Squire Strat neck replacement

[DrNomis_44]

Yep I agree, Adam is awesome, we should all get together and get him something to show our appreciation.

[Sonic Mountain]

Well I reckon I point at least one person a week to Pitbull from Reddit, so hopefully our use of this forum and word of mouth marketing is keeping him busy

Replacement neck arrived today and its a beauty. I was feeling a bit bad for rejecting the other one, but this one is so much better I'm glad I did. Lovely clean grain, it's actually a lot better figure wise than the squire neck it's replacing.



The heel was just slightly > 1/2mm too wide to fit in the pocket, but a light sand either side and its a lovely snug fit. I had to slightly rework the curve at the bottom as well, but nothing drastic. Annoyed I didn't quite get the scratch plate flush but it's not noticeable.





Checked it was all nice and straight using the usual technique



So nicely fitted up, neck plate pilot holes drilled

Onto the headstock shaping, something very similar but not quite identical to the existing one, jigsawed and roughly refined. A little more sanding and refining required yet.

[FrankenWashie]

Nice work SM!

[Sonic Mountain]

Been a bit slack with updates on this. It has mostly just been hanging to dry....

Anyway, went ahead and assembled it today. I'm pretty happy with the result. I need to re-dress the 6th and 14th fret on the high side as there is a small amount of buzz with the action at 1.5m at the 12th, but its a very minor thing. It's playing and sounding great otherwise.

Something I didn't expect is how much 'fuller' it sounds. The Babicz marketing says the bridge is better for harmonic transfer/sustain, but I thought that was mostly sales fluff. I think it might actually be true.

I did make a small boo boo drilling the string trees- stupidly had one of them one string over . I've filled the hole with a small screw for now and will fill and refinish it at a later date.

Also working away at a 3d printed logo for the head stock. Needs another sand, fill and paint, but I think it'll look pretty neat.

[FrankenWashie]

That is one of the Z series Babicz trems is it SM? I am tempted to do one on the Korean Deluxe, as I am not enamoured of the kit one.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah it is. Only thing it's really missing is the intonation locks compared to the more expensive ones. They are really nice to do setup with.

[Sonic Mountain]

Owner picked this up last night and is stoked with it. It really is a different guitar. I meant to get a pic of him playing it but forgot.

Anyway, glad I tried this. It's nice to know that the F style Pitbull necks fit a Squire no problems.

Holidays finished for me yesterday so a bit busy, but I will eventually pull apart the original neck to see if i can work out why it wouldn't hold adjustment.

[Simon Barden]

Have you ever pulled apart the old neck?

[Sonic Mountain]

No but it’s moving up the to do list.

[Sonic Mountain]

So I've had this guitar back while the owner is overseas (same guy we bought the Tele copy for).

I've had the neck clamped for almost 3 months, steaming, subjecting to temperature change etc. It looked really good.

After my mate dropped it off I did a swap with the PBG neck and the original one, just to see.

Initially, it was really, really good. For about 2 weeks. I've been picking it up every couple of days and it seemed to be holding. Since I finished the Deluxester, its been getting the most play time, but I grabbed this one this afternoon.

Straight away I could feel it was out again, and checking with the straight edge confirms it. It just refuses to hold truss rod adjustment. I've cranked it up again, but its now right at the limit and still not right in terms of relief.

So now its time for some major surgery. Fret board is coming off this weekend. Stay tuned.