have on my bench a 1996 Fender Custom Shop Relic Mary Kaye Strat... The neck on this thing is a POS. Not only does it exhibit a slight twist to the treble side up near the nut, but there is more bow on the treble side than the bass side. Doesn't seem to matter how tight the truss rod is - it just won't straighten out enough for easy playability. I was hoping to make it reasonable and then level the frets a bit to even things out so it would play well. Perhaps more time will yield a better result.

The neck screws had been tightened down so much the neck plate was bent (and dented the ash body), until the maple stripped out of the holes. Instead of repairing them sensibly, the holes were filled with paper and wood putty. And sometime in the past, some idiot tried to superglue the neck into the body. I was able to remove it from the neck pocket fairly easily, and then gently scraped it from the sides and bottom of the neck. I am now planning to redowel the neck screw holes in the maple using oversize oak dowels glued in with brown hide glue.

One thing I noticed was the strap button and felt washer were rusted solid on the butt of the guitar as though it had been standing in water. The countersink in the body would have allowed water to draw up into the grain of the ash - but there's no evidence of that. No swelling or crazing of finish in that area. Is it common for strap buttons and screws on Mary Kaye's to be reliced so badly they look nasty? The button on the upper horn looks almost new. Also, the gold plated jack cup was almost green. It cleaned up with a bit of metal polish and the relicing on it matches the rest of the hardware.

Any other luthiers, collectors, or players have some insight for me on this? I think I can eventually convince the neck to behave, but the relicing is throwing me off a bit. The clues I would normally use to diagnose a solution may be clouded by this treatment applied in the relicing process.

 

[Adieu]

Are you sure it is a genuine twist and not a matter resolved by shims + truss rod?

The neck plate and pocket BS you describe could well combine into a situation that might require a shim, but probably cannot generate persistent twist

 

[Adieu]

Also, according to Fender, they only started making such a guitar in 2005... before, it was just a famous promitional photograph from way back when, not an official model

 

[ehdwuld]

My friend had a dog that would pee on whatever he left out on the stand

Everyone's a critic

Rusted the Dunlop Straplock and seized it up

May have been natural aging

 

[ICTGoober]

Are you sure it is a genuine twist and not a matter resolved by shims + truss rod?

Not only am I SURE it's genuine twist, I'm also SURE that truss rod adjustments and shims DO NOT resolve twist problems.

At this point, it doesn't matter. The client just called and said he's sending it to Dan Erlewine, which is fine with me.

 

[Benjy_26]

Not only am I SURE it's genuine twist, I'm also SURE that truss rod adjustments and shims DO NOT resolve twist problems.

At this point, it doesn't matter. The client just called and said he's sending it to Dan Erlewine, which is fine with me.

Hell, Fender sells necks for under 3 Benjamins. One of those and a new nut would be the cheapest way to solve this issue.

 

[JamesPaul]

Not only am I SURE it's genuine twist, I'm also SURE that truss rod adjustments and shims DO NOT resolve twist problems.

At this point, it doesn't matter. The client just called and said he's sending it to Dan Erlewine, which is fine with me.

My mutt '81 Fender Lead II is a mutt, partly because it had a legitimate neck twist and my luthier said he could not correct it. I trust him implicitly.

It was not a luthier, guiter technician, etc., but someone told me unusual neck issues could be resolved by loosening the truss rod, steaming the neck and then putting the neck in some kind of press. It sounded sketchy to me, so I did not ask for additional details.

Bottom line, I think you get the better end of the deal than Dan does.

 

[jimeradams]

I have a mid-90's MIM Fender Straight Six Stratocaster that was stock when I purchased it from a local pawn shop a couple of years ago. I took it to my luthier/repairman, and he found it's maple neck had developed a severe twist. We discussed the situation and I just purchased a new Player neck for $200 from The Stratosphere and went from there. It plays great and the neck has a vintage style decal and was drilled for the exact same tuners, so it was an extremely easy change over. Granted it's not a vintage or vintage look guitar, but I like it and it looks and plays great!

 

[ICTGoober]

Steaming and neck pressing is a legit repair technique which I've used often over the decades to repair severe bow (in both directions).
It normally will not correct twist, although in the 80's I used the technique on a Les Paul for a good client with a recording contract. It lasted a year before twisting again. I fixed it a second time and advised him to trade it off before it went bad again. He took my advice and drove to the next state to trade it for a newer Les Paul.

 

[Mincer]

Not only am I SURE it's genuine twist, I'm also SURE that truss rod adjustments and shims DO NOT resolve twist problems.

At this point, it doesn't matter. The client just called and said he's sending it to Dan Erlewine, which is fine with me.

I wonder if you can find out what Dan thought the issue was?

My mutt '81 Fender Lead II is a mutt, partly because it had a legitimate neck twist and my luthier said he could not correct it. I trust him implicitly.

It was not a luthier, guiter technician, etc., but someone told me unusual neck issues could be resolved by loosening the truss rod, steaming the neck and then putting the neck in some kind of press. It sounded sketchy to me, so I did not ask for additional details.

Bottom line, I think you get the better end of the deal than Dan does.

That is one rare guitar there! X1 pickups in there?

 

[JamesPaul]

....



That is one rare guitar there! X1 pickups in there?

It truly is a mutt, but it is one of my favorites to play.

• The neck is a Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Deluxe Replacement neck. I like the 12" fretboard radius better than the original 7.25" or the 9.5" on my 2020 Player Series Lead III. All of the neck hardware transferred from the original twisted Lead Neck without issue. You can see a pic of the twisted neck here Most Battle? Scarred Guitar
• The neck pickup is the original Fender X-1.
• The pickguard is a Pickguardian replacement as the original owner had installed an Evolution for the bridge pickup.
• All the electronics are original.
• The bridge pickup is a Custom Shop X-1 which MJ wound for me. It has a significantly higher DCR than the neck, yet balances perfectly. MJ must have used different wire or wind than the original. Just more proof that she knows what she is doing. If you zoom in on the pick you will see the phase switch in the out of phase position. However it is in phase as I had not installed a SD in a Fender since the 90's, and I did not remember that Fender and SD pickups are out of phase. I will fix it eventually, but I am not accidentally bumping it so no rush.
• The bridge hardware is all original.
• I had to replace one string ferrule on the back as the original owner lost one and was using a washer.
• It is setup with 10's where all my other Fenders use 9's. My shop has not had to work on anything other than my Gibsons and Epiphones the past 15 years, and I use 10's on them. So 10's were in the top of the history on the computer. I think the 10's have more beef so I am keeping them.

For all it's issues, it is super smooth to play and I love those X-1's!

 

[Mincer]

It truly is a mutt, but it is one of my favorites to play.

• The neck is a Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Deluxe Replacement neck. I like the 12" fretboard radius better than the original 7.25" or the 9.5" on my 2020 Player Series Lead III. All of the neck hardware transferred from the original twisted Lead Neck without issue. You can see a pic of the twisted neck here Most Battle? Scarred Guitar
• The neck pickup is the original Fender X-1.
• The pickguard is a Pickguardian replacement as the original owner had installed an Evolution for the bridge pickup.
• All the electronics are original.
• The bridge pickup is a Custom Shop X-1 which MJ wound for me. It has a significantly higher DCR than the neck, yet balances perfectly. MJ must have used different wire or wind than the original. Just more proof that she knows what she is doing. If you zoom in on the pick you will see the phase switch in the out of phase position. However it is in phase as I had not installed a SD in a Fender since the 90's, and I did not remember that Fender and SD pickups are out of phase. I will fix it eventually, but I am not accidentally bumping it so no rush.
• The bridge hardware is all original.
• I had to replace one string ferrule on the back as the original owner lost one and was using a washer.
• It is setup with 10's where all my other Fenders use 9's. My shop has not had to work on anything other than my Gibsons and Epiphones the past 15 years, and I use 10's on them. So 10's were in the top of the history on the computer. I think the 10's have more beef so I am keeping them.

For all it's issues, it is super smooth to play and I love those X-1's!

Cool to hear some history about that guitar! I have a 1982 'The Strat' and it has an X-1 in the bridge...a very cool pickup!

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Did the Hulk torque the neck screws? That's odd about the bottom strap pin and jack, like those parts were selectively exposed in some way so that they corroded as much.

 

[JamesPaul]

Cool to hear some history about that guitar! I have a 1982 'The Strat' and it has an X-1 in the bridge...a very cool pickup!

Those also had a few extra pickup combinations, didn't they?

 

[eclecticsynergy]

If the guitar's been heavily gigged, it might've been sweat that rusted the bottom strap pin.

Mine is quite corrosive. Back in the day, gig axes quickly lost much of their chrome plating.
And low E saddles on my Les Pauls needed frequent replacement.
That's with the stage tech wiping each guitar off as soon as I set it down, too.

Even with the strings immediately cleaned and treated with FastFret, I only got three flight hours per set.
Any longer than that and there was near certainty of failure during a show.