Put in the order for a body - now help me decide on a neck and pickup

[Ace Flibble]

After a couple of years now um-ing and ah-ing over Jazzmasters, I've finally gone ahead and put in the order. It's not a traditional Jazzmaster build by any stretch but it's the outline I love. Can't decide on a neck though.


Skip over this part if you don't have time to kill. The body I've ordered is alder with a transparent purple finish, narrow Strat hardtail bridge, black/white/black pickguard cut HSH with a 3-way upper toggle switch, no lower switch, one control pot and the jack mounted in the pickguard. I intend to use a SD Phat Cat P-90 in the neck, another nickel/chrome covered humbucker in the bridge and a black Fender Texas Special single coil in the middle. I'll have the single coil and the bridge humbucker going to either a push-pull pot or a on-on mini switch, eithe rof which will select which pickup goes to the 3-way toggle (the neck will always go to the 3-way). I intend to wire the bridge pickup out of phase with the neck too so the options will be neck/n&b out of phase/b and neck/n&m/middle (before anyone mentions five-ways: I use the neck&bridge out of phase tone a lot, I've never found any use for middle&bridge tones. So this way makes the most sense). I've already got the Phat Cat and Texas Special sitting around here going unused, hence those choices (plus they're my favourite neck pickup and middle pickup anyway); not sure on the bridge humbucker model yet. My main problem is I'm undecided on the neck. I've wanted a one-piece rosewood neck for a long time but they do rather cost a lot and while I've always liked the idea of them, I don't have any actual experience with them so I can't really tell if they'd suit the sort of tone I like. Generally speaking I like very bright tones so obviously that's the opposite of rosewood.


So, transparent purple over alder, black/white/black pickguard, chrome/nickel hardware.

Now, what neck?

I'm still madly in love with my unfinished purpleheart & ebony neck but I don't want a second purpleheart neck, its colouring would clash with the more blue-ish purple Warmoth use for paint. I'd like to stick to an unfinished neck, though since my only experience is with purpleheart I don't know what to go for really. Or maybe just a good old standard all-maple neck, give a bit of contrast? I can't decide. All I am sure on is 1) it must not clash with the look of the body, 2) it needs a balanced to slightly bright tone and 3) three necks in and I'm still not used to the compound fretboard, so it's got to be a straight radius if people happen to spot something suitable in the showcase.

So, opinions wanted: neck and fingerboards that won't look sucky with purple and that don't lose all the treble and harmonics either.

And if anyone's feeling up to it, bridge humbucker ideas wouldn't go unappreciated either. Needs to be available in the UK and have 4-conductor wiring, a nickel or chrome cover and low-medium output; it also must not be or sound like a SD JB (the spawn of Satan, as far as I'm concerned). Other than that I'm open to all ideas. I intend for this guitar to become my E Standard all-rounder so I'm not after any particular total vintage or ultra-modern sound. What do people think is the best jack-of-all-trades bridge humbucker? I'm thinking maybe an Alnico II Pro, maybe a Custom 5. Perhaps a Bare Knuckle Mule (although I've not had great experiences with Bare Knuckle so far) or Gibson BurstBucker Pro? I hear good things about the Irongear Blues Engine too.

C'mon, help me sort this out, make this the best guitar I could ask for. The missus is going to absolutely crucify me if I need to make a fifth one after this

 

[Corey P.]

Well re: the neck, if you want bright tone and you're going with a black pickguard it could be cool to go maple with black block inlays, a la:



Clicking the pic leads to the showcase, it has a straight 9.5" radius, too.

With very limited research and zero first-hand experience, I dig the SD Pearly Gates bridge pickup.

 

[blueruins]

Your damn straight that neck would look boss!!!

 

[Cagey]

If you want a brighter tone but want to go unfinished, I would highly recommend an ebony over pau ferro neck. Pau ferro is a very smooth, dense, bright wood that sounds much like maple, but doesn't need a finish. Feels great. The ebony would continue the black pickguard theme and wouldn't clash with the purple like almost anything else will.

Of course, you have to have stainless frets. Don't even think about anything else. And unless you're one of those players who maintains a death grip on the neck so you're constantly out of tune, don't be afraid to get something meaty, like 6105s or 6100s. Your accuracy and articulation will improve, bends get easier, etc.

If you want to go a little lighter-color on the neck wood and still no finish, you could do ebony over canary as well. Supposed to return about the same results I've described. I don't have one of those yet, so I can't say from personal experience, but from everything I've read that's the case. I believe Hannaugh built a purple Strat with an all-canary neck. Look through the GOTM thread and you should be able to find it.

As for a bridge pickup, you're on your own. These days, they all sound great but different from each other, so to pick what you'd like isn't something somebody else can do. It's a purely subjective call.

Edit: Here's Hannaugh's axe - won GOTM in June of last year (details)...

 

[Ace Flibble]

The maple with the black does look rather tasty, I recently got a Jazz bass with a maple neck/black block inlays/black binding that I've quickly grown fond of, that's certainly a contender. Ebony with almost anything does make sense too. Not too sold on Canary as a fingerboard wood but for the neck stock it looks like it could be okay. Thinking either canary & ebony or maple w/ black inlays is going to be the way to go.

I hadn't planned on going with stainless steel frets actually because I prefer low and wide frets ala 6130 wire or 6150 after crowning, neither of which is available in steel form. It's a shame because I did try 6105 SS wire on my last neck and I certainly can feel the improvement when bending, but I do play with a "death grip" so tall frets are out. I never play lead anyway so it's not that much of a loss. Still, if you're listening Warmoth, SS 6130 wire please!