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Neck Width Vs Bridge Width


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I'm in the planning stages of a telecaster mod, so bear with me :D

I have a neck here I like a lot -- it's a maple strat-style neck, but it's a shorter scale than my Fender --looks to be the same scale as my Melody Maker. This neck is great because it's pretty thin, but has nice jumbo frets...

But the original neck on the telecaster was slightly wider -- so in addition to the other issues I'll face (like making sure I get the placement of the saddles right; and getting the neck to sit right in the pocket) --will I be facing issues with the width of the bridge too?

What I mean is-- will the nut on the new neck be sufficient for keeping the strings on the fretboard, so they won't slip off?

Or will have to find a different bridge with closer spacing (don't know if that's possible in the land of telecasters)?

Of course, I can stick with the original neck, but this one is pretty nice...

(Edit: okay, I've had my usual five hours sleep...this morning I went around measuring my bridges ...)

The original bridge from the strat copy that gave me the neck I want to use is exactly 5.0 mm saddle-to-saddle (E slot to E slot) ...neck at nut width is 42mm

The original telecaster bridge from this guitar seems to be US width --just over 5.4 mm 2 5/32" (neck at nut width is 43 mm)

On my MIJ strat the e-to-e is just shy of 5.4mm. (neck at nut is 42 mm)

On my Samick (TOM type bridge) the e-to-e is more like 5.25mm or so (neck at nut is 42)

And finally, the Badass on my Melody Maker comes in at exactly 5.0 mm e-to-e too...the MM has a super-thin neck: at the nut the neck measures a whopping 38mm (compared to 43 mm for the replacement strat neck) ...it's also my favorite guitar...

Not sure if this tells me anything...except that there's enough variation there to suggest to me that as long as the e-to-e width of the nuts slots is sufficiently narrow, it should be enough to keep the strings on the fretboard?

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