St body parts compatibility

Hi all.
Can anyone answer a couple of questions for me?
With the Strat body, what tremolo bridge setup will fit? I once tried a m.i.m bridge/trem in a squire and it was too big due to squire bodies being thinner than Fender Strat bodies.

Secondly, will a squire Strat neck fit perfectly in an St style body or is there going to be some play? Will it sit too low in neck pocket?

I obviously have a m.i.m. trem and squire Strat neck (plus other parts) sitting around and am thinking of buying an ST body from Pitbull to build a parts caster as long as I am sure the trem and neck I have will fit.

Thanks in advance

No idea on the neck , but every aftermarket trem I've used ( Goto, Wilkinson) have fitted fine in the Pitbull bods. ( I'm talking the vintage style trems with screws not posts)

Thanks Deadman. The body I am looking at says it is American standard specs, so I am guessing most terms will fit. I just can't find anyone that put a M.I.M. in an American standard. (Of course, why would anyone do that unless they are in my situation?)

Are you mostly concerned about the trem block hanging out the back? You can grind it down a fair bit before it gets anywhere near the string retainers. Or you could just swap the block with a shorter one... or just leave the back cover off? All the cool kids are doing it.

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

All the cool kids are doing it.

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and Hendrix.

I've fitted various 'strat' style necks to various non-Fender bodies and they seem to all fit O.K.

I fitted a Pitbull TL neck into a Squier Tele body with no probs.

Of course it's no guarantee.

cheers, Mark.

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The body I am looking at says it is American standard specs, so I am guessing most terms will fit.

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If the body has the vibrato mounting holes pre-drilled, you should measure the centre to centre distance of the two outer holes.

Mex bridges will be 54mm mounting and 52mm E to E string spacing, American bridges can be a range of sizes from 2-1/16" to 2-3/16" or 2-7/32" mounting screw spacing and have varying string spacing also between those distances (52-56mm). Fender has been all over the shop in the past 60 years with these measurements and it can get pretty confusing. However dowelling and re-drilling is always an option.

If it's not drilled, the only potential problem could be the opening for the vibrato. If it's routed for a USA bridge, a MIM bridge plate may not be wide enough to entirely cover the routing. It would only be a small gap, but it depends on how pedantic you wish to be. I know this from personal experience.

As for neck heel/pocket compatibility, aftermarket, non-fender heels tend to run slightly wider than a standard fender pocket.
You're then faced with either widening the pocket, or narrowing the heel. IME the heel thickness with aftermarket or kit necks also tend to run a bit thicker than a genuine/licensed fender neck.

This has been a contentious issue with some, but I prefer to fit the heel to the pocket so that a genuine/licensed fender neck could be fitted easily in future if desired, but that's just me.

You may find that the end of another neck may be a slightly different shape to the end of the neck pocket. This even happens on the kits themselves. Some necks have a more rounded end, some flatter. No guarantees there at all.

Not just kits. There was a pocket/neck shape mismatch on the lowmid price range Strat I'm rebodying.

I noticed this on the p-bass body/neck I am working on. I have decided that pickguards can hide a multitude of evils.