Northwest necks anyone?

tabano · February 2020

I would very much appreciate if any of you who decided to go the partcaster way and choose a neck from Northwest could share some feedback on quality and finish,
many thanks in advance!

Funkfingers · February 2020

I have one of their bass guitar necks. The wood quality would not be out of place on a Squier Classic Vibe instrument. Fretting is good. (I found one marginally high spot.) The edges of the fingerboard are sharper than I would wish. If it were rosewood, pau ferro or laurel, I would have tumbled some of the sharpness away with abrasive.

Neck pocket fit is fine. The finish on my example is "vintage" tinted poly. It looks the part. I ought to find a decent body and complete the project.

tabano · February 2020

Funkfingers said:

I have one of their bass guitar necks. The wood quality would not be out of place on a Squier Classic Vibe instrument. Fretting is good. (I found one marginally high spot.) The edges of the fingerboard are sharper than I would wish. If it were rosewood, pau ferro or laurel, I would have tumbled some of the sharpness away with abrasive.

Neck pocket fit is fine. The finish on my example is "vintage" tinted poly. It looks the part. I ought to find a decent body and complete the project.

Many thanks for the feedback and good luck finding a body!

Jez6345789 · February 2020

Used them a few times and found them to be good value. The maple Strat is nicer than a Squire vintage vibe with a subtle flame it’s amber aged seems to have settled down over the years less Essex spray tan, all frets good but gave them the vip treatment.

I have also done a couple of satin rosewoods Strat again all fine. These also got the full VIP treatment and are nice necks, although the rosewood is probably a pretty budget piece and not as nice as some Chinese necks might even be laurel. That said my mate has gigged that guitar for 5 years and it’s been a total work horse 3 nights a week.

There are cheaper Asian Strat necks around on EBay these days but with Northwest you have some come back and fit has always been fine.

Rickyd · February 2020

Used one of their vintage tinted on a tele project and it was fine. Nicely finished, no sharp edges or high spots and the pocket fit was spot on. I'd use them again.

tabano · February 2020

Cool thanks for the info guys!
I am debating between one of this or going up the ladder and get a Guitar build,
Since it’s going to be my 1st build I think I will go the cheap way...

idiotwindow · February 2020

tabano said:

Since it’s going to be my 1st build I think I will go the cheap way...

I don't know what their necks are like but, as a rule of thumb, the neck is the last part of a guitar I'd cheap out on.

rossi · February 2020

Guitar build look pricey .I think I would buy a Fender MIM replacement neck .I have had two .one needed a mild fret level but is a fine neck .The other is a roasted maple strat neck though its on my tele .. i love it a perfect out of the box.

tabano · February 2020

idiotwindow said:

tabano said:

Since it’s going to be my 1st build I think I will go the cheap way...

I don't know what their necks are like but, as a rule of thumb, the neck is the last part of a guitar I'd cheap out on.

Agreed
the rest of the guitar is going to be something cheaper and recycled from another one ( still to be found)
it is just going to be for fun,
a single humbucker superstrat kind of thing and if possible without trem.,

stimpsonslostson · February 2020

I've got one on a Partscaster.
As others have said, it fit perfectly, the frets needed a polish but there were no high spots & the truss works as it should- literally nothing to complain about.
I particularly like that it's a satin finish & has the "right" headstock shape (albeit with my own logo).
I'd certainly use them again if I couldn't source a Mighty Mite/GSP/Warmouth from the classified ads here.

DrBob · February 2020

I know that Jooky used to use them on a fair few of his builds and he certainly seemed to rate them.
They did try a custom neck configurator a few years back where you could specify neck profile, fretboard radius etc but it doesn’t seem to have survived which is a shame

Sarge · February 2020

I have the 21 fret maple strat neck, satin finish. It was bought used but very light use so I don't know how it was from the shop, but it's a nice medium fat handfull and I'd use them again no problem.

GoldenEraGuitars · February 2020

tabano said:

Cool thanks for the info guys!
I am debating between one of this or going up the ladder and get a Guitar build,
Since it’s going to be my 1st build I think I will go the cheap way...

Guitarbuilds quality is absolutely superb. You know when you hold one that the wood is excellent quality. In that respect, they’re not expensive for what they are at all. But, you’ll have to cut your own headstock or pay to have it done. It’s a simple job but if you haven’t done it before I can appreciate that it may seem daunting. It’ll also need finished after that. We use them regularly and the high quality consistency is why we keep going back. However, for this project I think a cheaper route would be better.

tabano · February 2020

many thanks guys for the info,
GoldenEraGuitars I am sure that at some point I will put something together using GuitarBuild parts ( I just wished they would offer what I am after on their “build standard” page ) but the necks turn out a bit pricey for the kind of project I am contemplating as you pointed out..

thegummy · February 2020

idiotwindow said:

tabano said:

Since it’s going to be my 1st build I think I will go the cheap way...

I don't know what their necks are like but, as a rule of thumb, the neck is the last part of a guitar I'd cheap out on.

Agree with this.

My most recent purchase I "put together" by buying a full MiM Strat that I liked the body and trem of and a separate neck that I preferred to the MiM's neck.

The neck itself cost more than the whole MiM guitar!

Megii · February 2020

I have noticed some QC issues to be honest - maybe I was unlucky and caught them in an untypical bad patch. Anyhow, ordered one tele neck where the truss rod access hole was really badly off-centre - visually not at all good, and also made it very hard to get an allen key in. Also some small dents on the back near the heel. They didn't have an exact replacement, but I decided to accept a replacemant with different specs. And then the replacement also had an off-centre truss access hole. In the end I decided to keep this neck - I was able to visually sort the issue (just about) with some careful sanding to enlarge one side of the hole. Both necks were, other than the issues noted, very good quality. Northwest did seem a bit offhand in attitude to it all, but I guess they did what they could, and would have refunded me had I insisted.

thegummy · February 2020

Megii said:

I have noticed some QC issues to be honest - maybe I was unlucky and caught them in an untypical bad patch. Anyhow, ordered one tele neck where the truss rod access hole was really badly off-centre - visually not at all good, and also made it very hard to get an allen key in. Also some small dents on the back near the heel. They didn't have an exact replacement, but I decided to accept a replacemant with different specs. And then the replacement also had an off-centre truss access hole. In the end I decided to keep this neck - I was able to visually sort the issue (just about) with some careful sanding to enlarge one side of the hole. Both necks were, other than the issues noted, very good quality. Northwest did seem a bit offhand in attitude to it all, but I guess they did what they could, and would have refunded me had I insisted.

Did you get any photos of it before toy docs the truss hole or of the first one?

Just to see how bad it was.

Grangousier · February 2020

thegummy said:

My most recent purchase I "put together" by buying a full MiM Strat that I liked the body and trem of and a separate neck that I preferred to the MiM's neck.

Said neck is now installed on my partscaster to replace a much older one that would have needed refretting, and was recently Felined to bring it up to snuff. It's the circle of life.

tabano · February 2020

Grangousier said:

thegummy said:

My most recent purchase I "put together" by buying a full MiM Strat that I liked the body and trem of and a separate neck that I preferred to the MiM's neck.

Said neck is now installed on my partscaster to replace a much older one that would have needed refretting, and was recently Felined to bring it up to snuff. It's the circle of life.

And that is exactly why I like the idea of putting a bitsa together,
the circle of live always keeps rolling!

impmann · February 2020

thegummy said:

idiotwindow said:

tabano said:

Since it’s going to be my 1st build I think I will go the cheap way...

I don't know what their necks are like but, as a rule of thumb, the neck is the last part of a guitar I'd cheap out on.

Agree with this.

My most recent purchase I "put together" by buying a full MiM Strat that I liked the body and trem of and a separate neck that I preferred to the MiM's neck.

The neck itself cost more than the whole MiM guitar!

I can understand this POV, but expensive doesn’t always mean “perfect” for you.

One of my favourite necks cost £30 from eBay and I’ve owned Fender, Warmoth etc Its just a nice, easy to play neck that suits me.

TBH, unless the wood is utter pants or the wrong profile, the rest is just finish and fretwork.

Megii · February 2020

thegummy said:

Megii said:

I have noticed some QC issues to be honest - maybe I was unlucky and caught them in an untypical bad patch. Anyhow, ordered one tele neck where the truss rod access hole was really badly off-centre - visually not at all good, and also made it very hard to get an allen key in. Also some small dents on the back near the heel. They didn't have an exact replacement, but I decided to accept a replacemant with different specs. And then the replacement also had an off-centre truss access hole. In the end I decided to keep this neck - I was able to visually sort the issue (just about) with some careful sanding to enlarge one side of the hole. Both necks were, other than the issues noted, very good quality. Northwest did seem a bit offhand in attitude to it all, but I guess they did what they could, and would have refunded me had I insisted.

Did you get any photos of it before toy docs the truss hole or of the first one?

Just to see how bad it was.

Took some photos at the time (Northwest asked me to send these before accepting a return) but sorry I haven't kept them - it was a while ago. I just wanted a good enough standard visually that the build I was doing would look like a high quality guitar - as I recall the little walnut insert was easily seen to be off-centre, and then the actual drilled hole was even further off. It would have looked very obvious on the finished build, and not just under close inspection. On the second neck I got, the insert is close enough to centre - the hole was still drilled a bit off, but by enlarging one side I got things visually good enough for me to be happy. I know Northwest will source the necks from a factory and don't make them themselves, but I was disappointed that they didn't seem to have checked the necks themselves before posting.

I'm honestly a reasonable, not overly fussy customer with these kind of things. I got the impression the guy in the factory doing the truss rod holes either didn't care, or needed more training. Also I have bought all sorts of stuff from Northwest since, including two nice strat bodies, and no problems at all.

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Northwest necks anyone?

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