Strat Headstock

[Acousticraft]

I am getting ready to build some solid body guitars with students.

I have not built a strat myself, mine have all been Gibson inspired. I thought a strat style guitar would be good as the electrics are all mounted on the pick guard which to me would speed things up hopefully.

My query is regarding the headstock. The strat headstock as it is shaped has very little string break over angle so you need to use string trees, and it would seem to me to be harder to sand and thickness.

What if I just angled the headstock even to 10 degrees? I am thinking it would be easier to cut, face and thickness the headstock.

what do you pilgrims out in guitar land think?

I am not a stickler for authenticity. Being an engineer I like things to be practical and functional.

[Batfink]

For what it's worth i mainly build 'superstrats' (see GOTM last September) and i always use an angled headstock as oppossed to the standard Fender way - it just made more sense to me.

Jem

[mojotron]

So, other than just holding the strings into the nut, what difference does an angled head make to the playability?

[Mattia]

Major difference: it requires either jointing (scarf joint) or something other than surfaced 1" maple stock, which is cheap and readily available. Straight headstocks are also very strong, and if you don't want string trees, get tuners with staggered heights (Sperzel has then, Gotoh sells some as well).

Also, a strat or tele headstock shape on an angled head looks wrong in every way possible...

[biliousfrog]

If you're showing students then maybe traditional would be more appropriate & then go into alternatives as an added extra. It would be nice to explain why Leo made the necks that way & why some companies have chosen a different approach, explain the pro's & con's of each. Explaining why string trees are needed & then using them might actually help more than going with a neck angle & just glossing over the subject. Scarfs are easy enough to do when you have the basics covered & is something that the students could try out in their own time.