Decent necks in Australia?

[tommycarlos]

I am about to start a new non-Pitbull build based around a custom body I ordered from Rosser guitars in the USA.

It seems like there are not that many options for good necks in Australia. I know Warmoth, but they end up very expensive. Not to mention any CITES issues that might crop up. Allparts even ends up pretty expensive and a bit of a pain (some places won't ship Allparts necks to AU, apparently).

Are there any trustworthy Australian sources for decent necks?

I have been looking at Ace Guitar Parts, but I don't know anything about them. Does anyone have any experience with them, especially their necks?

Is there another way to get a decent neck for a price that doesn't make it cheaper to just buy a decent guitar and steal the neck off that? hah.

[JohnH]

I bought the neck for my semi-scratch build from Pitbull, and recommend it.

[Sonic Mountain]

No specific answer. Australian Luthier supplies have these - but they aren't exactly cheap.

I've had good turn around form orders on them, but I haven't purchased a neck.

http://luthierssupplies.com.au/index.php?cPath=137_384

I'd be interested to hear how these premium necks compare to the Pitbull ones and what exactly makes them 'better'

[Marcel]

While not Australian or USA made there are Chinese ones on Ebay that are reasonably decent as a start for quite good prices...

I've bought three Kmise necks via Ebay in the past, all were very straight and after a little fret work have come up quite good. Two were Amber gloss finished 'Rosewood' Strat necks for AU$100 that initially equated to Squire level quality, and the third was a Satin finish 'Rosewood' Tele neck for AU$75 delivered that I put on my denim Tele is as good as any MIM neck that I've ever seen. As can be seen in the photos all three came with pre-shaped headstocks and a quite high quality finish, and the Amber coloured Strat necks have quite a nice flame in them.

Kmise also make all Maple necks for similar prices, I can't attest to their quality however I'd suspect they would also be quite reasonable.

[FrankenWashie]

cough, cough, <good excuse for a scratch build> cough cough. Excuse me. Frog in my throat or something. Ahem.

[tommycarlos]

I put an eBay Kmise maple neck on my JZ-1 kit. I honestly love it. It’s at least Squier quality. I just thought it might have been a fluke, hah.

Also, they are 16” radius... which is just fine with the 12” Nashville TOM that comes with the JZ-1, but this next build was going to have a 9.5” Staytrem. That might be too big a mismatch for me :/

[Simon Barden]

It all depends on what you want from your neck. Pit Bull St**t/T*le ones seem to be fine, but you get the generic modern-C neck shape,a 12" radius and a headstock you have to shape yourself. This may be fine, but if you are looking for a more vintage style Fender neck, with a thicker neck shape and a 7.25" or 9.5" radius and thin frets. then you have to look elsewhere, or build your own.

The PBG necks don't use the best maple. It's certainly not not quarter-sawn and straight-grained. There are occasional small knots to be seen. The fret-ends are generally quite rough and many need a fret-dress to get a low action on them.

I don't know what a $290 neck will be like from the description in that link. It may have been pre-levelled and the fret ends dressed properly. I would expect this on an already lacquered neck, but unless they say so, there are no guarantees. I expect each one will be slightly different and ideally you'd be able to be shown a selection and pick the one that feels best to you. But that's not going to happen.

From the CITES mention. I assume you'd like a rosewood board. Maple wasn't affected by the last lot of changes.

Found this lot who seem to do cheaper necks than ALS. No finish - which explains a fair bit of the price difference as it all takes time - and time is money. But apart from the pre-shaped headstocks, they don't look all that different to the PiutBull necks (apart from having real rosewood boards).

https://www.guitaraust.com.au/neck/n....html?___SID=U

[king casey]

The PBG necks don't use the best maple. It's certainly not not quarter-sawn and straight-grained. There are occasional small knots to be seen. The fret-ends are generally quite rough and many need a fret-dress to get a low action on them.

More of a question: Would it be feasible to buy a Pitbull neck, remove all the frets, radius with a sanding block (or what-not).
Re-fret and Voila?
$$$ saved and another skill-set added to the armoury?

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

You can, though I personally wouldn't want to radius a 12" down to less than 9.5". You are mainly taking away height from the sides, and it's easy to start sanding through the side dot markers. You obviously need certain tools to radius, remove frets, bend new ones (if not bought pre-bent for the right radius) and knock or press the frets in, dress and angle the fret ends, then level the frets, re-profile and polish them. So your first neck could end up costing a fair bit because of the tool outlay, but the one's after that become a lot cheaper.

Just remember that the PBG 'rosewood' necks are now artificial 'Blackwood', and I have no idea how well they would take to being re-fretted. Probably not as forgiving as real wood and you might get end-grain chips flaking off when you pull the barbs on the tangs up.

Also, you'll have to live with the generally wonky 10mm tuner holes, so you won't get very straight lines or vintage tuners without using wider hole adapters unless you dowel and re-drill the holes. You could of course see if you can get Adam to order some undrilled paddle headstock necks as a special order. You might then even get the necks slotted but unfretted, which would make the reprofiling and fretting a lot easier.

[dave.king1]

https://www.guitaraust.com.au/neck/n....html?___SID=U

My first Tele kit came from Guitaraust and the neck is slim profile and almost flat radius, makes a good rhythm platform with exlir flatwounds but I do need to pull the humbuckers out and put something else in because the old Schaller HBs are quite dirty