Probably A Dumb Question

[sexybeast]

I just had a guy offer me a couple of strat bodies and a telecaster neck. Would the Tele neck work on the Strat body, assuming it's in good shape? Could be a sweet hookup. Here's what he offered me for free:

1 blueburst amercican standard strat body in pretty good shape

1 tobacco sunburst am std strat body thats pretty hacked up

1 black V body in good shape with a pickguard

1 squier tele neck

1 unknown hollow japanese body with matching neck

2 guild humbuckers

2 unknown single coils

Waiting to hear from him and you guys.

[mammoth guitars]

Tele and Strat do not use the same neck pocket shape. A Strat neck will fit in a Tele neck pocket although not ideal. A Tele neck will not fit and intonate correctly in a Strat neck pocket.

[redwhiteandthemaple]

Heck. it's free! just take and think later!

[Mickguard]

I just had a guy offer me a couple of strat bodies and a telecaster neck. Would the Tele neck work on the Strat body, assuming it's in good shape? Could be a sweet hookup. Here's what he offered me for free:

Sure, you could make it work....hell, it's for free. What'd the monkey say to the elephant?

I'll take that unknown japanese hollow body with matching neck off your hands though...I can already see that seriously interfering with the tele/strat project big time

[ibanez_crazy]

Hey if its free...its for me.... especially guitar stuff. Whatever you dont use for a project, you can always use as trial and error for painting, staining, refinishing, heck just about anything. I have a neck with a broken headstock I got for free. I can practice a neck repair and fretboard removal on it, and if I have a oops moment , I learn so I dont make the same mistake on the real deal. Send anything you dont want to me

[crafty]

Tele and Strat do not use the same neck pocket shape. A Strat neck will fit in a Tele neck pocket although not ideal. A Tele neck will not fit and intonate correctly in a Strat neck pocket.

That's not necessarily true on the Tele neck on Strat body issue. Fender's been using a universal pocket rout for the last ten or fifteen years or so that works on both Tele and Strat bodies. The neck heels are still different--but either body can use them.

[mammoth guitars]

That's not necessarily true on the Tele neck on Strat body issue. Fender's been using a universal pocket rout for the last ten or fifteen years or so that works on both Tele and Strat bodies. The neck heels are still different--but either body can use them.

The guitars we look at every day cannot confirm your universal pocket info. Strats would then have a gap around the neck heel if they shared the same neck pocket as the Tele and they don't have that gap.

[tirapop]

There's confirmation at Warmoth's. You can either modify the pocket in the body or reshape the heel.

[crafty]

That's not necessarily true on the Tele neck on Strat body issue. Fender's been using a universal pocket rout for the last ten or fifteen years or so that works on both Tele and Strat bodies. The neck heels are still different--but either body can use them.

The guitars we look at every day cannot confirm your universal pocket info. Strats would then have a gap around the neck heel if they shared the same neck pocket as the Tele and they don't have that gap.

Take a good look at the pocket on this body.

The MIMs and Highway 1s have had this pocket for years and from what I've heard elsewhere, so have the US models since the American Standard to American changeover. The gap is covered by the pickguard.

Anyway, if you want to use the Tele neck on the Strat body, just loosen up the corners on the back of the pocket like on that eBay body and it'll probably work just fine for you. You'll have to modify the pickguard, too, but it's a lot less hassle to mod those than alter the heel on the neck.

Edited July 28, 2006 by crafty

[Mickguard]

Anyway, the most important thing is that the guitar intonates --it's not a huge issue if there's a bit of a gap at the butt end of the heel...seems like most Fenders have shims in them anyway, or they have that micro-tilt system which accomplishes the same thing (i.e., eliminates a lot of the direct wood contact). As long as the heel is attached snugly and securely to the body--you'll already be way ahead.

Might have to work with the pickguard to cover up the gap, if it bothers you.

[sexybeast]

SCORE!! Yes mates!! The fella was for real and he gave me everything I posted as well as a badass bridge like this one. He also gave me four Strat pickguards, one H/S/H (a nice Warmoth pearloid one that I'm using) and three S/S/S white ones.

Al in all it was a great haul and a gracious gift.

The Tele neck fits in the pocket, but I need to rout the body a bit to make the heel fit cleanly. I'm thinking about doing THIS to the headstock. It's very close to being the right size. I also have a tremolo bridge and posts from my crappy Ibanez RX that fits nicely into the blue Strat body and I also have spare pickups from that axe. Now all I need is tuner pegs and a to do little woodwork, and I have myself a second guitar. How cool is that? The blue body he gave me is just about perfect, too. No scratches or chips, I don't think he even USED it.

Yesterday was a good day.

[sexybeast]

Dig this!! I just looked through the goodie bag he gave me and there's a Leo Quan badass bridge in there. How cool is that?