Replacing a neck on a vintage strat

blank28

I have a 76 Strat Body. The neck snapped years ago (sob) so I still have all the hardware, looking to get it back to life and wondering if anyone has any knowlege regarding replacement necks I’d love to hear them. Should I hold out for a matching neck to surface on t’internet? Or just go new? 

WezV

Problem is, most 76 necks that are not on a guitar will likely be a) very expensive and b) crap.



i did a 70’s rebuild and we decided to mod a 70’s style reissue neck to suit the original body. 

shefguitar

A new neck will allow you to choose the fingerboard material, radius, fret size etc. You could have it aged to match the body.  

Vintage neck will be pot luck - could be a good one or it could be dead as a dodo, but you won’t know until you’ve bought it and fitted it. Risky and expensive.

WezV

shefguitar said:

A new neck will allow you to choose the fingerboard material, radius, fret size etc. You could have it aged to match the body.  

Vintage neck will be pot luck - could be a good one or it could be dead as a dodo, but you won’t know until you’ve bought it and fitted it. Risky and expensive.

Odds are stacked towards it being a bad one.  It’s easier to hide issues when selling a neck off a guitar, and it was probably removed for a good reason.  

richardhomer

I had an e-mail from Fender the other day telling me they now offer after-market replacement necks - IIRC, including a 70s style one.

Edit - here’s the link:

https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/parts/electric-guitar-parts/necks/replacement-necks/classic-series-70s-stratocaster-u-neck-3-bolt-mount-21-vintage-style-frets/product-099700.html#start=1

ICBM

Just to back up what Wez says, have a look at these...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1974-Fender-Stratocaster-Neck-maple/183029802158

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1978-Vintage-Fender-USA-Maple-Stratocaster-Neck-Strat-Real-Relic-Condition-78/132428896247

- and bear in mind that's about the *lowest* price you're likely to get a genuine 70s neck for, that hasn't been totally butchered. The neck is generally worth about a third of the value of the complete guitar. 70s Strats are pretty uniformly above £1500 now, unless totally wrecked - and in that case, the seller would be wiser to part it out anyway.

For less, you get something like this, which has had a Floyd nut fitted and removed, none too well...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1979-Vintage-Fender-USA-Maple-Stratocaster-Neck-Strat-Real-World-Condition-79/132477025985


Or for less than half that, you could have a new one with none of those issues, as richardhomer said.

WezV

I actually ended up using a MIM neck as the starting point on the one I did.   I consider that an upgrade for a 70’s neck, certainly more predictable.  

By the time I had stripped, refretted and aged it was really nice, and still cheaper than those examples above

impmann

I destroyed the original neck on my 1972 Tele (accident) and replaced it with an Allparts unit.
Without any shadow of a doubt the new neck is sooooo much better feeling and playing than the original.
I wouldn’t bother trying to find an original one....

shefguitar

I have to say if I was the OP I’d be tempted to make an offer on that ‘78 neck that ICBM linked. It’s unlikely to be crap if it’s seen that much use and the sellers offers returns so you could fit it and send it back if you don’t like it. It needs re-fretting so the seller might reduce it to reflect that and once it’s re-fretted it could be a great playing neck with a lot more mojo than a new one if you go in for that sort of thing.

WezV

just found the pics of the project i did

Body, plate, knobs are all original..  Neck was a MIM that started like this



It got stripped, refretted,refinished and reliced with an appropriate logo. We kept the original heel marks in place so it wouldn't fool anyone.   I sprayed the headstock with tinted lacquer, the rest with normal clear.   Fingerboard wear is not really something you see on 70's necks so is another feature to highlight this is not original.  We kept a few features to identify it was a bitsa, like the bridge. This was one of my first proper relic jobs

GuyR

impmann said:

I destroyed the original neck on my 1972 Tele (accident) and replaced it with an Allparts unit.
Without any shadow of a doubt the new neck is sooooo much better feeling and playing than the original.
I wouldn’t bother trying to find an original one....

