NND, Squier Strat

[TConnelly]

Greetings all!

First post here. I've been lurking for a while and drooling over the guitars and parts. Finally decided to go ahead and replace the neck on the Squier Strat that my son gave me. It's an 06 Indonesian Affinity with a super narrow neck. I'm 6mo. into learning guitar and I just couldn't come to grips with a neck that wasn't much more than 1 9/16" wide at the nut. My accoustic is 1 11/16" and I felt like I kept having to reinvent the wheel every time I switched guitars. Plus the original neck was mounted crooked in the body. To the point that the fouth string was overlapping the face dots on one side and the third was an eighth inch away on the other.

So I ordered a rosewood over roasted maple with m.o.p. face dots and stainless 6105 frets. Love it! Here are some pics of the project.

Hmmm, not sure if the pics will work. I'm not seeing an upload option. Oh well We'll see.

Cheers............Todd

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Very nice. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Timmsie95]

Now that you've had a taste of the W side, when you ordering your first complete Warmoth build?  :laughing7:

 

[TConnelly]

Thanks for the warm welcome folks!

Yes I know, really gassing for a Mooncaster. I only hope they're still around by the time I'm able to pull the trigger. They don't seem to be all that popular.

I meant to add some details about the project. But I thougtht I'd better get this posted before the browser in this stupid tablet crashed again. (I spent an hour and a half writing out a post last week and this thing crashed when I tried to post it). grrrrrr!

Anyway I wanted to mention in case someone else has thoughts of replacing a Squier neck, that it may or may not wind up being the simple bolt on procedure that one might hope. I don't know if you can tell from the photos but the Squier neck heel and pocket is quite a bit rounder than the Fender standard that Warmoth uses. Plus the bolt holes weren't remotely close. I was faced with a conundrum. My original thought was to use the neck in this body for a while and then get a new Warmoth body to go with it. And give the Squier back to my son when he has room for it.

So I could hog out the pocket in the body or sand the neck heel to fit. If I hog out the body and pick guard then the original neck won't fit it anymore. If I sand the neck heel then it won't fit a Warmoth body. I decided to sand the neck heel. Figured I could shim the neck and get an unrouted pickguard if I ever got a body to put it in. Had to take off quite a bit of material from the corners as well as some from the center. I'd measured from the crown of the 21st fret of the original neck to a neck pickup pole piece and made sure to only sand the new neck until it matched. Once I got the neck to fit the pocket the screw holes were still off quite a bit. I had to slot the holes in the body with a rat tail file. Wasn't too hard I only needed to go a half a hole or so. Once I got it all mounted up the intonation was right on the money. And the best part is there was just enough slop in the neck pocket to tweak the neck over enough to get the strings centered.

Anyway thanks for the welcome and ccasion14:

Cheers.................Todd

 

[Logrinn]

Nice work. Excellent.
:icon_thumright:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Nothing can ever be easy, can it?

Seems like there's a lot of folks interested in the Mooncaster, but actual builds don't seem to come around too often. I for one will look forward to seeing your build if you choose to pursue it!

 

[Glimmer]

Seems like there's a lot of folks interested in the Mooncaster, but actual builds don't seem to come around too often. I for one will look forward to seeing your build if you choose to pursue it!

You can count me as one of them, though for the time being I gotta keep it under wraps.  :glasses10: