Be skeptical of Chinese-made 24" necks.

[theremintheme]

I am building a Jaguar partscaster on a super tight budget. Found a 24" neck with CBS headstock, square inlays and binding on Lazada (a cross between Amazon and Ali Express for South-East Asia).

n the pic it looks like a Fender replacement neck (it has the Fender Strat/Jazzmaster/Jaguar/Mustang neck heel shape and the large Fender type headstock), but once I got it, so many specs were off:

- The heel was 57.4 mm, almost 1 mm wider than the most common Fender neck pocket size of around 56.4-56.6 mm
- The fretboard radius is around 15", making it a bad fit for 7.25 or 9.5 radius offset bridges
- The more difficult to fix problem: The neck heel is too short.

To work on a standard Jaguar/Jag-stang or Mustang body, the neck heel should be flush with the end of the fretboard. But this neck heel stops short of the overhang. As a result, there is no way to make the neck intonate - the saddles will not go that far back. The bridge holes would have to be doweled and redrilled. Or, you can do what I tried - shaping a piece of wood that fits in the neck pocket under the overhang.

But even having carefully removed material from both sides of the neck heel to make it fit in the Jag neck pocket, AND shaping a piece of wood to make up for the too-short neck heel, I am still left with the problem of a 15" radius fretboard to go with a 9.5" Mustang bridge.

I suppose I can try to either shim the 4 outer saddles or file down the grooves in the middle ones.

Does anyone have experience doing either of those?

Bottom line though - don't buy a Chinese made 24" neck if you want to fit it on a Fender standard speced body. Over and out.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Thanks for pointing out!
I think I saw one of those too on eBay. And I'm really glad I read about them here first (some time ago)... knowing that it won't work for what I was after I just won't buy necks with overhang at all (I know there are Strats and even Player JMs that have Overhang - but I prefer "standard" heel finishes.

If you hadnt's worked on it already I'd say send it back... but this sadly won't work now. See it as a valuable (but luckily not high priced) lesson.

There are some good ones out there - one of them to be seen in this thread: Cross Guitars - projects and restaurations with at least two happy customers.

I cut the pickguard out today.
I had some leftover tort. It's not the prettiest tort but suits the vibe. I may cut another one in a more reddish colour eventually.
I'm pretty happy with the fit. I reckon I nailed it!

I'm sure Pat or Gilmour can help you out with tracking down a listing of the real deal.

[electric__ralph]

I am still left with the problem of a 15" radius fretboard to go with a 9.5" Mustang bridge.

I suppose I can try to either shim the 4 outer saddles or file down the grooves in the middle ones.

Does anyone have experience doing either of those?

Why not get one of the Mustang-style bridges with height-adjustable saddles? Here's an example from Reverb though I don't specifically endorse this bridge or seller.

Otherwise my first thought would be to try filing down the bottoms of the middle saddles. I'd probably want to do the math to figure out how tall each saddle needs to be, and then use a micrometer to measure the saddle as I go.

[GilmourD]

I am building a Jaguar partscaster on a super tight budget. Found a 24" neck with CBS headstock, square inlays and binding on Lazada (a cross between Amazon and Ali Express for South-East Asia).

n the pic it looks like a Fender replacement neck (it has the Fender Strat/Jazzmaster/Jaguar/Mustang neck heel shape and the large Fender type headstock), but once I got it, so many specs were off:

- The heel was 57.4 mm, almost 1 mm wider than the most common Fender neck pocket size of around 56.4-56.6 mm
- The fretboard radius is around 15", making it a bad fit for 7.25 or 9.5 radius offset bridges
- The more difficult to fix problem: The neck heel is too short.

To work on a standard Jaguar/Jag-stang or Mustang body, the neck heel should be flush with the end of the fretboard. But this neck heel stops short of the overhang. As a result, there is no way to make the neck intonate - the saddles will not go that far back. The bridge holes would have to be doweled and redrilled. Or, you can do what I tried - shaping a piece of wood that fits in the neck pocket under the overhang.