100% agree. Even if you source a genuine neck that is compatible and makes a great guitar, it's still a bitsa, worth muc less than an original guitar,so you might as well have a bitsa that cost a grand less and is just as good. You can end up in a real financial cul-de-sac trying to retro-build a vintage guitar from parts. 

blank28

Thanks guys. I think it’s clear I’ll go in the direction of a relic replacement. Looks like it could be a fun project

blank28

WezV said:

just found the pics of the project i did

Body, plate, knobs are all original..  Neck was a MIM that started like this



It got stripped, refretted,refinished and reliced with an appropriate logo. We kept the original heel marks in place so it wouldn't fool anyone.   I sprayed the headstock with tinted lacquer, the rest with normal clear.   Fingerboard wear is not really something you see on 70's necks so is another feature to highlight this is not original.  We kept a few features to identify it was a bitsa, like the bridge. This was one of my first proper relic jobs

That is a sweeet job my friend. I’ll be stoked if I can do a job half as good as that heh. Where did you source the neck? 

WezV

I think it was just off eBay.   The parts were all ordered by the owner and sent straight to me.

WezV

I would probably go for that new fender one linked to above.  Price isn’t too bad for something official, and it would be fairly simple to age to suit an older guitar

sawyer

Two guys on here in Made In UK section supply finished Allparts necks in relic,new or inbetween finishes.

bbill335

impmann said:

I destroyed the original neck on my 1972 Tele (accident) and replaced it with an Allparts unit.
Without any shadow of a doubt the new neck is sooooo much better feeling and playing than the original.
I wouldn’t bother trying to find an original one....

Get an allparts neck from @rexter and drill the body for four hole neck mounts so then the neck and body will be compatible with more parts. 

ICBM

bbill335 said:

Get an allparts neck from @rexter and drill the body for four hole neck mounts so then the neck and body will be compatible with more parts. 

Don’t do that. Regardless of what you think of the 3-bolt system, that will significantly damage the body and reduce its value.

The problem with the 3-bolt is not the number of bolts, it’s the fit of the neck in the pocket. If it’s a good fit, three is plenty.

If you don’t want to fit the full tilt plate mechanism to the neck - and it is quite a lot of work - the best thing to do is fit a threaded insert for the third bolt, but a standard screw is fine. If it’s a headstock-end truss rod adjustment the screw should miss the end of the rod, but check first.

bbill335

ICBM said:

bbill335 said:

Get an allparts neck from @rexter and drill the body for four hole neck mounts so then the neck and body will be compatible with more parts. 

Don’t do that. Regardless of what you think of the 3-bolt system, that will significantly damage the body and reduce its value.

The problem with the 3-bolt is not the number of bolts, it’s the fit of the neck in the pocket. If it’s a good fit, three is plenty.

If you don’t want to fit the full tilt plate mechanism to the neck - and it is quite a lot of work - the best thing to do is fit a threaded insert for the third bolt, but a standard screw is fine. If it’s a headstock-end truss rod adjustment the screw should miss the end of the rod, but check first.

I've no problem with the 3-bolts. my tokai SS has a verrrry tight 3-bolt joint, but it frustrates me that I can't swap the parts around. 

If you get a replacement neck and drill for 3 bolts, you'd effectively be marrying those parts for good. Personally, I'd rather leave options open when playing the parts game. If the body is good and you're unlikely to sell it on, modding it to be more flexible makes more sense than preserving originality, especially if it's gonna be bolted to other parts for the foreseeable. 

ICBM

bbill335 said:

If you get a replacement neck and drill for 3 bolts, you'd effectively be marrying those parts for good.

No you won't. A third hole - with or without an insert - does not stop it being redrilled for four screws later. Even the recessed tilt plate doesn't.

bbill335 said:

If the body is good and you're unlikely to sell it on, modding it to be more flexible makes more sense than preserving originality, especially if it's gonna be bolted to other parts for the foreseeable. 

No it doesn't. Drilling for four bolts permanently destroys the originality value of the body because the holes cannot be plugged invisibly and are outside the area of the 3-bolt plate.

In any case, the original body is worth *far* more than a modern replacement neck, so even if modding the neck for three bolts did make it completely unusable on any other guitar - which it doesn't - that's clearly the better option.

Really, just don't do it. It's totally unnecessary as well as damaging the financial value.

bbill335

@ICBM have you ever come across a 70s strat (or other model) with alignment issues due to an oversized neck pocket? Is shimming the sides enough of a fix in that situation?