Neck heel width

[screwtop]

Hi all, I have a Warmoth body and SuperWide neck, and was wondering about interchangeability with other guitars. The heel seems to measure larger than spec: 56.16 mm (2.211") at the heel of the neck itself, and 56.2 mm (2.213") across the neck pocket in the body.  This is considerably larger than the Warmoth spec of 55.5625 mm (2 3/16").  Aperio Guitar give 55.626 mm (2.19") as typical for Fender factory parts.

My Godin Artisan TC neck measures 55.96 mm (2.203") at the heel, but even the pocket on that is too small for the Warmoth neck (and the Godin neck in the Warmoth body has a bit of angular play, although it's fairly snug otherwise).  I don't have any real Fenders handy for comparison/testing.

Any thoughts on the discrepancy?  Is the specified dimension prior to finishing?  That would seem strange, as the pocket is unfinished and would be the logical dimension to specify.  Something special about the SuperWide, or the angled neck pocket (for Schaller 456 bridge)?

 

[bagman67]

The Warmoth neck is within what I would call acceptable tolerances for the Warmoth claim on the website (0.16 mm off spec = "close enough for the kinda girls I date.").  Obviously with machine-made parts, you expect the tolerances to be tight, but every part is also hand-sanded, and if Joe on the sanding crew hasn't had his Wheaties, he might not take off that extra tenth (or less) of a millimeter. 


Note Warmoth's figures are not precise.  They claim 2-3/16" = 56 mm, which anyone with a calculator can tell you is not straight up equal, but I'm disinclined to quibble over 4 hundredths of a millimeter when we're talking about wood, which will probably vary by that much if I take it out of the house and let it sit on the front porch in the cold for twenty minutes. 





But anyway: you have either one of, or both of: an out-of-spec Warmoth part, or else the Godin body has a not-quite-to-Fender-spec pocket.  Doesn't really matter which. It's fixable.  if you want to make the Warmoth neck fit in the Godin body, your approach should be to use a block wrapped in sandpaper to widen the pocket on the body, a teensy bit at a time, rather than narrow the neck heel.


As it happens, with all the various Fender bodies coming from all over the planet at the various trim levels they offer, many Fender bodies are not to the same spec Warmoth is contractually bound to adhere to.  Fender QC is nowhere near Warmoth's at the non-Custom-Shop level.  I know Godin makes very nice stuff at a very reasonable price, but I have no idea what spec they purport to adhere to, so I have no opinion on that score.

 

[screwtop]

Good thoughts, and as you say, 56 mm is certainly not 2+3/16" - I wonder which dimension they actually use on the factory floor.  If they are making them to a 56 mm spec, 56.2 mm wouldn't be too far off the mark.  However, if they really are supposed to be 2 3/16", that's 0.6 mm off!  It's worth noting that the Warmoth neck does fit the Warmoth body very well.

The reason I'm curious about all this is that I'd like to make a few bodies and necks of my own, and I'd like them to be compatible with the majority of what's out there.  Maybe I shouldn't bother, and just make them fit together, but it would be handy to test with a factory neck until I get my head around the details of building a neck myself (bodies seem much simpler!).

Thanks!

 

[screwtop]

Oh, actually, equating 2+3/16" with 56 mm is 4 tenths of a mm off, not 4 hundredths:

56 mm - (2 + 3/16) inch -> mm
7/16 (exactly 0.4375)

(That's Frink syntax.)

I made another test pocket yesterday and I have to increase the heel width to 56.2 mm (from 55.56 mm) and the virtual nut width to 49 mm (from 42.8 mm) in order to get the pocket big enough for the SuperWide.  That seems a pretty big change.  I'll see if I can borrow some Fender parts to compare, but I'd love to hear measurements from anyone else with either a conventional or a SuperWide Warmoth neck...

 

[bagman67]

sorry, asleep at the switch, apparently.

 

[screwtop]

No problem - appreciate the input.

After doing some more testing, 49 mm at the nut is a little big at the nut end of the pocket, so it probably should be 48 mm.  I just realised that this is the actual nut width of the SuperWide.  Anyway, more evidence that my SuperWide neck doesn't quite match the Fender USA pocket standard.

I'm now leaning toward a custom pocket for my own builds. It would mean I can use screw inserts and ferrules for fastening the neck, and can avoid the fingerboard overhang if I go for 24 frets and a wider fingerboard.  Part of me still wants to be able to swap necks out, though...!