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Neck Heel


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i have a standard cheap strat ive had for years and am thinking about making into a better playing and sounding guitar. it has the standard F you neck heel (the big block shape makes upper frets a pain to play right). now what i wondering is if i take it down and shape it into some thing thhat feels better and is a lot nicer to play is that going weaken the neck joint (bolt on) too much? also reshaping the lower horn on a strat is it a good idea? will it affect my tone much?

i think the body is basswood if anyone wants to know.

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Hamer, when they made bolt on's, used to angle the back of the body at the heel joint on it's Californian's (perhaps also Diablo's and Centaura's...i'll have a nose tonight) so it is possible. The only thing i will say is, by enlarge, all Californian's we're either Honduras Mahogany or Broad Leaf Maple so i'm not sure if basswood would be strong enough not really knowing anything about the strength of relative woods.

Jem :D

Oh, just a thought. Remember that your guitar was made to take the neck screws at 90` with it's big block so be carefull not to shave too much off or the neck plate may not sit right as the screws will be at too much of an angle.

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If you do that, you will most likely need to switch to countersunk washers for the neck bolts instead of the standard chrome plate. I agree with Batfink though. Watch how much you take off; you could potentially make the structural integrity of the neck joint...questionable.

Oh, and you can get those washers as Stewmac.com. Remeber to check the lenghts of the bolts you're using before screwing the neck back on. You may have to get shorter screws depending on how much you pair away.

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Let me add something here:

It probably wouldn't hurt for you to leave the heel for a while so that you benefit your playing abilities. We can not blame all of our short comings on the way guitars are built. A big part of the tone and playability of a guitar comes from the guitarist himself. Look at classical guitarists, instead of a heel, they have a whole guitar body in their way from about the 12th fret on. It's nearly the same with steel string acoustics, but most of those have cutaways. I'm not trying to insult you or your playing. I'm just saying that you would benefit greatly from becoming comfortable with playing with a heel. It will make you feel more at home with any guitar you play. Hell, not only did Jimmy Hendrix not mind the heel, he didn't mind the higher cutaway from the guitar being backwards.

There are still a lot of other things you can do for this guitar. You could put on higher quality hardware and electronics for start.

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I've always maintained and will continue to maintain that upper-fret access is probably the most overrated feature that manufacturers tend to advertise.

There's no reason to compromise upper-fret access when you have a choice (ie. building from scratch with a plan that accomodates such a thing), but I personally wouldn't go through the hassle of modifying a perfectly good strat just for a minor amount of improvement in upper-fret access.

I swear, some companies make it sound like their guitars are better simply because of the outstanding access. Bollocks, I say. :D

Greg

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I had an all access joint put on my basswood Ibanez Radius/JS body, and that body already had an angled plate (a little more comfy than a normal strat). I like it, but I also have a normal radius, and I don't think I'd do it over again; it's not that big a difference. To refinish it so it looks good made the project cost about $150.

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thanks for all the opinions.

i dont think ill be altering the neck heel at this point simply cause the neck or the frets or something is all funky now that i changed the nut. every fret on ever string buzzes and i guess i did a crapping job of matching the two nuts for a bit higher string height on the one.

so right now it looks like some frets are first them either a new body or find a way to put on a tune-o-matic.

I HATE IBANEZ NOW

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thanks for all the opinions.

i dont think ill be altering the neck heel at this point simply cause the neck or the frets or something is all funky now that i changed the nut. every fret on ever string buzzes and i guess i did a crapping job of matching the two nuts for a bit higher string height on the one.

I HATE IBANEZ NOW

you know the nut only affects open strings right?

what made you suddenly hate ibanez?

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no i hate ibanez now for the fact that nearly every guitar/bass ive picked up by them in the last few years the action has been way too high. second ive been looking around for a new here there guitar (one that i dont mind a few dings from alot of moving around) and all i seem to find are basswood bodies and strat shapes.

as for hating them for something i did, i rose the action of the open strings less than half a milimeter.so basicly all i did was shim up their nut. i think it was gregp who said the axe i now own has a long history of neck problems (i paid around 150 for it Gio series) and that the neck its self isnt made to any great quality. we will see what happenes.

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