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
Comments
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.
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.
http://toragraphics.com/img/draw/22V24.jpg
To take 2 different guitars would likely lead to an incorrect scale length that cannot be tuned.
But then how do the conversion necks work without either modifying the bridge (and pickups layout) or the neck pocket of the Strat?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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.
Lucky for them the small distance between the neck pocket and the neck pickup is enough to achieve this
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.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein