Buying a neck -- thoughts?

[Boudoir Guitar]

I've decided to just repace the neck on my strat rather than add another guitar to the collection.

I live in New England and have to do pretty significant truss rod adjustments every spring/fall. So wanting to go roasted maple. If I'm going roasted, then I'll go roasted maple fingerboard also. If roasted, I'll just go unfinished.

One thing I've found is that I don't like flame maple fingerboards...I find them confusing when playing for whatever reason. I do like birdseye maple and am fine playing those, as long as its not absurdistan levels of birdseye.

If not roasted, I'll go with an ebony fretboard and also unfinished and will either do my own oil finish or...just leave it unfinished and finish it with my own oils over time.

Compound 12-16" radius.

6150-ish nickle-silver frets and simple dot inlays.

Weighing Warmoth vs Musikraft:

Musikraft does roasted birdseye; they also will do 1-piece construction with wheel-adjust at the heel (my strat has a wheel adjust already so no surgery needed for that). Also would be happy to go ahead and have them install tuners for me, which they will do for a very reasonable fee. Cost is a little higher for roasted w/ compound radius fingerboard.

Warmoth: roasted options are plain and flame only. Honestly, I'm fine with a plain maple neck so that's not a huge deal. Will only do 1-piece in vintage or vintage modern construction (I would go vintage modern - would prefer modern construction, honestly. If I'm going plain maple I'm not so picky about 1-piece construction but do kinda prefer 1-piece construction for a maple-board neck still).

Not sure what wait time is for either at the moment.

Any thoughts? Should I be looking at another vendor?

 

[fretworn]

Torrified maple. Super stable - like a rock

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

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Torrified maple. Super stable - like a rock

Are you in Maine/New England?

 

[fretworn]

Are you in Maine/New England?

No, but both independent builders are in Maine.

Laurent Brondel

Chuck Thornton

They collaborated for a short while and built that stype guitar that I have.

They are on their own again now I believe. (I have a guitar under order with Laurent currently.)

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

No, but both independent builders are in Maine.

Laurent Brondel

Chuck Thornton

They collaborated for a short while and built that stype guitar that I have.

They are on their own again now I believe. (I have a guitar under order with Laurent currently.)

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Yes, I'm familiar with them (used to live about 2 blocks from The Music Emporium; currently live in Maine). Do you need to tweak trussrod any on your neck or is it stable through seasonal changes (and how dramatic are your seasonal changes?

 

[fretworn]

Not as dramatic as yours… I’m north of Seattle a little bit. We have a week or two of maybe in the 90s and then we have a week or two in the 20s. Mostly 40s-80s (live here partly because of the climate)


But I rarely need truss rod adjustment if ever. Time to check however … lol

Rock solid tuning stability as well.

 

[DrewJD82]

Yes, I'm familiar with them (used to live about 2 blocks from The Music Emporium; currently live in Maine). Do you need to tweak trussrod any on your neck or is it stable through seasonal changes (and how dramatic are your seasonal changes?

I grew up in Lewiston! My mom and sister are out in Lisbon and my best friends are up there every 3 weeks visiting their parents, so I'll always have a reason to go back to Maine. What area are you in?

And FWIW, Musikraft did my Gilmour Strat's neck, SS frets and they were absolutely flawless when I got it. The neck is perfect all around, but I was really blown away with the fretwork for a $198 neck. I read a bunch of reviews before ordering because I didn't want to deal with any fretwork and the general consensus was that they're always really good with frets. I'll definitely be going to them for future builds.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I grew up in Lewiston! My mom and sister are out in Lisbon and my best friends are up there every 3 weeks visiting their parents, so I'll always have a reason to go back to Maine. What area are you in?

And FWIW, Musikraft did my Gilmour Strat's neck, SS frets and they were absolutely flawless when I got it. The neck is perfect all around, but I was really blown away with the fretwork for a $198 neck. I read a bunch of reviews before ordering because I didn't want to deal with any fretwork and the general consensus was that they're always really good with frets. I'll definitely be going to them for future builds.

I'm over on the coast. So we only got down to -16 last night....

 

[DrewJD82]

I'm over on the coast. So we only got down to -16 last night....

Hahaha that’s 10 degrees warmer than it was inland! My buddy is in Lewiston right now and it hit -25 last night. My mom said her heat is cranked and it’s only 50 in her apartment. Can’t say I miss that AT ALL!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Hahaha that’s 10 degrees warmer than it was inland! My buddy is in Lewiston right now and it hit -25 last night. My mom said her heat is cranked and it’s only 50 in her apartment. Can’t say I miss that AT ALL!

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To be fair, that was the coldest cold snap I've experienced in a decade here, by a lot. The cold doesn't bother me as much as the mess of late Feb. through early April. But May-November makes it all totally worth it!

 

[Eagle]

I would suggest Musikraft. For the options and the quality is very high IME.

 

[metropolis_4]

I love my Warmoth necks. I had to have the nuts filed and I did a little extra rounding of the fret ends, but I expected both of those things. The frets weren’t bad, but I’m extra picky about fret ends.

I love the shape and feel of the profiles and they’ve been really stable.

 

[Stratzrus]

I've decided to just repace the neck on my strat rather than add another guitar to the collection.

If not roasted, I'll go with an ebony fretboard and also unfinished and will either do my own oil finish or...just leave it unfinished and finish it with my own oils over time.

Compound 12-16" radius.

6150-ish nickle-silver frets and simple dot inlays.

Any thoughts? Should I be looking at another vendor?

I replaced the neck on my Fender Pawnshop Offset Special with a Fender American Elite Stratocaster neck with a 9.5-14 compound radius neck, locking tuners, medium jumbo frets, and an ebony fretboard. The neck has a satin finish that feels very close to unfinished but slightly smoother and better for resisting humidity on the hot and humid Philadelphia summer days. It's pretty close to the specs you want.

I like that it's made by Fender so I can have the Fender logo on the headstock without faking anything. It's by far my favorite neck of any Fender neck I've ever played.

They're hard to find but not impossible. The maple board version is easier to find but the feel of the ebony is just wonderful.

The Tele has the Telecaster version of the American Elite Telecaster neck with the same specs. Both are an absolute joy to play.

 

[andergtr]

both are great. i have gone the warmoth route because i've used them for years, but musikraft has more options, and i have only heard good things about their products.