Fender Strat Neck Re-radius and Stainless Steel Fretwork

[@MuseumsBloke]

Another nice job, especially the polished fingerboard. Reckon I caught a glimpse of next Wednesday in the reflection…

[@theNextProject]

MuseumsBloke, thanks for watching! This was a beautiful piece of wood, nice luster, even though I called it by the wrong name. Hope all is well, be safe and take care!

[@martinlouden9005]

A very useful jig John. I'll have to make one for myself. It's been something I wanted to do for a long while now and this latest video has finally given me the inspiration to go and do it! Thanks John.

[@theNextProject]

Martin, thanks for watching! Yep, that radius fixture has come in really handy. I'm thinking of making an updated build video for that fixture. I've retrofitted the radius end panels and the stretchers that are at the base of the panels I put threaded inserts in the stretchers, now I can easily swap the radius end panels to fit whatever I'm working on. Modular, is good. I also made a radius routing guide so I can more easily make whatever radius end panel I may need. Hope the brief description makes sense. Be safe and take care!

[@hueffel987]

Thank god that mishap with the the battery occurred. So You have met my legitimate consumer expectations, and I have something to bitch about... It's nice that you reintroduced the warnings towards the end. However, they weren't necessary at all. I hope you and your loved ones are doing well! Jens

[@theNextProject]

Customer complaints to be filed here --->

[@hueffel987]

@@theNextProject Thank You for keeping my blood pressure elevated. Hope yours is on a healthy level. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your doctor's visit. Instead of oil change and tire rotation, I would rather talk about changing strings and replacing scratchy pots.

[@stealingtomorrowband]

Start this this morning because I had to go to work now I'm home from work finishing it! Awesome awesome

[@theNextProject]

Bun, good to hear from you, and hope work went well too. Thanks for watching, be safe and take care!

[@achimdg6335]

Always amazed by your skill level. So have you gotten better all the time, being self-taught, or did you have someone teach you that?

[@theNextProject]

Achim!, thanks for watching and the very kind words! Honestly, I mostly observe others, my brain starts running, then make things up as I go, no formal training in guitar stuff. I've watched YT videos, but that doesn't always offer good examples or process. Sometime I see others doing a task and and can predict the outcome, good or bad. I've screwed up enough stuff to often see the bad coming, LOL. There has been a pretty big wake of errors made that I just can't help but fix. That's probably my eduction and self-inflicted training. If I'm doing something new, I try to slowly chip away at the task, break it down into smaller manageable pieces. Overcome one obstacle at a time without causing another (hopefully). I did get a lot of experience fixing things when I was a kid. Grew up on a farm, everything was old, broken or breaking. My dad didn't really train me, but he never stopped me from taking things apart. I think he basically observed and made up ways to fix things too, so I probably learned how to MacGyer from him. As for getting better at things, I'm pretty self-critical. While I appreciate the end product, I often seek ways to do a better job. Sometimes that is evident as I'm working through a process. Other times, there is a lightbulb that lights up after I'm all done. I'm also very aware that I always over complicate, over think, over engineer - everything. But I kinda like the process of doing that too. Support group introduction: (me) Hi, I'm a nut case. (group reply) Hello nut case!

[@achimdg6335]

@@theNextProject Haha!

[@manos1710]

Hello from Athens Greece and congratulations for your craftsmanship !!! I would like to ask if the 51100 frets are considered too high. I have a 9.5" Fender roasted maple neck and I want to slightly feel the fretboard but I also like the feel of effortless bends. I am not someone very heavy handed. Would you think that this 51100 fretwire would suit me better compared to 47095 ? My choice will be stainless steel fretwire so fretwear is out of the equation. Thank you very much in advance!!! 🙂🙂🙂

[@theNextProject]

Manos, thanks for watching and greetings for the Florida, US! If your neck currently has +/- 47095 fretwire, and you like it... Stay with that, but in Stainless as you mentioned. The 51100 will be +/- 0.004" taller, which isn't much, but you might feel the differences if you had 2 guitars side by side to "feel". Stainless will/should be an enjoyable upgrade for you. Everyone I've done stainless frets for loves the feel and effortless bends. A few people say the can hear the difference, but I often wonder if they are hearing new strings and a better setup more than the fretwire, but not for me to say they are wrong. My hearing is not so good, LOL. Hope you are doing well. Be safe and take care!

