Scale length - swapping necks?

clarkefan

Theoretical question, hoping somebody can explain this to me.

Imagine you have a normal 25.5 inch scale Strat but want a 24.75 inch scale Strat.

You find a bolt-on neck Epiphone Les Paul and miraculously the neck pocket and bolt holes are identical to the Strat, so you swap necks.

So, do you now have a 24.75 inch scale in tune guitar?

Or do you need to bite the bullet and source a Warmouth "conversion" neck cos they're different in some way?

Can't get my head around it, I think the neck swap would work but if that was true why would there be a market for special conversion necks?

Thanks for any advice

Philly_Q

I'm sure someone else can explain in more scientific terms, but it won't work because the distance from the nut to the 12th fret won't be the same as the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge.

Or in other words, a 24.75" Strat needs the bridge - or the neck pocket - to be in a slightly different place. 

Elwood

Its unlikely.

The scale length is the bridge to nut length. If you were to switch necks it would be lucky if then neck length + body length added up to 24.75".

The pickup locations would also be optimised for a longer scale length. 

Elwood

To help illustrate, this image shows 3 guitars with the same scale length, but the pickup positions, fret access and body joint locations are wildly different. You couldn't switch them about and get the same scale length.

http://toragraphics.com/img/draw/22V24.jpg

To take 2 different guitars would likely lead to an incorrect scale length that cannot be tuned.

clarkefan

Thanks both, you're making perfect sense

But then how do the conversion necks work without either modifying the bridge (and pickups layout) or the neck pocket of the Strat?

ICBM

clarkefan said:

But then how do the conversion necks work without either modifying the bridge (and pickups layout) or the neck pocket of the Strat?

By having the fingerboard overhanging the end of the neck pocket so the length of the neck and the scale length have been made independent of each other - like a 22-fret modern Strat neck, but with a slightly different amount of overhang.

Elwood

clarkefan said:

Thanks both, you're making perfect sense

But then how do the conversion necks work without either modifying the bridge (and pickups layout) or the neck pocket of the Strat?

The nut is moved closer to the bridge, effectively making the neck a bit shorter and the fret positioning changed so it will work with the new scale length. Making the 12th fret equidistant between the nut and the bridge.

clarkefan

Elwood said:

clarkefan said:

Thanks both, you're making perfect sense

But then how do the conversion necks work without either modifying the bridge (and pickups layout) or the neck pocket of the Strat?

The nut is moved closer to the bridge, effectively making the neck a bit shorter and the fret positioning changed so it will work with the new scale length. Making the 12th fret equidistant between the nut and the bridge.

Thanks, all making sense now.  Your point would mean you'd have to lose a fret or two but ICBM explained their solution

Lucky for them the small distance between the neck pocket and the neck pickup is enough to achieve this

Philly_Q

On a normal 25.5" neck, the 21st fret is some distance from the end of the heel.  On the conversion neck (pic below) you can see the 21st fret is just about in line with the end of the heel. 

So the whole neck is shorter, and joins the body at a different point, relative to the fretboard.

Just to make it more confusing, Warmoth also make a 24.75" scale neck to fit on their 7/8-sized bodies.  In that case, the neck blank is the same overall length as the standard 25.5" scale necks, but it has a 24.75" fretboard - with 24 frets.

Funkfingers

I used to have a Warmoth 24.75" scale conversion neck. I traded it and a Jazzmaster body to HarrySeven. The dual format JM/Mustang pickup cavity routing and bespoke pickguard were supposed to enable a hybrid Jazzmaster/Jaguar halfway house guitar - including the intermediate scale length. In the absence of an NGD thread, I assume that H7 never completed the project.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

In the absence of an NGD thread, I assume that H7 never completed the project.