But even having carefully removed material from both sides of the neck heel to make it fit in the Jag neck pocket, AND shaping a piece of wood to make up for the too-short neck heel, I am still left with the problem of a 15" radius fretboard to go with a 9.5" Mustang bridge.

I suppose I can try to either shim the 4 outer saddles or file down the grooves in the middle ones.

Does anyone have experience doing either of those?

Bottom line though - don't buy a Chinese made 24" neck if you want to fit it on a Fender standard speced body. Over and out.

Got a pic or link of the one you have?

I ask because I have two 24" Jag/Mustang/etc necks that I got off eBay that are roasted maple, blocks, and binding with a 9.5" fretboard radius and 22 frets with NO fretboard extension and they're actually awesome. There's a lot of them on eBay that have a fretboard extension and are just wrong.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374919398097

[s_mcsleazy]

so a lot of the chinese made necks are iffy as hell imho and the customer service isn't much better.

neck 1 arrived fine and had zero issues.
neck 2 didn't arrive
neck 3 didn't arrive
neck 4 arrived 3 months late and had really horrible fretwork and looked nothing like the photos.
neck 5 arrived and the trussrod didn't budge an inch, seller told me to leave them alone.

[gerardguey]

I saw those and assumed they were 25.5 scale necks with a 22 fret overhang that were incorrectly listed. I've never even heard of a 24 in scale neck with an overhang.

Yeah, those Chinese necks are way too risky for me. I had bad luck with a tele neck that ended up being way too thin and narrow a few years ago. Last fall I took another risk on a CBS strat neck that looked to be an unlabeled squier neck in the pictures, only to get a completely different neck with a very suspect looking fender decal and a massive ugly truss rod adjustment hole (I think was because it didn't have the plastic plug). After I contacted them they quickly gave me a full refund, even after I offered to return it because I still wanted the real neck. Either way, not sure if it's worth the risk again.

[GilmourD]

I saw those and assumed they were 25.5 scale necks with a 22 fret overhang that were incorrectly listed. I've never even heard of a 24 in scale neck with an overhang.

Yeah, those Chinese necks are way too risky for me. I had bad luck with a tele neck that ended up being way too thin and narrow a few years ago. Last fall I took another risk on a CBS strat neck that looked to be an unlabeled squier neck in the pictures, only to get a completely different neck with a very suspect looking fender decal and a massive ugly truss rod adjustment hole (I think was because it didn't have the plastic plug). After I contacted them they quickly gave me a full refund, even after I offered to return it because I still wanted the real neck. Either way, not sure if it's worth the risk again.

Gotta be picky with eBay... There's tells where you go "Hmmm... That's sketchy..." but sometimes something is cheap enough to be worth the risk. I truly love the first neck I got that lives on my CFM Jag. But, again, I made sure I had all my ducks in a row before I submitted payment. I love it enough that I got another one for the Jagblaster I'm building. I haven't mounted it, yet, but it's straight, the fret rocker seems to show the frets are about as good as the first one (which allows me to have buzz-free low action after a little massaging of two frets), and it's got the same chunky back shape with narrow nut.

But, yeah, there's A LOTA LOT of straight up garbage and sketchy stuff on eBay, too.

[gerardguey]

Thats what I THOUGHT I did, even then its a risk. I've also had custom pickguards and parts from china get completely lost in the mail and not get any response from the seller. I do hear good things about B&B necks I see though, they're just not my taste.

At this point I'm all for just paying the extra $50-70 for a reliable and easy to find All-Parts neck lol.