[@manos1710]

@@theNextProject Thanks a lot !!! Take care!!! 🙂🙂🙂

[@hannuhanhi183]

Did exactly the same to a Squier neck, radius to 12", stainless steel frets. Maybe we are the same person living in parallel universe 😁

[@theNextProject]

hannuhanhi, thanks for watching! Hello my brother from another mother, I had eggs for breakfast, what did you have? LOL! Sounds like you had a fun project. I enjoy this kind of a challenge, it's fun to make noticeable changes for the player, that most people will never notice. Hope all is well, be safe and take care, we are depending on it!

[@ranman58635]

Nah, this dude is unique. He will re do the s!me guitar several time's over. Especially if it was already good enough. It's just got to be better. OCD at its best😅 stay cool

[@hannuhanhi183]

@@theNextProject Thanks for asking. Here in the parallel universe in Canada of EU, I had coffee and toast ☕ 🍞. Coffee is life. What I like about this channel is that the projects tend to "get out of hands" more than often and it creates something awesome. Stay cool and keep vlogging. Cheers.

[@theNextProject]

Hey Canadian Brother, down here in Florida coffee is life as well! Haha, projects do get out of hand, don't they. Some kind of self-inflicted torture, always interesting to watch. You want to look away, but you can't. A moth to the flame. Ah, good times. Have a great day!

[@hannuhanhi183]

@@ranman58635 One of my former bosses once stated that "Good enough is the enemy of great" !

[@EbonyPope]

Hey man I love you content. You explain things so well it really gave me strength since I have been bedridden due to Covid aftereffects for over a year now. I'm slowly recovering though. I have a strat copy that I would like to modify. For a cheap copy from the 90s she is really well made and I would like to add some carbon fiber rods to the neck since the neck is very whippy. Do you have experience with removing maple fretboards? I don't want to do damage to that guitar.

[@theNextProject]

EbonyPope, good to hear from you and thanks for watching! Yes, I've removed a few fingerboards. Some come off nicely, some don't want to leave the neck. It really depends on the glue used by the factory. The Epiphone LP that I'm currently working on, the rosewood fingerboard was resistant and stuck on pretty well, it took a lot of steam/heat and time but did separate pretty cleanly in the end. I've removed a couple maple fingerboards that came of in a fraction of the time, and others that would never budge and had to be mechanically / forcefully removed (chiseled or routed away and replaced). Sorry, but it may be a bit of a gamble if you hope to reuse the fingerboard. Then there is routing the slots for the carbon fiber and reassembly, fretting and possible finish repair. Not to talk you out of it, but there are a few big steps involved. Good luck with your project, keep me posted, and hope you continue to recover. Be safe and take care!

[@EbonyPope]

@@theNextProject Thank you. Yes that is something to consider. I really would like to keep that fretboard. Unfortunately nobody has experience with that model. It's called Jim Harley and was according to the sources I found a polish manufacturer. Neck pocket is super tight. The body is just mdf but very well routed and all around solid construction. Only thing that irritates me is the whippy neck. She had pretty low frets so a refret is in order. I will have to think about it if it is worth possibly having to destroy the fretboard. Thanks for the input. May I ask you just another question? Would you say if I decided to add carbon fiber rods it would be advisable to glue them in with fish glue since the only have to not move around or do they have to be glued in with epoxy? What would you recommend? If I'm in there I will also replace the one way truss rod with a double action one.

