All About Fender Strat Necks

[@AndrewAHayes]

In 1984 I travelled to my local guitar store to buy a Fender Telecaster that I had been saving up for most of my life to purchase. When I got to the store, they had three models in the colour I wanted, all three had issues and every time I spotted an issue the salesman started knocking money off the price, I wanted a perfect guitar though, I was just about to leave and visit another guitar store when he pulled a Squier Telecaster out, I had never even heard of Squier guitars, the salesman gave me some BS about Fenders being called Squier in Japan. The Squier was perfect in every way and sounded great, It was set up just how I like and the neck felt so comfortable, I was confused as to why a better built better sounding guitar of the same model could be so much cheaper, at first I thought they had made a mistake with the price. I bought the guitar and still have it today, over the years I have lost count of the people who have asked if I would consider selling it to them or letting them have first shout should I decide to sell it. I couldn't sell it, it feels as though this guitar was made just for me, the finish on the maple fretboard is a little worn but apart from that it is in very good condition despite me gigging it for a few years.

[@budgetguitarist]

UPDATE - Mighty Mite is not the only manufacturer that can legally make the Fender Strat headstock shape. Warmoth can do them, too, as part of a court case from a long time ago. I'm thinking there might be a couple of other companies that were part of that lawsuit, but if I find out, I'll come back here and update the info here.

[@CapstoneTider]

The neck on my recently acquired 2009 Highway one is phenomenal. I've owned a lot of guitars since selling my 74 Strat in the early 90s and I was shocked what I had been missing since then. Even better

[@budgetguitarist]

One point I'd like to add to the discussion - we do not know about wages paid to American, Mexican, and Indonesian workers by Fender. I'd love to know. If we just look at minimum wages in the countries (converted to dollars,) America is $7.25, Mexico is around $3.50, and Indonesia is around $1.29. Apparently South Korea's minimum wage is around $9 per hour, which explains why Squier moved from South Korea to Indonesia. So did the PRS SE line, semi-recently. America's minimum wage ranks somewhere around 16th internationally. I believe Japan is 17.

[@budgetguitarist]

Just updating this a year later - very few American businesses are paying minimum wage these days, because no one will work for it. Some places have raised their minimum wage to as much as $15 per hour. Some companies start at $15.

[@FingalPersson]

I've been playing on a Pao Ferro neck on my Strat and my Fender Fretless J bass! Have nothing bad to say about Pao Ferro! I also have a Squier Affinity Telecaster maple neck, and I love that one too but I want to swap the neck later for a Fender Telecaster US neck still in maple. The Fender Fretless J bass will keep its Pao Ferro because I'm pretty happy with that neck! I've ordered a Fender Professional II scalloped neck, Rosewood that I'm putting on my Stratocaster. Not because I don't like the Pao Ferro, but I love Rosewood and I wanted a scalloped fretboard! It had some delivery time but I might get it in mid of September! I can't wait! I will still use the Pao Ferro neck thought but I'll put it on a cheap LA guitar4music guitar I bought just to have a guitar to toy with, and to be honest that guitar is probably going to sound and look more like a Fender because I already swapped the pickups it came with and replaced them with my Stratocaster pickups when I bought Seymore Duncan and DiMarzio pickups for my Strat! Also buying Fender locking tuners for it when I'm swapping to Fender neck on that, but only temp, since those locking tuners will end up on the Squier when I buy a US tellie neck! My Squier also sound awesome, having DiMarzio Chopper bridge pickup! The neck pickup it came with actually sound pretty nice, but I intend to swap that too later either a Fast Track, Twang King or maybe a Little 59' 😛 I placed the Fender Strat tuners on my Squier which means I had do hand drill new plug holes to make them fit because the measurement on the Squier tuner and Fender is not the same. turned out great! When I've swapped the neck on it, the cheap guitar will no longer have the locking tuners as they will go on the US Fender neck and the cheap guitar inherits the Strat tuners going back to the neck they originally came with! Not a luthier, just self taught and crazy enough to void the warranty on my guitars, but all the parts and components and electronics I've swapped out has its own warranty on 5 years when I buy so technically my guitars never lost warranty except for the body, the input jack and the pickup switch! Everything else like the squier bridge will be swapped to US bridge, US 3 point saddles! The Stratocaster will still have the Tremolo bridge and saddles it came with though and don't see any point of swapping the tremolo bridge because it's good enough as is 😀 I guess I'm a little crazy doing all this but I just love making my guitars as personal as possible! The fretless bass on the other hand I wont do much with, maybe just swap the 2 pickups with EMG-J or Fender Noisless pickups! Not sure if Ill swap the electronics in that one, but my Strat has gone from 250K pots to Fenders 500K pots, and the Squier will later also have 500K pots, not sure if I'm gonna buy Fender pots or Seymore Duncan pots to the Squier, have not decided yet! 😀

[@markferguson3745]

Most of the repair techs and luthiers I know aren't fans of Mighty Mite; though there are some good one's, it's a total crap shoot sight unseen. I've gotten some great WD product to the point where I seek them out over most , - including Fender.Warmoth, it goes unsaid, make some truly premium replacements.Generally, you do get what you pay for. I do have some older 21 fret Squier necks that I've kept when I've sold or traded the rest.Some of that older Rosewood is hard to beat.

[@traceybaker9750]

Great episode. Thanks.

[@PedalScience]

Very informative, thank you

[@Germinalx]

Great introductory music! Good job!

[@budgetguitarist]

Thanks!

[@waynepayne864]

5:45 "WOOD you be able to tell the difference" -_-

[@1cleandude]

Cheaper wages is the big sucking sound that Ross Perro forecasted years ago!

[@moose5206]

Great video and quick to the point. would you ever consider creating a video comparing the various popular Fender Neck Profile's? cheers

[@budgetguitarist]

Thanks! I think a neck profile comparison video would be cool - I'll put it on the "to do" list.

[@Nothing-gv8mv]

Today I just put an mim on my 2007 Squier Stratocaster standard. Last week I tried a Mighty Mite neck. Only had to level and Crown one fret. But the heel was not cut wrong and I would have had to put a book under it to have proper string action. I should have checked that first before. But I did the return anyways:-) hopefully this new neck is good. It keeps on trying to add relief to itself as it settles. I don't like that and it doesn't seem proper. The Stratocaster neck needs to be steadfast in my opinion. I dig the video. I'm going to subscribe:-)

[@chickentwisties2298]

Talks about "all fender necks n guitars" and here he is wearing a Gibson tshirt 😂😂

[@budgetguitarist]

I can love more than one company. It isn't hard. Can't love more than one woman, though, if you're married... well, you CAN, but you're risking your life.

[@jchavins]

The 2 Brad Paisley model Telecasters are both made in Mexico. I've played both and they are the lightest best sounding Fender Telecasters money can buy.. As a matter of fact I own the Esquire model. The fret ends on the two that I have played though are about the same as the cheapest Squires I've ever seen. For the price that Fender is selling these for they should be ashamed of themselves. Owners should not have to spend half an hour fixing them.

[@bwyou812]

The different is about 180 miles down the road!.

[@budgetguitarist]

Ha ha ha ha! I mean, yeah, pretty much. Except that unless they're changed recently, the MIM necks don't have rounded edges. But that takes about 5 minutes, honestly.

[@Ro-Bucks]

I first want to say im not making a fake to sell im pour lol, I have an "aria" SGT and it has an actual fender body or so it looks, I got a $35 set of pickups off ali that sound about the same as an old P90 set but look like newer singles. Now I need a neck, but why do necks cost so much and never listed on site, it's a pain. Are the fake necks on ebay any good?

[@budgetguitarist]

I've never bought a fake neck, to be honest. I'd imagine the fakes are hit and miss. For cheap guitar necks, I'd check out guitarfetish.com - I find their stuff to be good for the money.

[@godsreddoor6345]

I dont know if I would trust a person wearing a Gibson shirt telling me about fender necks it just seems weird.

[@budgetguitarist]

It should make you trust me MORE, because you know I'm not just a Fender fanboy!

[@ToppaliniTube]

Bruh mighty mite is definitely not the only fender lic neck company and it’s like the worst

[@Bikewithlove]

It’s not because people are impatient - it’s because people don’t want their time wasted and their intellect insulted. Get to the point. Show the thing. Do the thing. Stay out of the way of the thing. Keep the camera still. Do these basic things and everyone will love your channel. Waste your viewers time begging them to like you and they’ll hate you. Well, maybe hate is a strong word but you get the idea.

[@budgetguitarist]

Thank God you're here to give advice.

[@ToppaliniTube]

Sorry but this was not helpful at all and you just pointed out the obvious for 15 minutes or said nothing at all sometimes. I watched the entire thing thinking you would have some actual useful information on the process of making the neck but you didn’t

[@joshnic6639]

You didn’t get to the point fast enough 👎🏻

[@budgetguitarist]

You're wrong.