22.5” vs 24” Scale 60’s Fender Necks

[ainm]

Hopefully a nice simple question: are the 22.5” and 24” inch scale necks on v60’s Fenders interchangeable or were the bridges moved on the 22.5” guitars to intonate them properly?

[countertext]

They are interchangeable.

[Sonichris]

Think of the 24" scale capoed at the first fret, that's the 22.5" scale neck. the 22.5" ends up with one less fret.

[Embenny]

Yeah, 24" and 22.5" Fender necks were made as conversion necks. The only difference is adding an extra (1st) fret. What sucks is that Leo had the opportunity to make the entire lineup into conversion necks - 25.5" minus one fret is 24.069". If he had made Strats/JMs the tiniest bit shorter scale, or Jags the tiniest bit longer, they'd all be one or two frets apart up and down the entire lineup.

[GilmourD]

Yeah, 24" and 22.5" Fender necks were made as conversion necks. The only difference is adding an extra (1st) fret. What sucks is that Leo had the opportunity to make the entire lineup into conversion necks - 25.5" minus one fret is 24.069". If he had made Strats/JMs the tiniest bit shorter scale, or Jags the tiniest bit longer, they'd all be one or two frets apart up and down the entire lineup.

So, speaking of that... Funny thing I discovered is that the Minis (Strat and JM) have the same distance between the saddles and the neck pocket. The 22.7" neck on the Minis is a conversion neck for the 25.5" stuff. Also, seems like all (or at least some) of the weird 24" necks with a fretboard extension for the 22nd fret are also conversion necks.

One of the guys over at Squier-Talk tested this out for me since he had a Mini JM body and a Strat neck laying around. He said it intonates perfectly. Now I have a Mini JM body in Daphne blue sitting on my shelf that I kinda want to drop a Mustang trem and one of those 24" conversion necks onto. 🤪

BUT, those are different from the standard Jag/Mustang 24" and 22.5" necks.

[ainm]

Cheers all! Some great info here. And I agree it would’ve been brilliant had the full range been interchangeable. Maybe Leo was going for easier manufacturing setup by sticking to the full/half-inch scales? Although it does seem like it should’ve been simpler to reuse a Strat/JM scale minus a fret on the shortscales. 0.069” is agonisingly close!

[Salfaromeab]

Yeah, 24" and 22.5" Fender necks were made as conversion necks. The only difference is adding an extra (1st) fret. What sucks is that Leo had the opportunity to make the entire lineup into conversion necks - 25.5" minus one fret is 24.069". If he had made Strats/JMs the tiniest bit shorter scale, or Jags the tiniest bit longer, they'd all be one or two frets apart up and down the entire lineup.

So, speaking of that... Funny thing I discovered is that the Minis (Strat and JM) have the same distance between the saddles and the neck pocket. The 22.7" neck on the Minis is a conversion neck for the 25.5" stuff. Also, seems like all (or at least some) of the weird 24" necks with a fretboard extension for the 22nd fret are also conversion necks.

One of the guys over at Squier-Talk tested this out for me since he had a Mini JM body and a Strat neck laying around. He said it intonates perfectly. Now I have a Mini JM body in Daphne blue sitting on my shelf that I kinda want to drop a Mustang trem and one of those 24" conversion necks onto. 🤪

BUT, those are different from the standard Jag/Mustang 24" and 22.5" necks.

That is very interesting to know, would be great fun having a full size Strat body with a super short neck on it!