Neck wood for this old body of mine?

[nathan a]

This is my 'old' Fender strat from 2003. I have never much liked this guitar's sound or feel. Stock pups are too tinny and lack dimension, and the neck just doesn't feel nice to me. It has graphtech stringsaver saddles and string trees. And I think it is a kinda ugly guitar.

So, I want to be able to play my strat. I have decided to keep the body, without refinishing it. I like all the scrapes and chips it has earned. I want a new neck, pups/electronics, tremolo, and pickguard. The pickups will almost definitely be the Fralin/callaham hendrix/srv set.

Now-- what neck woods? I am open to anything as long as it will still sound 'stratty'. A warmer version of stratty is good too. Mainly, I need to know what woods you think will LOOK the best when combined with this kinda ugly blue? I've been thinking about goncalo on goncalo, or bubinga/bubinga. Thoughts? Make my guitar sexy!

EDIT: I know we love our exotic woods, but it is still legal to say that you think a maple neck would look the best.

 

[UTSC]

From an aesthetic point, goncalo is what I would choose. It has an amber quality to it that would go well with the aged look on the body. I would also go with aged hardware (i.e. parchment pickup covers, etc).

 

[tfarny]

Sounds like a fun project. I would also consider the Dimarzio 'area' series pups - I'm going to post some clips in the next week or so. I'm so impressed by the vintage strat tone they get, and I'm positive the absence of string pull contributes to resonance and sustain, plus you can get them really close to the strings. I like their sound better than the SD SSL-1 set I had in there, even without considering noiselessness, and I love finally having a nice fat bridge pickup to go to (VV 54 pro backed up right close to the strings).

White pearl PG and all-canary neck FTW!!
I would also say, consider wenge / ebony mainly because it's so freaking cool. Cool goes with everything.

 

[Rouse]

Sounds like a fun project. I would also consider the Dimarzio 'area' series pups - I'm going to post some clips in the next week or so. I'm so impressed by the vintage strat tone they get, and I'm positive the absence of string pull contributes to resonance and sustain, plus you can get them really close to the strings. I like their sound better than the SD SSL-1 set I had in there, even without considering noiselessness, and I love finally having a nice fat bridge pickup to go to (VV 54 pro backed up right close to the strings).

White pearl PG and all-canary neck FTW!!
I would also say, consider wenge / ebony mainly because it's so freaking cool. Cool goes with everything.

The Area's are noiseless and don't sound as good as true single coils (been looking at single coils extensively for months now), look into Lollar's Blackface, Blonde, and Tweed sets. All canary would look fantastic btw!

 

[nathan a]

Okay, noted. One vote for goncalo, two votes for all canary. I could see that looking nice... I made a photochop but it doesn't do justice.

Tim the Area noiseless pickups might sound nice but as this will be the only strat, I want to go true single coil, you know?

 

[stormbringer]

Having a solid canary neck, I would definately recommend it!

 

[Superlizard]

A maple neck would look best... do you want your geetar to look like a geetar, or like a piece of expensive furniture?

Better pickups...

And get a real 6 hole trem with real stamped saddles.

Stop screwin' around, man!   :icon_biggrin:

 

[rockskate4x]

canary will make it look like a great dang guitar! Although I agree that maple is more classy... but I'd still pick canary over it in a heartbeat for its feel.

 

[Soylent]

Having a solid canary neck, I would definately recommend it!

+1 my strat has a canary back neck.. I love it too much.

 

[neuftone]

What don't you like about the neck in particular?  Is the fretwork rough or damaged, is it the shape or back contour, is it the RW fretboard, or is it the finish itself?  I think the guitar as is looks fairly decent, in a plain jane sort of way.  Depending on what it is about the neck you don't like...if that can be fixed somehow (a big if) without replacing it you can then just get a great set of pups and have a great sounding guitar.  I would vote Fralin if you are wanting this to stay 100% strat, I've been very impressed with the pickups I've bought from him in the past.

As far as aesthetics, they are in the eye of the beholder, of course.  It doesn't look objectionable to me but it is a bit on the plain side.  I wonder about a black pickguard and black pickup covers?  Maybe not, maybe a bit too "eighties strat".  Or just leave it as is and make it sound so good noone cares what it looks like!