unexpected project - neck needed.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Hey folks!

Out of the sudden there is a new project calling for me. A Telemaster-project.
I was totally not expecting something like that - but Rexter wanted to keep me busy while waiting for him to finish my Jazzmaster Body.

So once again: thanks Jon!

As some of you may have read my opinion in the "Is there any guitar type that doesn't have a fucking telecaster setup?"-thread http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... 2&start=30 you may have already guessed that I don't intend to do a standard Tele on an offset-body kind of thing. As I just can't stand these tele-control plates! and neither I am a big fan of those small headstocks.

So it's going more into the 72 Custom/Deluxe kind of Tele. But maybe still with standard pickups - it's routed that way - let's see what your opinions are!
I'm open for drilling a little bit - so Lipsticks and Wide Range Humbuckers (or clones of them) might be an option too - as long as they aren't too expensive.

Maybe something like this: telemasterII_MG_9905.jpg by Mr Atrocity, found at Flickr

So: Strat/JM necks will kind of fit bodies originally suited for Teles - just not the other way around, right? It will have a custom cut pickguard so no worries about the holes that such a neck might leave - as long as intonation is correct, I'm fine! What about radius and Tele-Bridges? Anything I have to know? As far as I know these can be adjusted... any brands I should try or better avoid? I'm totally new into Tele-parts!

So it will have a Big Headstock neck or at least a Jazzmaster neck. And it probably won't be a maple fingerboard - but Rosewood, Pau Ferro anything darker than maple.
I might very well give it a black headstock - or let Rexter match it to the body which is kind of a thin copper finish. So it doesn't need to say anything on the headstock - if it does - no worries whether it's Fender or Squier or nothing at all. As it might get lost in the matching process anyhow. Also I have a second Liquid Thunder decal.

So from what I've heard and read Allparts are either made in Japan or USA - so should be alright, Göldo/Rockinger might be pretty much the same in quality - but aren't these even made in Germany? Do you have any clue about 2001-2005 Squiers (China and Indonesia)? Or want to sell me your J Mascis JM neck?

anyhow: this is going to be a project guitar so I don't want to spend too much money.
Following the ads I found as a guideline 70-200€ is the budget (+shipping) for the neck (hardware not included) also if you have experience building Telemasters or custom pickguards, step forward and share your wisdom please!

[Danley]

Opinions follow:

Affinity: They're all over the board from example to example and from year to year. In general, I think the Chinese ones are nicer; one issue I noticed is the heel thickness is greater than standard on some of these (like Bullets,) meaning the neck 'sticks out' more which can be a mess with certain setups. Some have the side dots only on the rosewood, some have the (traditional) half-on-rosewood side dots. Almost all of them have such a light satin on them they feel like holding a 2x4 and sort of nasty. The shaping can be blocky and feel cheap in areas like the headstock/volute and heel. Early ones have garbage fretwork/susceptible to sprout, but newer ones seem fine in this respect; hard to tell what you'll get, I'd skip unless you know it's good.

Mascis: Great necks. I don't really like Satin, but the finish is a much nicer satin than the Affinities; it's a bit of a chunkier shape than I like, but the important thing is these are very good feeling necks with consistent shaping and excellent build. Doesn't feel 'like a Squier' (which the Indonesian VM necks sort of do) if that makes sense. Can't really lose but I prefer either of the Mexican necks you list.

Standard Squier: Most of what I said about the Affinity neck applies here, but they seem to get better satin finishes and possibly fretwork. Again they can be Chinese or Indonesian (Chinese don't have skunk stripes and recent ones seem to be very close to a Mascis/Deluxe neck.) I think the Chinese Standard neck from abut the mid-2000s got *really* nice. On mine, the only 'flaws' are tuning peg holes that aren't quite drilled in a straight line (though the strings line up acceptably) side dots that look a bit small, and rosewood that consequently or not looks a bit thick. The rosewood quality on mine is actually really nice, and the shaping reminds me of my American Special Jazzmaster. Another good thing, these have a fret overhang so you don't need to worry about the pickguard on a Telecaster.

