NGD- partscaster with solid rosewood Fender neck

uksaint7

Just picked up this newly assembled partscaster, has come out great! It started when I picked up one of the limited run of solid rosewood American Professional Strat necks Fender put out not long ago, this is a lovely example. It has the deep ‘C’ profile and narrow & tall frets with a satin urethane finish.

Then I picked up this lightweight Warmoth two-piece alder Strat body on eBay:

That went to Ernie McMillen in Bangor who routed a recessed cavity for the trem and also put on the Fender style contoured neck heel, the neck came with holes drilled for either type of attachment.

After that it went to @GoldenEraGuitars where Scott shot a beautiful 3-tone burst: 

Tempting as it was to leave it here I thought you can never have too much of a good thing so Scott then applied a coat of ocean turquoise. The finish is so thin you can see the grain of the wood through it, then there’s the beginning of some lacquer checking and cracking to help hurry things along.

Then it went back to Ernie for assembly. There’s Hipshot locking tuners, a Gotoh 510 bridge with the FST block and some Highwood saddles. I picked the Suhr DSV+ bridge pickup on the forum. I was tempted to put one of the Cunife wide-range humbuckers in the neck but didn’t want to commit to the larger size rout it would require so I thought I’d try a Catswhisker Ranger DLX. They both sound great and seem to balance well. There’s a push/push volume pot for a coil-tap.

I’ve played it a good bit since I picked it up yesterday afternoon and am really happy with how it has turned out. The feel of it is pretty different to a maple neck, it feels more ‘open pore’. It isn’t dark sounding and acoustically has a good deal of zing to it. The bridge has a nice positive feel to it and playability is very good. Happy days as you can never tell how it’s going to turn out until it is finished!

Winny_Pooh

It looks awesome. Was the intention to always to do solid over a burst?

ThePrettyDamned

Very nice! I would love to see that colour done "brand new", looks awesome.

I have an aversion to fanned springs, mind! Just personal pref, of course...  

paulnb57

Very nice! How do you like the Rosewood neck? I have 3 and they are my favourites..

uksaint7

Winny_Pooh said:

It looks awesome. Was the intention to always to do solid over a burst?

Thanks- yes it was, I do like colour over colour guitars but I didn't want a relic. Give it 20 years it'll have come through great!

ThePrettyDamned said:

Very nice! I would love to see that colour done "brand new", looks awesome.

I have an aversion to fanned springs, mind! Just personal pref, of course...  

Thanks. Must admit I hadn't given the spring arrangement any consideration, it is just how it was assembled. What would you say would be the benefit of running them straight?

paulnb57 said:

Very nice! How do you like the Rosewood neck? I have 3 and they are my favourites..

Thanks- yes it feels great. But pretty different to another one I have here which has been sanded finer and oiled, that feels smoother.

ThePrettyDamned

uksaint7 said:

Winny_Pooh said:

It looks awesome. Was the intention to always to do solid over a burst?

Thanks- yes it was, I do like colour over colour guitars but I didn't want a relic. Give it 20 years it'll have come through great!

ThePrettyDamned said:

Very nice! I would love to see that colour done "brand new", looks awesome.

I have an aversion to fanned springs, mind! Just personal pref, of course...  

Thanks. Must admit I hadn't given the spring arrangement any consideration, it is just how it was assembled. What would you say would be the benefit of running them straight?

paulnb57 said:

Very nice! How do you like the Rosewood neck? I have 3 and they are my favourites..

Thanks- yes it feels great. But pretty different to another one I have here which has been sanded finer and oiled, that feels smoother.

No idea about running springs straight vs angled - I just prefer how it looks when they're straight