Changing neck on guitar question?

You're married to the idea of an American Professional neck from Fender?

I would consider Warmoth options for a MIM Strat, as well, although I don't see a problem with getting a Fender replacement either.

(ETA: And waiting for FretShack to give a more detailed, professional answer as he usually does.)

A 22-fret strat neck is created by slightly extending the fretboard, not the neck heel itself. You won't run into neck pocket problems.


Sometimes the thickness of the "tongue" of the 22-fret board combined with the thickness of a multi-ply pickguard will inhibit the neck sitting flat and flush in the pocket. The easiest solution in that case is to use a thinner, one-ply pickguard ... or to DELICATELY cut away the pickguard under the tongue with a router or a high-speed rotary tool (Dremel).

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I personally would buy an older, used Warmoth neck before I would buy a new one if it was for a project of my own. They still make decent stuff, I just like their older stuff better.

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Far enough - I first started looking at Warmoth stuff a long time ago.

Somewhat related - if I wanted to do a budget "luthier" build, do you think it would be better to find a gently used MIM Strat and swap out parts as necessary OR start with, say, a part maker body and neck from scratch?

And, how much expertise for either option?

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Granted, I consider a half-millimeter variance a mismatch,

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Well on something as critical as a neck, a half-mm can be pretty important.

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You're married to the idea of an American Professional neck from Fender? 

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I do love the feel of that neck. I have a am pro tele and strat and I like the slightly chunkier neck, plus the taller frets. I just didn't want to purchase it and run into issues installing/setti g it up.

Probably 75 percent of the guys who come to see me swearing they need fretwork actually need a proper truss rod adjustment. You likely need a set-up tweak with the proper tools/gauges taking measurements because it's unusual to need fretwork on a one-year old US series Fender guitar unless you gig the guitar six nights a week and play it like a drum kit.

If your guitar is not passing a fret rocker, it sounds like you have the neck set perfectly straight (not ideal) or set with a very slight backbow in the neck. Loosen your truss rod slightly - cheap, unobtrusive and completely reversible if you make things worse.

Keep in mind too, a 9.5 vintage radius mixed with factory assembly line fretwork won't allow the modern liquid low action and extended bending/vibrato ranges you commonly see on bolts by Suhr, TAG, JT, ESP's TH, the custom shop/boutique list goes on.

2017 American Professional series set-up specs ... read and apply this if you haven't already

And NEVER, NEVER do a "spot" level or any fret work on one or just a few frets - you work on a bed of frets collectively for superior results. If you do not, there is a very high likelihood you will need a guy like me to undo what you did. It also goes without saying, you need proper tooling, gauges and jigs - if you improvise or wing the task, your finished fret bed will reveal just that.

Man that sucks. My tele was flawless from the factory. In fact, it's the only guitar I have that hasn't had a set up.

Yeah I'm the same way with my mim strat neck. I guess I like a fat neck, because I just cant bond with the modern c profile.