davegardner0
Senior Member
- Messages
- 240
I thought I'd start documenting one of my projects that's in-progress and half done as of now.
Here's a Squier Tele Custom that I bought when I was first learning to play, in 2003 I think. Of course the guitar has a lot of wear on it but the main problem is that it has a super skinny neck which is really not my taste any more. So I haven't played it for years but I'd like to start again!
My general plan is to replace the neck with something by Warmoth, and also upgrade the pickups and electronics. The body is solid wood (surprise!), and is made of Agathis wood which seems to be standard for Made in Indonesia™ guitars of the era. It supposedly sounds a lot like Mahogany but is very soft. So, the super thick black finish will stay on for structural reasons. And I'll need to do something about the pickguard screw holes which feel like they're half stripped out.
The first thing I did was measure a lot to see if my Squier's neck pocket is cut to the standard Fender spec or something different. I really wasn't sure because the neck is so skinny. Luckily though the pocket's width and height is correct. The depth is actually a bit TOO deep though, looks to be 11/16" instead of the standard 5/8". Luckily I found a guy online who sells a nice shim, along with some good info on neck pocket depths which explains why my neck pocket is cut too deep:
https://aperioguitar.com/what-you-dont-know-about-fender-necks-and-should/
https://aperioguitar.com/product/neck-shim-040/
The second thing I noticed about the Squier body and neck is that the neck holes aren't actually drilled in the right place inside the neck pocket. They're set back towards the bridge by maybe 1-2mm, and the whole neck plate is also rotated a bit (didn't get a shot of this before disassembling the guitar). I thought about ordering a Warmoth neck with no neck holes and drilling it to match the body, but something about purposely having things crooked bothers me. So the plan is to route out the body holes in the neck pocket to the correct location. The holes will be oversized but luckily the screws don't need to thread into the body anyway.
I ordered a neck!
And a month later it arrived!
It's much, much bigger than the Squier neck...perfect!!
This is also my first experience with roasted maple, stainless steel frets, and a compound radius on any guitar I've owned. So far WOW the roasted maple is really cool! The plan is to burnish the wood everywhere except the headstock face which I'm going to finish. I think the unfinished neck will match my beat up body pretty well (hopefully) and I love satin necks anyway.
Here's a Squier Tele Custom that I bought when I was first learning to play, in 2003 I think. Of course the guitar has a lot of wear on it but the main problem is that it has a super skinny neck which is really not my taste any more. So I haven't played it for years but I'd like to start again!
My general plan is to replace the neck with something by Warmoth, and also upgrade the pickups and electronics. The body is solid wood (surprise!), and is made of Agathis wood which seems to be standard for Made in Indonesia™ guitars of the era. It supposedly sounds a lot like Mahogany but is very soft. So, the super thick black finish will stay on for structural reasons. And I'll need to do something about the pickguard screw holes which feel like they're half stripped out.
The first thing I did was measure a lot to see if my Squier's neck pocket is cut to the standard Fender spec or something different. I really wasn't sure because the neck is so skinny. Luckily though the pocket's width and height is correct. The depth is actually a bit TOO deep though, looks to be 11/16" instead of the standard 5/8". Luckily I found a guy online who sells a nice shim, along with some good info on neck pocket depths which explains why my neck pocket is cut too deep:
https://aperioguitar.com/what-you-dont-know-about-fender-necks-and-should/
https://aperioguitar.com/product/neck-shim-040/
The second thing I noticed about the Squier body and neck is that the neck holes aren't actually drilled in the right place inside the neck pocket. They're set back towards the bridge by maybe 1-2mm, and the whole neck plate is also rotated a bit (didn't get a shot of this before disassembling the guitar). I thought about ordering a Warmoth neck with no neck holes and drilling it to match the body, but something about purposely having things crooked bothers me. So the plan is to route out the body holes in the neck pocket to the correct location. The holes will be oversized but luckily the screws don't need to thread into the body anyway.
I ordered a neck!
And a month later it arrived!
It's much, much bigger than the Squier neck...perfect!!
This is also my first experience with roasted maple, stainless steel frets, and a compound radius on any guitar I've owned. So far WOW the roasted maple is really cool! The plan is to burnish the wood everywhere except the headstock face which I'm going to finish. I think the unfinished neck will match my beat up body pretty well (hopefully) and I love satin necks anyway.