Strat Ultra contoured heel neck screw relocation

[BluezMax]

Hi fellow guitar enthusiasts !

So I've been building my new #1 and ran into a small issue.
A few months back, I ordered a roasted maple neck from Warmoth with the modern construction truss rod with the fine adjustment on the side of the neck.
That worked fine on my standard strat body for a while but I just had a Strat Ultra style body cut out of a Korina slab with the contoured heel and realized one of the neck screws seems to be perfectly lined up with the side truss rod adjustment screw.
I ordered a blank strat Ultra style back plate and realized it was going to be a problem as soon as I lined the 3 pieces together. Maybe the neck screw will clear the truss rod adjustment screw by millimeters if I use the neck plate I ordered.
Or I could make my own backplate and relocate the problematic hole over by a few mm so it would clear the truss rod screw....

Any thoughts ?

Thanks !

 

[Strat Avenger]

Yeah, you definitely screwed up. I always order the Vintage Modern necks when I do the Fender contoured heel.
You might want to save that neck for a different guitar body.

 

[Spud]

I am worried that it is going to be too close to the mechanism. A few mils probably isn't enough distance to be safe. Dunno for sure.

 

[stratamania]

It is a well known area of incompatibility.

• Fender's® rounded heel is not compatible with our Modern necks, due to the location of the Side Adjust Mechanism:

Ref: https://warmoth.com/guitar-neck-fit

 

[Rick]

Start a new project.

 

[aarontunes]

 

[ruscio]

I'm not going to argue that it's a *good* idea to do it, but I will admit that I'm well aware of the "area of incompatibility" and that I've safely ignored it on several occasions. For example, I contoured the heel on this Warmoth strat body using a Fender rounded neck plate as a guide, and it's been attached to this Warmoth modern construction neck since January 2020 with no issues.



I cut one of the neck screws short enough that it would barely, gently touch the truss rod adjuster when "fully" screwed in. That fourth screw provides little, if any, mechanical support for the neck, it's mainly there for aesthetics. I've tried this on more than one guitar (all Warmoth bodies + necks) using only the other 3 screws, and they all held just fine (for months or years), haven't had a failure yet. I only use 9s, now 8s, and obviously I can't say with any confidence how long this will hold or when/if it might fail.

If it were my business making these parts, I'd probably discourage people from doing this, too, but having put my own parts at risk I feel pretty good about ignoring this particular note of caution. YMMV.

 

[NedRyerson]

I'm not going to argue that it's a *good* idea to do it, but I will admit that I'm well aware of the "area of incompatibility" and that I've safely ignored it on several occasions. For example, I contoured the heel on this Warmoth strat body using a Fender rounded neck plate as a guide, and it's been attached to this Warmoth modern construction neck since January 2020 with no issues.

View attachment 61505

I cut one of the neck screws short enough that it would barely, gently touch the truss rod adjuster when "fully" screwed in. That fourth screw provides little, if any, mechanical support for the neck, it's mainly there for aesthetics. I've tried this on more than one guitar (all Warmoth bodies + necks) using only the other 3 screws, and they all held just fine (for months or years), haven't had a failure yet. I only use 9s, now 8s, and obviously I can't say with any confidence how long this will hold or when/if it might fail.

If it were my business making these parts, I'd probably discourage people from doing this, too, but having put my own parts at risk I feel pretty good about ignoring this particular note of caution. YMMV.

Your mileage will definitely vary!