Neck Heaviness Cure

[Ace]

Hey folks, I have this cheap chinese Telecaster copy, which I really would like to play out more frequently, but aside from the crap tuners and the imperfect fretjob, the thing is really neck heavy and I can't play right when I have to support the neck all the time. How can I balance that thing more...would moving the strap pin bring any remedy? I have a locking strap system so I could put the pin basically everywhere. Southpa already suggested that I carve out a piece of the body and fill it with lead but that's one step I'd rather not take if I could help it. The neck is maple and it is chunky, but since it has a skunk stripe I'd rather noth shave off the neck...

so long

ace

[Scott Rosenberger]

Use an acoustic strap and tie it off behind the nut???

[Reaper]

One way that I've heard (might have been here, might have been elsewhere) is to tape a couple batteries to the strap by the rear pin. It acts as a counterweight. That said, I have yet to try it on my SG...

[Southpa]

Hey Ace, another option is replace the tuners with Grover mini-tuners, they are about half the weight of the full size Grovers. However, the full size Grovers are likeliest the heaviest tuners ever made, . I don't know what kind of tuners are on the guitar now but it might make a difference, especially on that end of the guitar.

[jbkim]

Or chop off the head entirely . Teleberger?

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Well, one could put lead in it, give it a Les Paul kinda weight.

I'd reposition the strap and try counterweighting it. I used a box of rocks once.

[Drak]

Just build a new 1-piece Ash body for it...that'll fix it.

You KNOW you want to

[MikeB]

i thinking moving the strap butons would fix it, almost totally id wager!

[Ace]

Thanks for all the advice guys...yeah that extra body sounds quite good but then again I'd switch the pickups anyway as soon as I come by a decent deal on eBay...the machine heads would need to go, too anyway because they're not too tuning stable so it looks like I'd actually keep the bridge and the pickguard and build a new guitar around those two *lol*

Seriously, I'll try the acoustic strap thin and experiment with repositioning the strap pin.

So long

ace

[Bingo328]

Being a lefty I've done the stap repositioning thing many times when converting a right-handed guitar. Try moving the rear button up an inch or two depending on how neck-heavy it is. You may also need to move the front button a little closer to the neck around the curve. If you have a strong finish or one you don't care about try temporarily adjusting the way the guitar hangs by using the 1" duct tape or something similar to get your final placement. It's better than just trial and error drilling a bunch of new button holes.