Franken-Mustang Project

jgarner

Im a Jaguar owner and decided to make my first guitar building project a mustang. I go the body off of ebay and already know what i want to do with the pick-ups..etc...my big question is about the neck...or Fender guitar necks in general. i know that intonation can be effected by an incorrect neck..that said...what are my options outside of the Wormoth or other replacemnet necks. Can i use any year mustang neck? can i replace it with a jaguar neck?...a strat?...Im not too interested in restoring a mustang...just making a great guitar. I would like to have a fender neck though.

Joey

Wow... funny you mentioned a strat neck on Mustang, I was just talking about this in the Backstage Forum of this board. You could make it work, but you'd have to move the bridge back 23/32" (roughly 3/4") towards the butt of the guitar. I just happend to have a Mustang body and Strat neck together in my garage. Mustang neck pocket is slightly larger, by maybe 1/16" - 3/32". I can't believe a Mustang neck pocket is bigger then a Strat, but it is.

You'd probally want to use a different bridge/tremolo set up... unless you make a custom pickguard to fill in that 3/4" gap that you had to move the bridge. I think a Gibson style tail & bridge would be cool.

What's Gibson neck fretboard radius? I know Strat is 12" & Mustang 7 1/2".... ehh, right?

Fran

You can use any 24" scale neck: Duo, Musicmaster, Jaguar, Bronco, Mustang, Jag-Stang etc. Other than that you would have to move the bridge.

Be careful of reissue/squier Duo's and Musicmasters though, they may not be true 24 scale, possibly 'Conversion' necks. Im not sure on this.

Earth

This would also mean filling the mustang vibrato routes and re routing. Its just not practical IMO. Unless you're a genius with woodworking and have all the tools and have experience with this kinda thing. Which would also mean cutting a new pickguard too.

The amount of crooked bigsbys, jazzmaster trems and phucked up looking home built guitars I've seen online always makes me think "people don't think before they act" and that they certainly don't research it anyways.

Making guitars (or major mods like this) isn't for everyone, i don't know how to make them but I know enough about making them to know its not as easy as 123 and you cant just wack any neck on any body and expect it to intonate.

You should just get a CIJ/MIJ mustang neck if its a CIJ/MIJ body or a vintage mustang, jaguar etc (as Fran said) neck if its a vintage body as it will be compatible.

Besides,shortscales rule and you'll have a better guitar anyways!!!

Fran

Yeah, i mentioned in Joeys build thread... you can pick up 60s/70s Musicmaster necks and sometimes Duo off ebay for around

JeffLeites

Tommy at USA Custom Guitars http://www.usacustomguitars.com/ will make you a 24" scale neck, but he's probably more expensive than Warmoth. On the other hand he'll give you more options.