Buying a neck

[fidgec94]

Has anyone have experience with or an opinion on these?

There's also this one i've found:

(4th from bottom of this page)

I want to buy a neck and I've been window shopping for a while now, I can't afford loads but obviously I need to spend a reasonable amount to get something worth having. I'm trying to find necks that are made well AND preferably under £90 (I know I won't find top quality for that price but I don't want a POS either).

One of the necks on the Carvin website is rather nice but the distributers in the UK say they can import one for about £130, which is a little too much, as are the paddle headstock necks that WDmusic sell.

Thought I'd ask for a bit of help.....

Grazie

[Dr. Jabsco]

Just about anything you buy from stewmac will be good qualtie. But warmoth makes a bit better, and its worth the cash.

[frank falbo]

Unless something has changed, the Stew Mac necks are from Godin/Lasido in Canada. They are pretty good necks.

Mighty Mite is Korean made, and it's the same neck as any Korean Fender Squire neck. It's a good neck, too, but it's different. Mighty Mite is a cheaper way to get into different woods. Their Ebony boards and Birdseye necks are still pretty cheap compared to Warmoth or Stew-Mac. But the wood quality is lower. I used to work for Mighty Mite years ago so I know all about those necks. The frets are vintage Strat, so that's another big difference from Stew Mac.

I've never found a WD neck that was worth its price. They never impressed me. I certainly haven't seen ALL of them but even when they said they changed suppliers I didn't notice any improvement.

Warmoth is good, and then you get to pick and choose your features, more than anyone else for that price range.

[Brian]

I've never found a WD neck that was worth its price. They never impressed me. I certainly haven't seen ALL of them but even when they said they changed suppliers I didn't notice any improvement.

How long ago was that out of curiousity?

Last time I spoke with Larry they were coming out of Europe again.

[litchfield]

Tommy at USA Custom Guitars is a good guy too.

[frank falbo]

I've never found a WD neck that was worth its price. They never impressed me. I certainly haven't seen ALL of them  but even when they said they changed suppliers I didn't notice any improvement.

How long ago was that out of curiousity?

Last time I spoke with Larry they were coming out of Europe again.

Not recently, but within the last 2 years though. They could very well be the best bargain in the replacement neck market today. You would know better than I since you see more product and I'm not in retail anymore. Plus you know what the dealer net is. But there were several times throughout the '90's and until recently that they had product 1.5-2x the price of the competitors that needed twice the work. Literally every time I'd call and reference some previous problems with the necks they'd tell me that they now switched suppliers (sometimes USA, sometimes not) and that it shouldn't be that way anymore. They'd sweet talk me into how much nicer the new batch was. Some of that could've been standard sales pitch lies, but I know they did change suppliers at least 3 times in the last decade.

To me, they've always been profiteers. Just about every experience I or my peers have had with them (and it's many, not few) has included them either lying or "spinning" the truth to make the sale. So I didn't have reason to continue to monitor their quality/value. But I noticed some $99 necks on their site tonight since you called me on it, and there's a good chance they're worth the money, I don't know. But my take is that if they never before cared about fret ends, level, cleaning finish off frets, etc. Then why is now different? The necks I saw were always sloppy and rough. And unlike Warmoth, you get only what's listed. You can't choose shape, size, frets, etc. so I think Warmoth is a better "value" if you include all the choices available. (some free, some not) Like I said before I've not seen them all, but my original statement still stands as how I see it from where I sit. Don't anyone flame me though, because I'm happy to be wrong, it's just the limited view from my periscope. Even now I'm kind of sad I'm writing this much, but I can't sleep I had a big fancy iced coffee drink tonight

[a bicycle made of anarchy]

if you are looking for a good "starter" type neck, Brian sells the saga necks at universaljems.com... i'm probably going to grab one up for my harmony jag-refurb partay.. no sense buying a $25 body and slapping a $350 graphite neck on it

[did291]

I used a carvin neck, and i found it excelent. But here we have nafta so it is very cheap to get it to canada,duty free .

[a bicycle made of anarchy]

i always get dinked for duty... i must be flagged in the system or something LOL

[Cracked]

Finding this thread has been excellent

I'm going with the Stew-Mac neck!

Less$$ than Carvin and better quality than MM, by the sounds of it.

One thing though.

I'd like to get the paddle head but it seems different than the Strat/Tele replacement ones because the truss rod adjustment is in the heel as opposed to the head. Anyone know if this is a 'completely' different neck?

I'd really like to use my own design for the head stock.

Thanks!