[scole]

I’ve been really tempted to try one for a Marr Jaguar I want to build but I think I’m going to stick with buying a used Squier Jag neck instead. With some of the Chinese necks, you can zoom in on some photos and can see that the joint between the binding and the fretboard isn’t as crisp looking and I think that would bug me. At least the Squier neck should come with a higher standard but with a still reasonable price.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

I’ve been really tempted to try one for a Marr Jaguar I want to build but I think I’m going to stick with buying a used Squier Jag neck instead. With some of the Chinese necks, you can zoom in on some photos and can see that the joint between the binding and the fretboard isn’t as crisp looking and I think that would bug me. At least the Squier neck should come with a higher standard but with a still reasonable price.

Good idea!
I just bought a sanded down CV Jaguar neck (with a weird looking self applied „Fender Stratocaster“ Logo locally (90€ incl. some aged Tuners that I sold for about 30 bucks) so now I have a great neck (sanded and oiled it again to get rid of the Strat thing) for about the price I would have paid for one from China. I have another one on my BMM Jag which I love so I‘m happy.
Only the Binding could be a bit thicker and whiter (it‘s very yellow/cream - but it would fit the Northwest body‘s colour pretty well.) And I like the Laurel fretboards better than the Rosewood I had on my VM.

Or if you like the Dots and Binding look you could probably hop on to our Allparts group order and grab one of the last available slots.

[timtam]

I saw those and assumed they were 25.5 scale necks with a 22 fret overhang that were incorrectly listed. I've never even heard of a 24 in scale neck with an overhang.

Yep there is no such thing as a Fender-compatible 24" scale (22-fret) jag neck with the 22nd fret on an overhang. Jags must have the 22nd fret not on an overhang. All Fender overhang necks are 25.5" scale with a 22nd fret on the overhang AFAIK, as on some strats and jazzmasters. But most 25.5" scale necks are 21-frets with no overhang. Fender did make a few oddball 25.5" necks with 22 frets and no overhang, like the Starcaster and some other Modern Players (eg teles), all Asian-made IIRC except the original 1970s Starcaster.

If you're buying a jag neck of unknown provenance, count the 22 frets and make sure you can see that there is no overhang. Likewise if you're buying a 25.5" scale neck with 22 frets, you (almost) always want it to have an overhang. Trying to mate a neck to a body it wasn't made for is not worth the considerable hassle.

[GilmourD]

I saw those and assumed they were 25.5 scale necks with a 22 fret overhang that were incorrectly listed. I've never even heard of a 24 in scale neck with an overhang.

Yep there is no such thing as a Fender-compatible 24" scale (22-fret) jag neck with the 22nd fret on an overhang. Jags must have the 22nd fret not on an overhang. All Fender overhang necks are 25.5" scale with a 22nd fret on the overhang AFAIK, as on some strats and jazzmasters. But most 25.5" scale necks are 21-frets with no overhang. Fender did make a few oddball 25.5" necks with 22 frets and no overhang, like the Starcaster and some other Modern Players (eg teles), all Asian-made IIRC except the original 1970s Starcaster.

If you're buying a jag neck of unknown provenance, count the 22 frets and make sure you can see that there is no overhang. Likewise if you're buying a 25.5" scale neck with 22 frets, you (almost) always want it to have an overhang. Trying to mate a neck to a body it wasn't made for is not worth the considerable hassle.

However, there are weird Chinese necks that are 24" scale with the 22nd fret on an overhang. They're really supposed to be for the cheap kits and it's because somebody in China designed the kit not understanding how Fender actually did things.

I have stuff in my workshop that I can take pics of later. Please nag me if I forget.

[mortron]

I was eyeing up some of the 25.5 inch 22fret reverse firebird necks on eBay and this thread has made me reconsider... There's no such thing as a good deal anymore on that site I think.

[theremintheme]

It is still possible to receive something decent, but I would only try buying from a seller that somebody else has bought from, and is happy with, first.

A link to Lazada for the neck I bought that was NOT compatible (Not Recommended, quite the opposite): https://www.lazada.co.th/products/st-22 ... l__null__0

The ratings are high because they have put the 24" and the 25.5" neck on the same page, and most people have bought the 25.5" necks which seem to be without serious issues.