Mighty Mite: Have a Korean one and... I'm between 'ugh' and 'eh.' The finish out of the box (satin) was drippy, run-marks around the heel. The heel needs to be filed/sanded down to fit a Fender/Squier body. After a few years it wound up with a front-bow; I had to shim the truss rod nut with washers to get it straight. The shaping around the first fret/volute is awful, the neck actually swells in this area and slims again, before the profile swells about half-way down which is crazy (and this is a documented spec, visible on their website for fuck's sake.) It has the 'fake' looking side dots that are 100% on the rosewood. They need fretwork out of the box, if you luck out this was already cared for by someone who owned it before you. The one decent thing is the transition around the heel isn't bad, and is more on par with the way old MIM necks used to be (before most Fender necks across the board became blockier around the heel.)

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Opinions follow:

Thanks for your insight and opinions Danley!

I guess I'm skipping on the Squier Strat necks then... ;-)

Having a 9,5 and a 7,25 Jaguar and soon a 9,5 Jazzmaster I should probably go for the Classic 60s Jazzmaster neck with the 7,25 radius to have one of each! :-P

Göldo/Rockinger, Allparts, the J. Mascis/Squier Deluxe Jazzmaster and the unknown Block Inlay Jazzmaster neck are still in the run too. (auction ends on Saturday - zero bids at the moment).

Feel free to drop further tips and ideas! I'm starting to get excited!

[Steadyriot.]

I'd go with the Fender neck with 9,5" radius.
It's finished and just a good neck. Allparts comes in 2nd place. Good necks too, but a lot more work (finish, drilling, fretwork).

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

There is also the possibility of the Fender Classic 70s Stratocaster neck with Bullet-thrusrod access. 189€ vs Classic 60s Jazzmaster neck 211-229€ Classic Player Jazzmaster neck would be a little cheaper 189-199€.
All three have a Pau Ferro fingerboard.

I‘m trying my luck with the B&B auction ending on Saturday - and otherwise it’s probably gonna be one out of these three.

And thank you all for your participation!

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

So. After returning two(!) of those beautiful but (obviously) cheap B&B necks (Kluson tuners wouldn‘t fit due to inconsistent hole placement) I‘ve chosen to take the Classic 60s Jazzmaster neck. And man, I‘m impressed!
On the pics I was a bit unsure about the tint - but now I think it‘s the most best looking and most interesting neck I got. The musicstore I got it from treated it with Lemon oil - and that way, I have no more doubts about Pau Ferro!




Also as probably mentioned above it‘s for my Custom-Telemaster project.




Still not 100% sure about the upper horn - but I‘m tending to make it even smaller and not so JM-y.
I‘m still missing the pickups (which gonna be a WRHB and a Tele-PU by Ruebezahl-pickups from German - but even though I pulled up aset of strings today and set up the intonation as good as possible.
Also the pickguard is either gonna be Mint or Black. Also a Black Headstock is still in the game... but I recently saw a pic of a Firemist Gold Jaguar - and since that I think it needs more chrome!
And a white tele-bridge pickup. Is there such a thing?

[EDIT: I deleted a double-posted photo]

[funkyeah!]

What if you make the left side like a strat/cyclone and the bottom part near the knobs like a Tele Deluxe where it comes to a point?

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

What if you make the left side like a strat/cyclone and the bottom part near the knobs like a Tele Deluxe where it comes to a point?

I will try some more today. Both for the upper and lower parts. But I remember doing a photoshop-mockup some time ago which sadly wasn‘t too promising for the complete Tele Deluxe way. Would have loved that!

[Steadyriot.]

I'd go the way that Deed Poll went with his Customaster design:

[jvin248]

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The pickguard 'sideburn' to the left of the Tele bridge always throws me off whenever I see something like that.
Have it cut clean in front of the Tele bridge.

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[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

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The pickguard 'sideburn' to the left of the Tele bridge always throws me off whenever I see something like that.
Have it cut clean in front of the Tele bridge.

.

yes. exactly that's why I initially wanted to go for the pickguard design of the white one in the original post.
Besides that, I like Deed_Polls design a lot - and I already wrote him twice (January and February) - as I really would like to buy an actual pickguard from him - or let him draw one - and pay him for the design - but he did never reply. From what Rexter mentioned he was just really busy... does he have a shop/online presence with email where I could contact him? I guess an email would get "closer" to him than a message here?