7/8 vs Gibson conversion - retaining Strat tone

[doctorvague]

I'm 71 and have been gigging since I was 11. My hands are tired and arthritic. My favorite tone is a strat neck pickup with medium "transparent" overdrive. I would like a 24.75 scale length strat that will retain as much of that strat-neck pickup flutey tone that I love.

I messed around on Warmoth's site for a long time and landed on a 7/8 build. I realize the scale length changes things, but my reasoning was that at least if the whole guitar was shrunk down proportionately, maybe it wouldn't lose much of the tone I like. BUT, after weeks of research I realized that the 7/8 Warhead neck was only available as 24 fret. Super disappointing as all the s-styles I've played with 24 frets lose some of the tone I like due to the neck pickup being moved closer to the bridge. Looking at the 7/8 builds it's visually obvious that the pickups look pretty scrunched up toward the bridge. So with a 7/8 build there are two major changes to the proportional geometry: shorter scale AND 24 fret neck. If 22 frets was available, I'd have already ordered.

So... I'm looking at a normal s-style body with a Gibson conversion neck. In that case, speaking proportionately, the neck pickup would effectively be moved away from the bridge.

I've searched and the only Warmoth video I found demonstrating the conversion neck was a two humbucker guitar and no comparison at all between a normal neck and conversion (seems like an obvious video to make considering the many comparisons Aaron has done) - THANK YOU AARON- I'M NOT COMPLAINING!

I've searched the forum several times for this info. Do any of you have any experience with any of this and can offer any info or advice? I basically want the most strat-like sounding guitar with 24.75 scale length. I hope my explanations were clear.

TIA,
Phil

 

[supertruper1988]

Doing some measuring on my guitars, The neck pickup on a strat is about 19.25" from the nut on a 25.5" scale guitar or 75.5% of the scale length from the nut. With a conversion neck, the nut is 0.75" closer to the bridge. This will put the neck pickup at 18.5" from the nut or 74.74% of the scale length from the nut. Based on position alone, I dont think this is enough of a difference to worry about. The neck pickup would need to be moved back about 1/16" to be in the same percentage location on the 24.75" scale neck.

The bigger issue is that the strings will have less tension for the same given gauge and tuning. This will play a lot more in the feel and tone but in real world experience, its not a huge difference.

A way to test this would be to get a conversion neck and put it on a strat you already own and see if it changes the tone too much. if you keep the specs basic and generic enough to be desirable by others, you could potentially re sell the neck for minimal loss if you hate it or want to go all out and spec some more esoteric options.

Hope this helps!

Also @aarontunes a video of comparison for the conversion neck would be cool especially if you could document some of the build process like showing the neck shaft and fingerboard coming from the same planks of wood and other pseudo scientific details.

 

[aarontunes]

One thing of note: 24 frets on the 7/8 necks is not the same as 24 frets on a standard neck. Not at all.

It is 24.75" scale fret spacing superimposed on a 25.5" neck blank, which leaves room for extra frets at the end without an extended overhang.

This video explains it. Starting around 3:15.

 

[supertruper1988]

One thing of note: 24 frets on the 7/8 necks is not the same as 24 frets on a standard neck. Not at all.

I believe is the point of the post that a neck single coil sitting at ~75% of the way along the scale on a 22 fret guitar is going to be different than a neck pickup at ~78% of the scale length for a 24 fret guitar.

 

[supertruper1988]

I can make some drawings to demonstrate what I am talking about if anyone would like to see the detail of my reasoning.