reprofiling a neck

[vtpcnk]

i have a neck which is .830 at the first fret and .930 at the 12th.

is it possible to sand down the neck to .810 at the first fret and still maintain the .930 at the 12th fret?

in doing this, i am particularly worried about maintaining the even feel of the neck from the first to the twelfth fret. i don't want it to be thin at the lower frets and suddenly get thick somewhere in the middle. i want the feel to be gradual and even.

i don't plan to do this myself, but will get somebody who makes guitars to do that. but want to know if it can be done and how complex a job it would be.

 

[Cagey]

Yes, it's possible. That profile would be dimensionally similar to what Warmoth calls a "Wolfgang" contour, although the Wolfgang is asymmetrical. See variations here.

Once you get pricing for modifying your neck, you might want to check what buying a new neck with that profile would cost. It may not be that much different and you'd end up with new frets (get stainless steel - you can thank me later), and possibly more interesting woods. You might even be able to sell your neck to help finance it.

 

[vtpcnk]

.810 to .930 indicates a .120 taper (which btw is the measurement of the (slim) taper of the neck of the gibson lp jr i have).

that apparently is not a easy taper to do.

another neck manufacturer similar to warmoth whose company name starts with usa told me that his cnc machine can support only a max .100 taper.

so not sure if i can get a conversion neck (without the double trussrod) with those measurements.

 

[Cagey]

That amount of taper isn't a problem for Warmoth, but again the closest they come to what you want is the Wolfgang profile. Also, if you want a conversion neck, that's going to have a dual-action truss rod. Not sure why you wouldn't want that - it makes for an incredibly stable neck.

It's probably worth a call out there to talk about it. The sales guys are remarkably sharp, and the company's capabilities are greater than what is advertised on the website.

 

[vtpcnk]

>Also, if you want a conversion neck, that's going to have a dual-action truss rod. Not sure why you >wouldn't want that - it makes for an incredibly stable neck.

the double truss rod makes the neck very heavy and also robs it of its natural woody tone.

i have bought 3 warmoth conversion necks in the past - only to replace them with usacg necks which are lighter and more resonant.

but with the usacg necks i faced playability issues - even with the same dimensions as the warmoth standard thin, usacg necks strangely feel very thin in the higher frets (past 12th) which i feel might be due to a lack of shoulder in their 'C' contour.

so i tried their 63 contour in my 7th neck (after 3 warmoths and 3 usacgs) and found the 'lower' part of the neck at .830 to be too thick.

man, after spending so much money i think i am going to give up my quest for a good sounding/playing strat and tele (too frustrating!!!) and stick to gibsons.

 

[Cagey]

I didn't think the dual-action truss rod added much weight, or at least not enough to be concerned about. I attributed much of the added weight I've felt in my necks to the denser exotic woods they've been made from. But, I recently had occasion to deal with Modern Vintage Rosewood over Maple neck, and the difference was dramatic. Thing was featherweight compared to what I was used to from Warmoth.

 

[Kostas]

...so i tried their 63 contour in my 7th neck (after 3 warmoths and 3 usacgs) and found the 'lower' part of the neck at .830 to be too thick.

man, after spending so much money i think i am going to give up my quest for a good sounding/playing strat and tele (too frustrating!!!) and stick to gibsons.

I know it's just different taste in neck shapes but it seems so strange to me when you say .830 is thick! For me it's too thin...
Why don't you make a custom neck at USACG? They are more versatile than Warmoth in the neck shapes. After so many necks you must know what you like and what you don't.

I agree about the dual truss rod. Of the four necks I have from Warmoth only one is a PRO because they don't make it with VM construction and I can feel the extra weight. It doesn't bother me, I'm a bedroom player so it's not like I have to play all night in a bar, but it would be good if it wasn't there.

Unfortunately the dual truss rod is a Warmoth thing and they promote it heavily, same with the compound radius. The VM construction has limited choices. Even the Jaguar (a vintage guitar) is availiable only with PRO construction.

 

[vtpcnk]

I didn't think the dual-action truss rod added much weight, or at least not enough to be concerned about. I attributed much of the added weight I've felt in my necks to the denser exotic woods they've been made from. But, I recently had occasion to deal with Modern Vintage Rosewood over Maple neck, and the difference was dramatic. Thing was featherweight compared to what I was used to from Warmoth.

without doubt. i had three pro conversion necks on a strat/tele/jazzmaster. with all of them, the neck weight kept pulling it down neck side and i had to constantly struggle to maintain the guitar in position.

with the standard single truss rod neck, even with a lightweight thinline body, i faced no such problems.

 

[Cagey]

I've never had neck dive problems on any of these, but it certainly adds to the overall hung weight of the instrument.