Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

StratTom

StratTom

New member
I'm tossing the idea around of replacing the neck on my Cort. This was my first electric guitar and I recently decided that instead of getting rid of it, I'll use it to practice installing pickups on, doing mods and such. I took the strings off of it the the other week and noticed that the frets are really in bad shape, lot of wear. So I'm thinking that a replacement neck would be the most cost effective solution. :scratchch

The only thing that concerns me a little is that I paid under $200 for this guitar 10 years ago. Should I really replace the neck on a guitar this cheap? Any advice would be helpful. Right now I'm stuck between practicality and sentimentality. :banghead:
 
Re: Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

IMO, just toss it. On cheap guitars, the specs on the neck pockets vary, and it's not easy finding a drop in replacement.
 
Re: Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

jmh151 said:
IMO, just toss it. On cheap guitars, the specs on the neck pockets vary, and it's not easy finding a drop in replacement.
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Pretty much. The only things it'll be good for is to practice fretwork and finishing.....both of which are killer skills to have.
 
Re: Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

Thanks for the comments guys. I think I'm just going to let it be and not replace the neck.
 
Re: Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

Blue313 said:
Pretty much. The only things it'll be good for is to practice fretwork and finishing.....both of which are killer skills to have.
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I agree here. Great skills to have, save you lotsa money and if you screw it up on this one, who cares, right?
 
Re: Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

Save it for when you've got a dream gig and then during your last song, swap it out with your main ax and smash the heck out of it.

Or light it on fire
 
Re: Who here has replaced the neck on a cheap guitar?

It may hold sentimental value for you in later years, so just stick it in the closet. Granted it may be plywood and pine, but some people are sentimental.

As for a useable project mutt, older 80s import Charvels and Jacksons are great for that. They're easy to work on and most have easily-interchangeable parts (especially Floyded ones). Mexi-Strats are super-cheap, but harder to do internal work on since everything requires loosening the strings to get the pickguard off. With Floyded models, you just pop off the trem springs and take the trem off wit the strings fully tuned. Slap it back together when you're done and it's tuned and ready to test.

The MusicYo Kramers should be pretty cheap these days as well, and would be similar in ease of mod-ability.

Warmoth parts are a bit pricey to do experiments with, even though they're pretty much standardized at least in the neck pocket and neck heel.

There's nothing wrong with putting a bunch of money into a $200 guitar as long as you're using it as a learning experience (i.e. refinishing, routing, electronics swaps, fret work, etc). It's better to have decent material to work with since cheap stuff doesn't generally translate well to the decent stuff. You can't polish a turd, so if you do a great refret or fret polish or crown and level job or refinish on something that sucked to begin with, how do you know you did a good job?
 
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