[@theNextProject]

I would glue the carbon fiber with epoxy. I don't think fish glue would stick to the carbon material. Not that they would go anywhere, but epoxy will form a flexible bond between the neck wood and the carbon fiber, no chance of rattle during climate changes. Fish glue "may" not act the same way, and a potential for harmonic rattle or such would be my concern. Yep, if you are in there, might as well upgrade the truss rod too. If you are going through all this, maybe just get a new neck - maybe? Just a thought. Good luck however you approach the project.

[@EbonyPope]

@@theNextProject I really want to preserve the guitar. Despite being a cheap copy she is amazingly well crafted. The neck is just perfect C shape and most important of all it was my very first guitar. You might know how attached you become to your first one. I wouldn't go through all this trouble if it wasn't worth it anyway. No sense in polishing a turd. But as I said despite the body just being MDF and the cheap tuners I measured everything and she is a perfect copy of the original Strat dimensions except that the headstock a little bigger than the modern one but smaller than the 70s heastocks that I personally find way too big. The neck isn't super whippy but I play .013 or .012 gauge strings in standard tuning and I fear permanent deformation over time. As you know even 12-string guitars that have a sturdier thicker neck give in to all that string pull over time. So I thougth it would make sense to put in some carbon fiber rods. I've seen it on Highline Guitars and according to him the necks can still be adjusted to have some relief but they barely flex at all. So that would be perfect. No worries anymore. I play such incredibly high tension because I got accustomed to it and it immensely helped me since all strings now feel like rubber bands when I bend them.

[@Hans_914]

Love the video! Thank you for another quality experience. Have you experimented with darkening fretboards? I have an ebony fretboard on my Thunderbird, rosewood on my Jazz bass and Squire Jazz bass neck with a pau ferro fretboard that is lighter in color. I like the darker color of those two much more than the Squire. My thoughts are if I am going to play the bass, may as well dig how it looks. Stay safe and Be Blessed!

[@theNextProject]

Hans, thanks for watching and thank you for the comment. I have only darkened one rosewood board that I can recall ( a few years ago ). It was a rather sandy colored rosewood, just looked odd. I tried a few different things, leather stain, and india ink primarily. One problem I had was the black stains being either red, blue or green in tint. I did finally find some "permanent" jet black india ink. Permanent was actually a difficult thing to find. I hadn't ever thought there was non-permanent... anyway, the ink was black-black and worked well. I know I reduced it with something, but I don't recall if it was rubbing alcohol, acetone, or lacquer thinner. Those are the three things I typically start testing with, but I have no idea what i used in the end. After the final coat to achieve the color i wanted dried, I did condition the fingerboard. Probably used the same oil/wax conditioner that is seen it this video. I use the Howard's Feed n Wax on a lot of wood things, but there may be better options out there. Hope this helps in some way. Good luck with your project! Take care, John

[@Hans_914]

@@theNextProject thank you so much!

[@ranman58635]

7.25, whats the issue with that? Vintage spec. Hey I have a SE strat and I finally did the banana level. I've never had a guitar with this low of action. I kept going lower and lower until I was happy. I did it with the strings off on my first one. Defeats the purpose but that was the only guitar I was willing to trash in case it didn't work. I adjusted the truss rod in the neck to flat and then I adjusted the Martin rod to have a slight gap in the middle. This is now my best guitar ever. Check out my recent short. Doing great neck repair on a Taylor k26ce that costs 6 grand. Neck heel shattered and pulled away from the body. Good to see you man.

[@theNextProject]

Hey Randy, good to hear from you and thanks for watching! The owner just wanted a slightly flatter board, perhaps the 7.25 didn't fit his playing style, and he wanted to go to stainless frets so, it was time for a change. Your SE project sounds great! I will be doing more testing of this process soon, pulling a few dusty test subjects out of the closet. i'll take a peek at your Taylor repair - "job well done" in advance! Good to hear from you, hope all is going well for ya! Be safe and take care, John

[@ranman58635]

​@@theNextProject, for sure John, the SE came out so wonderful. I'll shoot a video to share. I just cannot believe how well that worked. Being able to set the action where you want is the difference between having an ok guitar and having an awesome guitar. Whti the neck being a baseball bat shape, it feels so good but perhaps a V or slight V would be better. AXLE made these for Fnder and didn't disappoint. They kept true to the 50s Strat design with a full thickness body and even a veneer on the back and front. It allowed for a beautiful relic. The paint isn't miles thick and seems to be perfect for a relic (unlike any Squier) rosewood fretboard and flame maple neck with a 50's headstock. All that says, Fender. Tru oil finish! Man, so good th hear from you. I never found your email. I think we'd hqve some good talk. Doing well here!

[@theNextProject]

Sorry, I missed this message. Send me a note at the following (no spaces): the next project (dot) info (@) gmail.com

[@harsanj6281]

Wonderful job Sir . As far as you are a master luthier, can I have your comments on PLEK machine? how much a better job it can do in fret job in comparison to the master luthier. I have a Pleked Gibson les paul, and the action can be less than 1mil on 12th fret, withou buzzing and any fret-choking even in 2step bends. Is it plek or 12inch radius? as on my fender american deluxe with compound radius (9.5 to 14) i can never get the same result as my les paul. Is it Plek or by chance I got a good LP or not so good fender. I would love to hear your Idea. Many thanks.

[@theNextProject]

Thanks for watching and the very nice compliment. I don't see myself as a luthier, a hobbyist possibly, but thank you again. I haven't had any personal experience with PLEK machines or their results, so I can't offer you more than you already know from your guitar. 1mm action at the 12th is really great, and if the guitar plays without issues that is a wonderful setup. If your Strat wasn't PLEK'd, I can't really comment on the setup comparison. If it is a factory setup, it won't be for super low (1mm) action. 1.5mm - 2mm seems to be rather typical fender action. As for the fingerboard radius and bending, that can be an issue. The neck in this video went from 7.25 to 9.5 just to improve the "bending" situation. I think the action was about 1.5mm on the treble and a bit more on the bass side. Conical (compound) fingerboards throw in a slightly more complex issue as well, as the radius changes all along the board, and action compensation is a very fine detail. Tuning choice also can cause issues. If one guitar is standard tuning, another down a 1/2 step, or a drop-D tuning. Oh, then there is string tension of scale length. String gauge the same? So many variables. So, how low can you get the action on your Strat? Is it 1.5mm, 1.75mm...? Also, is it a hardtail strat, or a trem? I've gotten a few guitars down to the 1mm action at the 12th on up, but the issue I find is that the wound strings become prone to jangling off the frets. It's not really fret buzz, but more the oscillation of the low strings bouncing off the frets. Some people call this fret buzz, but I see it as a separate concern. But if you are getting choked notes on your strat at a 1mm action, then it may largely be the conical neck radius and possible neck angle to bridge/saddle. So many things to look at, and consider. Then there is seasonal humidity changes which are more noticeable on low-action, and may be more prevalent on one wood than another, and trussrod type. Sorry I can't give you exact science for an answer, and I can't tell you what the issue with your strat may be without really taking a look at it. Hopefully you can get the action reasonable low to fit your needs and style. Good luck, be safe and take care!

[@harsanj6281]

@@theNextProject Not only you are great luthier and very humble, you are one real kind human being. It is my honor to get to know you. I play around 21 years just jamming as my professional life is mobile network telecom engineering. I get 1.5 in 12th fret (on treble side) on my fenders, like american original 50s, or telecaster. the way you changed the radius and you did the fret job so immaculate that I was blown away, that is why I asked you. on my strat I can get 1.5 mm on 12th fret with full step bend (2 frets bend), but on my les paul with lower than 1 mm on 12th fret i can bend as far as I want and no choking. that is why I asked you, as you said you have done such great job to get 1 mm action on treble side.... none of my american made fenders ever got a 1 mm on 12th with ful step bending and no choke, I bought this LP standard 2013 in Sydney after checking so many. Congratulate you on your wonderful skill, but more over on your personality and kindness that these days is almost impossible to find. God bless you and your family, wish you the best, looking forward to your new videos. Respect from Persia-Iran.

[@theNextProject]

Thank you again for the kind words! Without seeing your guitar, I can only guess that there may be a combination of issues keeping it from getting, or having, lower action. Is the choking issue better, or worse in certain areas of the neck. Is it mostly a problem from the 12th up, or ? It could be some slight hump or twist in the neck, maybe nothing that you can see, but enough to cause the frets to slightly be out of plane. Could be a slight issue with the neck at the heel, a little ramp up, or sky jump. Neck to body angle may need a super small adjustment. Saddle height adjustment, or maybe a better leveling and re-crowning of the frets. Maybe the frets need a little fallaway if the issue is mainly above the 15th or so, or maybe too much relief in the neck. With that low of action, the relief needs to be a really small amount. Sorry this is so vague, but there could be any number of little things, combined together keeping your guitar from the low action you seek. Also, as we discussed, the addition of the compound/conical neck radius. This can potentially have an impact on setting up the action. Have you taken your Strat to a Guitar shop that can do Plek? It would be interesting to ask them what may be the issue. Not saying you need to get it Plek'd, but would be interesting to hear what they think. I've recently started a new process (to me), where I do a leveling of the frets with the guitar strung up and tuned to pitch. This is with minimal neck relief set and having the strings under tension, this creates compression of the neck. This seems to help me find humps, bumps and slight twists in the neck and the slight changes in fret plane. I'm still in testing of this process, but so far I like what it reveals. Here is a link to my first test of this process. I've since refined what I do, and can get pretty good results. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYO9mYCBndl5hJI Like I mentioned before, when I do get action down to about 1mm, I find the strings want to rattle on the frets when strummed. Not really fret buzz, but the strings are just getting so close to the frets that they have almost no room to vibrate without hitting the frets. Thank you again for the conversation. Best wishes from Florida, US. Be safe and take care! John

[@1man1guitarletsgo]

What's the music after the 11 minute mark please?

[@theNextProject]

I wish I could say "it was me.." During the 11th minute, it is: Tiptoe Out the Back, by Dan Lebowitz. Part of the KZbin Music Library Hope this helps

[@1man1guitarletsgo]

@@theNextProject Thank you! It has a Texas Swing/Travis County vibe.

[@Markleford]

Seriously, Squire and Fender neck pockets are supposed to be interchangeable, right? That's one of the remaining justifications I have for picking up used Squiers, for their compatibility with after-market parts... Is the pic of the reassembled guitar back in the owner's hands?

[@theNextProject]

Hey Mark, thanks for watching! I honestly hoped, or expected that the Squire body would have the perfect neck pocket - nope. Close, but no cigar on this Affinity model. I've seen others that have custom routed corners, not just a smooth radius. So I followed suit and only took a little out of the corners, then the Fender neck slid all the way in. The side-to-side fit was really good otherwise. The neck went back to the owner, and he's put it together again, however last I heard he was putting new pickups in it, so it may be apart again. Hope all is well for you, take care!

[@keiranbradley3238]

I always wonder why the Fender custom shop can't get the curve behind the nut correct like a 59-62 style slab board but Fender Japan's Strats and Teles do?. They don't even do it on so-called "master built" ten grand guitars, WTF!.

[@theNextProject]

Kieran, thanks for watching! I'll have to look into that, not really aware of the difference. That is a good question, you'd think a custom shop would be spot on. Interesting. Be safe and take care!

[@keiranbradley3238]

@theNextProject If you notice on the original '59-'62 necks the curve behind the nut mirrors the curve where the neck meets the body, on the reissues/custom shop examples the cut is parallel with the nut and not curved, I just wince when I see it on very expensive guitars yet the Japanese do it with seemingly no problem?. I don't understand it?.

[@keiranbradley3238]

@theNextProject You're an exceptional craftsman btw, it's always an education watching you work, thank you.

[@theNextProject]

Thank you very much! I'm always trying to learn and improve on what I'm doing. Having fun along the way. Take care!