****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This neck (maple fretboard) really exceeded my expectations. I wanted it for a DIY build where I need to cut a custom headstock so the paddle head is exactly what I need. By the way - this is a standard Strat style neck with a slightly rounded heel to fit into a Strat body (22 frets with hangover at the heel). It came well packed and no damage. Only a few "very minor" flaws but nothing that anyone would spot unless they looked at it under a microscope. Sighting the neck it looks spot on and likely it will need a minor fret dressing but that's normal in any new neck. Sharp fret ends are easily fixed by rubbing the edges up and down with a very fine sandpaper wrapped around a rubber eraser. The neck is sealed with some clear sealant so after I cut my headstock shape I'll rub some clear wipe-on poly around the cut/sanded edges to seal them. The dot markers on the fretboard and side dot markers were decent. I really only saw one slight variation in the 12th fret side dot marker but I can live with it since everything else is good. For this price the quality is exceptional.Great bass neck. Finish is very good with no fret over hang to cut your hand. Best one that I have found on Amazon.Disclaimer: I bought this product with the plan to use it unconventionally. I ordered "off the menu", so some points may not apply to traditional use. However, I discovered some problems with the product that are of note to all purchasers.As mentioned above, I bought this neck with the plan to remove the fret board and replace it with an ebony one from StewMac. These are the pros and cons to this neck, some of which were only apparent once the fret board was removed:The Good:The neck itself is straight.There is a full truss rod on the inside of the neck. I'm not sure about its functionality as my build hasn't been completed yet, but the rod is there.The paddle head is very large.The neck is level and flat from the heel to the back of the paddle (it sits firmly on a table).The neck has a very light finish on it, so it's easily sanded off.The neck wood is pretty good and easily workable.The truss rod is protected by some kind of plastic/glue combination inside the neck.The Bad: (most of which I didn't care about, since my build only needed the neck itself.)The fret board had some minor bowing and was not evenly planed.The nut is complete plastic garbage.The inlays look fine, but upon removal, are a weird rubbery-plastic composite.The fret board wood looked decent to play on, but upon removal, was very dry and stringy. Yuck.The frets are thin and probably would need to be replaced if played a lot.The Ugly:The fret board was a bear to remove. The conventional heat gun/iron approach wasn't fully successful. I ended up opening a pack of new wood chisels and hammering out the fret board.The heel wasn't shaped correctly. It was close, but I ended up routing it down to match my template to get a perfect fit. This is problematic because I used the original Strat/Tele schematics for the neck pocket, and the template was cut on a laser machine (GlowForge)... so I know that the template was correct and the neck was not.The REALLY Ugly:It became apparent only after removing the fret board that a good chunk of the heel (the corner) had been damaged or removed during production. Instead of throwing out the neck, the manufacturer filled the corner with a gross acrylic-like substance which, of course, chipped when I had to re-rout the heel. I had to refill and reshape the corner with wood filler and scrap flakes from the router.TLDR; I would only buy this neck if you have a wood shop or good woodworking skills at your disposal. Sure, this neck might fit your build out-of-the-box, but I wouldn't take that gamble unless you are a very lucky person. ;) However, if you need a neck for a weird build and don't need the fret board, this is a very good and affordable option.Box was beat to death, small portion of binding broke near the heel....got out the superglue and reattached it. No biggy, but, yeah, it was damaged on arrival. The binding ON the heel...well, after last fret, you know what I mean. Needs sanded BADLY...it looks like they ran it over a sander numerous times in the same direction, so there is a plastic "roll" hanging over the edge.Also, the DIY dimensions in the item description are incorrect. It states "DIY Size: about 3.94 x 6.1 x 0.39 inch"I just measured the "paddle" and it's 4 3/4 inches wide, and about 7 1/4 inches long. This is the flat portion of the headstock, after the slope from the nut/truss rod area.I mention this because I was planning ahead, designing my headstock last evening, before I received the neck. I based my design on their dimensions....and I have a TON more room than I thought.Just at first glance, the neck doesn't appear to be twisted, so there's that. It does have a really nice razor cut on the binding on the low side, from fret 13 to 16 1/2....it goes right though a dot. I'll try sanding it a bit to see how deep it goes. And there's something funky about the bit right behind the nut. On the high E side, it measures 5/32 of an inch, from the nut to where the slope starts. It's a hard slope, not contoured at all. But on the low E side it's only about 2/32 wide. It makes it "look" like the nut is crooked, but lines up with the first fret, and is equally distance from it all across. So, again, it's just another cosmetic annoyance. I could sand it level, I suppose.Just a bit more DIY than I had anticipated...I expected to create, not fix...So....FWIW. I have yet to put it on a guitar, or check anything like fret level, etc.It fit the body nice and tight, I barely had to sand it a bit. The frets are small as expected, which is fine with me. The frets need sanding on the edge...also expected. The nut needed a bit of sanding on the edges. It's very straight. The only real issue is that the fret markers are just slightly off, but fret spacing is perfect. For the price, I would do it again, I may even attempt a refret for stainless frets since there isn't much to lose here. The price definitely increases my courage to work on it.Update: now that I finished the project, the neck plays wonderfully and barely needed adjustment. Fret ends needed sanding but not much past that.A well finished guitar neck for the DIY guitar builder. Have no complaints to report. How do they make it for the price ?The good --The neck itself is ok its strait and the double truss rod works well.The bad -- All the frets are not seated they will have to be seated- The frets ends are like 42 very sharp little knifes and will have to be filled its un-playable in its current state.- The side markers are not inline looks bad.For the price its worth it anyways if your able to cut and shape the headstock your able to fix the bad problems.Would i buy it again ?at this price ...yes i woulduseless, looked good until i checked the fret spacing. by the time it gets up to the upper frets it is landing in the spaces close to half way in between a correct neck.The frets were all in the wrong place for the scale length. A shame, as the quality of the wood and finish were very good. But, With the distance between the fret ALL wrong, the neck would never play. It is useless.I bought two of these necks, and they are beautiful, and the fretwork is good. There is some invitable fret sprout, but that’s not a problem. But this is a bass neck, scale length of 32”. Oh well…
