Problem: Fitting Warmoth neck to Non-warmoth body

[Providence]

Hello all! I'm thinking of buying warmoth neck and adjust it to other guitar's body. But as I know, warmoth is 2 3/16in. wide at 22 fret and neck pocket of that body is 2 1/4in. so, there will be a small gap between neck and body.

what do you think, will this affect sound/sustain and what can I do in this case?

thanks

 

[AutoBat]

What guitar are you trying to fit?  Make/Model/Year may be helpful.
It looks like you've already read http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/faq2.aspx about the neck pocket.

The heel is at fret 21. The 22 & 24 fret necks have a fretboard extension.
Are you certain your current guitar is 2+1/4" (2+4/16") ?  It's possible it's a 2+3/16" with poor tolerances.

I replaced the neck on my MIM Strat. The original neck had space to fit a pick on either side of the pocket, the W replacement is snug as can be. Dust can't even get in there now.
Hope this helps, and welcome to the board!

 

[Providence]

Thank you for reply
I'm thinking of buying some cheaper telecaster body from some other sites, or even guitar and putting warmoth neck there. I don't remember, but at some place (mightymite or guitarfetish or somewherre else) Ive seen that neck pocket width is 2+1/4. after reviewing warmoth neck dimensions I found out that it's 2+3/16. Since warmoth says that it makes original Fender sizes, then original telecasters pocket width will be a hint.

does someone know what's Fender telecasters neck pocket width?

 

[Providence]

yeah it's 2 3/16. I will have gap. I'm only worrying for sustain. gap itself is no problem.

 

[mayfly]

I've had three non W bodies lately. All have required work to the neck pocket .

 

[Providence]

when pocket is narrow it's great - you can adjust it to neck's size. but when neck is smaller than pocket?..

will the gap affect the sound? sustain? is there something that can be put between body and neck to that gap?

 

[mayfly]

Back in the bad old days this happened all the time with bran- new fenders.  You just shimmed around the neck with any handy material. Cut up picks worked well because of the variety of thicknesses available.

IMHO- the extra cost of a warmoth body is worth it because you can avoid all this hassle.

Edit:  Fixed a typo above.  that should have been "Cut up picks"  :headbang:

 

[Providence]

extra cost of finished body is 300$ more. paying this money just for a gap...

 

[mayfly]

It's your guitar.  Do as you like.  Just letting you know what my experience and opinion is.

 

[Cagey]

extra cost of finished body is 300$ more. paying this money just for a gap...

It's less than that. It ranges between $170 and $245, depending on the type of finish. For instance, bursts require extra steps and so are at the higher end of the scale. It's a bargain, really - these things are exemplary - it's not some half-baked finish applied just to say they did. You'd probably have to see one to appreciate it. Plus, you get higher grades of wood, more choices, and predictable dimensions. Finally, they keep a pretty extensive stock of finished product in The Showcase, which always cost between 10% and 20% less than a custom build.

A raw part may seem less expensive, but when you consider how much work you're going to have to put into it to get it where you want it, it's no deal at all. You end up working for $.50 cents an hour.

 

[bagman67]

Having just received my first unfinished Warmoth body on the heels of two ebay bodies I picked up on the cheap, I can tell you that the learning experiences I had finishing the two cheapos would have been somewhat less painful had I bought Warmoth bodies.  The W body is absolutely perfectly ready for me to start finishing.  This was not the case with the other two - they required substantial additional prep.


The finished body I bought (search on Quty Pie if you want to see it) is the nicest bit of guitar finishing I could ever hope to own.  There are probably guitars out there, or finishers out there, that might be able to top it, but it wouldn't be worth the price to me to see it done.


Now, I do have another unfinished Warmoth body I bought from a third party, but at some point I reckon he soaked the top in water to see what the grain would look like finished - and the grain is raised somethin' fierce, so I'll have to sand it back.  Even so, I'm confident that the Warmoth neck I bought along with it will fit without undue modification.


Bagman

 

[stubhead]

The gap at the side of the neck will have minimal effect on tone, it does mean that a really hard knock will shift the neck sideways, which is why jamming some shims in the side(s) might help. The main force on the neck is pulling straight back towards the bridge, about 150 to 200 pounds pressure depending on string gauges. Flying V's have no neck pocket to speak of, and they work fine.

The tight neck pocket is a sign of precise engineering, that's all. There's a bitty trick for tightening the neck, might as well post it again: 

Wen you've got the whole thing together and strung up to pitch, slightly loosen the neck screws -  a quarter turn ought to do it. You may hear a satisfying "CLUNK!" as the strings pull the neck tight. Check for alignment side to side, then re-tighten the neck screws.

I might be more concerned about how wide the bridge is - it would seem like that neck pocket is wide for a reason? If the string spacing at the bridge is wider than about 2 3/16", you may have strings falling off both sides of the neck. Now, Warmoth makes a "Superwide" neck at no added cost:
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/Superwide_WarmothPro.aspx

In the second pix, you can see how they undercut it to make it fit a 2 3/16" pocket. You could ask them to not do the undercutting - only they can tell you.

Do you know the history of the body? I mean, was it from a 12-string or something? It's pretty odd for any manufacturer to go "off the reservation" of standard Fender specifications. But, as Mayflower mentioned above, "original Fender Specs" were pretty loose-fitting and they had to be for production reasons. They didn't have "luthiers" meticulously hand-fitting each neck to it's own body, they just had a bin full of necks and another one full of bodies, and every neck had to fit every pocket, or they're losing time. Brad Paisley and country/jazz blowtorch Scotty Anderson made their bones on 1968 Telecasters, and you could drive a truck through the gaps on the sides of those neck pockets.