It's here: Good news, bad news, good news, bad news

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Hello everyone - LTL, FTP, etc, etc.

I've been perusing these forums for over 2 months, not long after my order date of January 4th.  Today, it arrived...

I'm always happy to see my precious child, but when she's holding a long white box, it's just so much better.

She "helped" me get it out of the box, and I had to be quick before she took the tuners and made them some sort of princess accessory.

I dry fit it with it's intended body (see the pic), but it doesn't quite fit - someone needs to add "Stratacoustic" to the list of non-standard Fender neck pockets.  Or it could be that QA at the Chinese factory that made it (the stratacoustic, that is) is really falling off (upon examination one of the bolt holes looks to be less than perpendicular to the body!)

Regardless: O curses, O tragedy, O catastrophe....

I'll be forced - forced, yea verily - to get more parts & build a guitar more worthy of this EXCELLENT neck.    :icon_biggrin:

So it's bad news that it doesn't fit the Stratacoustic body (I somewhat expected this), bad news that I'll have to spend more money to get a compatible body (I'm looking forward to this anyway), but good news that it's here, and good news that I can build something to fit it.

Forgive me if the pics aren't showing - I'm new on this board.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Excellent - the pics showed up!

Oh, and I had to Photoshop out the frets, because I went for Warmoth's new ultra secret unobtainium fret option, so I'm not allowed to show unaltered pics online.  

:laughing7:

 

[Patrick]

talk about a naked neck!
what body are you thinkin for this beauty?

 

[-CB-]

You got a neck with no frets.  You gonna fret it yerself?  If so, you certainly have the skills to fix the neck hole foible from the factory, and do what it takes to make it fit the pocket better - remember - naked necks fit loose on purpose, to allow for finish thickness

 

[DangerousR6]

The statocoustic uses the vintage neck shape....All birdseye maple....

 

[JaySwear]

i've heard of some people having problems fitting aftermarket necks to the stratocoustics. can't wait to see what you get though! (for the acoustic AND from warmoth for that neck!). especially if it's fretless. thats a much more gutsy move than my fret-dependent self would make  :icon_biggrin:

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

I'm going all fretless with this one.  I've played fretless bass exclusively for almost 9 years, and have dabbled in guitar a bit.  About 6 years ago, I got handed a guitar center special Washburn acoustic that was horribly unreliable for tuning.  I took the opportunity to defret & coat the board with epoxy, like many bass players do.  Voila, fretless guitar, with realtime adjustable intonation in my fingers!  I've been getting more & more serious about fretless to the point where I've wanted/needed a decent instrument.  I got a good deal on the Stratacoustic body, so once that was in hand, I ordered the neck.

It's a bartione V, 28.5 scale, all maple, with a solid wood fretboard.  I'm wanting a really hard board, so I'll probably put on at least 7 or 8 coats of TruOil (the first coat is curing on the back of the neck now. A coat a day until this weekend, then I get to the fretboard.)  Don't really see the need to go with Epoxy, since this board is already so perfectly smooth, and just needs a bit more hardening.

For going forward, I don't have the discretionary spending budget for a custom Warmoth body  :sad:, and I don't want to see that Stratacoustic go to waste.  So I'll be doing 2 instruments:

I'll likely grab a Squire or MIM strat (or maybe a Tele) used of craigslist, strip the finish off the body & rebuild it for the baritone neck.  I have an idea about how to subtly reshape the body, and I'd replace all the hardware & pickups with good quality MIA stuff.

The squire neck would be defretted & glued into the Stratacoustic body.  It's possible I won't need to defret it, but intonation can be easily thrown off if the neck isn't perfectly set, and with no adjustable bridge, it's safer to have a fretless instrument that would be (well, for me at least) far more playable.

Also, that way I won't need to decide between open G and new standard tunings!  :guitaristgif:

 

[Nando Vallart]

Weird and cool

 

[SlingBass]

Despite what your handle might seem to indicate - *I* believe you have much of value to share!  Intriguing build approaches  :guitaristgif:

 

[22frets]

Fretless guitar is pretty wild!  I saw Adrian Belew in concert many years ago and he played one.  It's a pretty unique & creates some beautiful sounds.  Good luck and keep us updated on the project!

I found this guy Ned Evett playing fretless on YouTube:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjiF4DtDyyA[/youtube]

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

The statocoustic uses the vintage neck shape....All birdseye maple....

Did you do that one, Dangerous?  The bolt holes on that back pic look similar to mine (ie - not symetrical, not drilled in proportion to standard Fender).  Did you drill the neck yourself?

If so, you certainly have the skills to fix the neck hole foible from the factory

I might, but I don't have access to a drill press at the moment - just handheld tools - so I wouldn't dare try to fix it with those. 

3 coats of Tru Oil are on the back, and I'm leaving it there (don't want it totally raw, but close).  The first coat on the fretboard is curing now, pics & updates coming soon to the Work In Progress section!

 

[kdownes]

David Fiuczynski is an absolute master of the fretless guitar:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09o2JI73sA[/youtube]

Check out his album "Kif" -- great stuff, really innovative.  Bumblefoot plays fretless sometimes, too.

 

[DangerousR6]

The statocoustic uses the vintage neck shape....All birdseye maple....

Did you do that one, Dangerous?  The bolt holes on that back pic look similar to mine (ie - not symetrical, not drilled in proportion to standard Fender).  Did you drill the neck yourself?

If so, you certainly have the skills to fix the neck hole foible from the factory

I might, but I don't have access to a drill press at the moment - just handheld tools - so I wouldn't dare try to fix it with those. 

3 coats of Tru Oil are on the back, and I'm leaving it there (don't want it totally raw, but close).  The first coat on the fretboard is curing now, pics & updates coming soon to the Work In Progress section!

Nope, I didn't do anything but take the old neck off and put the new one on. Holes lined up perfectly, actually the Fender neck is just a bit wider than the Warmoth neck.

 

[DangerousR6]

Fretless guitar is pretty wild!  I saw Adrian Belew in concert many years ago and he played one.  It's a pretty unique & creates some beautiful sounds.  Good luck and keep us updated on the project!

I found this guy Ned Evett playing fretless on YouTube:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjiF4DtDyyA[/youtube]

That's pretty cool, the fretboard looks like it's a mirror..... :icon_scratch:

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Nope, I didn't do anything but take the old neck off and put the new one on. Holes lined up perfectly, actually the Fender neck is just a bit wider than the Warmoth neck.

EEEEeenteresting.... I think I might try shimming it and fitting it again.  I know for sure one of the holes is a bit off perpendicular, but I could probably take care of that. 

This bit of news has inspired a short play inside my brain, the first act of which I will share with all of you now:

"The Spirit of Compromise?"
Act I

Dramatis Personae:
The Finance Manager - wary of income to debt ratios, plus expenditures of higher importance, such as the house repairs & mortgage.
The Player - needing (as is said in the vernacular) to RAWK out, as well as more musical variation for the production of soundtracks & demos.

[curtain]
The Finance Manager "I sincerely hope this neck pocket can be repaired so that we won't have to get a new body for this neck".

The Player: "Yeah, but then we won't end up with 2 new fretless guitars!"

The Finance Manager: "True, but the money we save says -"

The Player: "Dude: TWO. NEW. FRETLESS. GUITARS!"

The Finance Manager: "Will you let me finish?  The money we save now gets us that much closer to being able to order a Wenge 7 string baritone neck and Walnut body."

The Player: "For Sooth!  Good sir, let us hope a neck shim, the redrilling of a bolt hole, and the proper adjustments might speed us toward that goal!"

[exit, curtain]
:icon_jokercolor:

Fretless guitar is pretty wild!  I saw Adrian Belew in concert many years ago and he played one.  It's a pretty unique & creates some beautiful sounds.  Good luck and keep us updated on the project!

I found this guy Ned Evett playing fretless on YouTube:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjiF4DtDyyA[/youtube]

That's pretty cool, the fretboard looks like it's a mirror..... :icon_scratch:

Yep - Ned Evett uses highly polished metal (and the occasional glass) fretboards.

http://unfretted.org/loader.php?LINK=interviews/ned_evett

 

[-CB-]

dramatis something... thats for sure

 

[DangerousR6]

Nope, I didn't do anything but take the old neck off and put the new one on. Holes lined up perfectly, actually the Fender neck is just a bit wider than the Warmoth neck.

EEEEeenteresting.... I think I might try shimming it and fitting it again.  I know for sure one of the holes is a bit off perpendicular, but I could probably take care of that. 

This bit of news has inspired a short play inside my brain, the first act of which I will share with all of you now:

"The Spirit of Compromise?"
Act I

Dramatis Personae:
The Finance Manager - wary of income to debt ratios, plus expenditures of higher importance, such as the house repairs & mortgage.
The Player - needing (as is said in the vernacular) to RAWK out, as well as more musical variation for the production of soundtracks & demos.

[curtain]
The Finance Manager "I sincerely hope this neck pocket can be repaired so that we won't have to get a new body for this neck".

The Player: "Yeah, but then we won't end up with 2 new fretless guitars!"

The Finance Manager: "True, but the money we save says -"

The Player: "Dude: TWO. NEW. FRETLESS. GUITARS!"

The Finance Manager: "Will you let me finish?  The money we save now gets us that much closer to being able to order a Wenge 7 string baritone neck and Walnut body."

The Player: "For Sooth!  Good sir, let us hope a neck shim, the redrilling of a bolt hole, and the proper adjustments might speed us toward that goal!"

[exit, curtain]
:icon_jokercolor:

I do need to adjust the action on mine, it's a bit higher than I'd like it to be. It may need a bit of shim under the neck to get it right, the Warmoth neck isn't as thick as the Fender at the heel. It is playable, but I like my action to be quite low, I seem to get "fumble fingers" when it's not....

Nice play..