Tele neck on a Strat body?

[DeeDub]

I've got a few pieces laying around, and thought about trying that combo. I know the neck pockets aren't an exact fit, with the Strat neck pocket being a bit more rounded.

Anyone done this, and if so, what was the outcome?

 

[Laroosco!]

Ian Moore's main guitar for years was a Strat with a Tele neck

He retired the original but here he is with a different one he has

I've been told that you can put a Tele neck on a Strat but not the other way around.

 

[robbert]

Originally posted by Laroosco!
I've been told that you can put a Tele neck on a Strat but not the other way around.

I don't know if he had to do any serious modifications, but Eric Clapton played this telecaster with a strat neck for a while in Blind Faith.

 

[alderbody]

i thought that it was impossible to fit a tele neck in a Strat just because of the angled heel, at least without modification...

Maybe this Strat in the photo (not Eric's) has a modified pocket or a specially designed neck.

 

[johnmfer]

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=faq2

This is the best description I've seen. Also, I have a strat neck on a tele body, works great.

 

[VDeuce]

I have a friend with this exact setup - a Strat Plus body with a Tele neck. He loves it.

 

[serial]

Had a Tele neck on a Strat for years. Loved that guitar and it was great when I went to sell the Strat b/c the neck was like new.

 

[AndyZ]

The Squier 51 is basically that... a Strat body (basswood) and a Tele neck, with a 51 P-bass pickguard. Don't discount them just because they are a Squier. They are easy to mod. Guitar Center was just blowing them out over labor day for $99 down from $149.

I replaced the neck with a rosewood Am Std Tele neck, changed the pups and wiring configuration and controls and I'm about ready to swap pickguards.

 

[esoteric pete]

those 51's are great cadidates for mods.....love em..

 

[WayneM]

I own a Fender Masterbuilt guitar with a strat body and tele neck. Yuriy Shishkov from the Fender Custom Shop is the luthier.

This guitar is a gem.

 

[DeeDub]

What I'm worried about here is the HUGE gap on the end of the neck. Whereas the Strat neckpocket is deeper and rounded and the Tele neck is more or less "square" cut.

I put the neck on today to test the fit. Here's the gap:

Is this deemed "acceptable"? I know alot of folks would say no, but I figure if it feels good and sounds good, then it is good. I'm gonna slap some tuners on the neck this week and we'll see if either the sound or feel turn out good!

 

[Slick51]

If you have enough travel on the bridge saddles to correctly intonate the Tele neck on the Strat body, you are good to go. With that gap though, it'll be close if it works at all. I've modded Tele necks to fit Strat bodies with a floor-mount disc sander, but it sure wasn't a vintage piece!

Slick51

 

[johnmfer]

Originally posted by Slick51
If you have enough travel on the bridge saddles to correctly intonate the Tele neck on the Strat body, you are good to go. With that gap though, it'll be close if it works at all.

Just this past weekend before even seeing this thread, I tried putting a tele neck on my Jazzmaster (same neck pocket as a strat). Just by measuring 25.5" from the nut to the high- E saddle, that gap pictured above made the scale length too long to intonate properly.

 

[Chiba]

I have a Strat neck on my Custom Tele Custom. It fits fine into the squared-off pocket in the body, but with a gap between the end of the neck & the edge of the pocket. As an experiment before I sold it, I tried fitting the Tele neck to a Strat body - it wouldn't fit right because the bolt-holes didn't match up. Since I was selling it anyway, I didn't want to plug & re-drill.

I think the important thing is if the bolt-holes line up between whatever neck - Tele or Strat - and whatever body - Tele or Strat - you're trying to match up. If the bolt holes match up and you could intonate the guitar properly with the neck that was on it before, you should be able to swap between Tele & Strat necks no problem. If they're the same scale length and the bolt holes match up, it should work.

--chiba

 

[DeeDub]

Well, I got out the ol' measureing tape before I went and did too much work on it.. and it looks like that gap at the end of the neck is gonna kill this little project...

By my reckoning, I'm a good bit short of having the bridge intonate.

Red line #1 is the 12 3/4 mark from the middle of the 12th fret.. red line #2 is just to the outer limits of the saddles, and I'm a good bit short of that.

 

[Slick51]

Putting the Tele neck into a Strat pocket is the hard one to pull off; the Strat neck into the Tele pocket (as Chiba describes) is a 'swap and setup' solution. Your problem is "trying to fit a square peg into a round hole" as the Warmoth link above shows.


Obviously only two ways to fix it.

1) round off the neck to fit the round Strat pocket (again I did it with a disc sander). You'd have to go slowly, and make sure you stay away from the truss rod adjustment nut.

2) square out the pocket to fit the relatively-square Tele neck (I'd do this with a chisel, a little at a time).

Both are irreversible, but easy to do (and #2 is the easiest, only requiring a cheap chisel or two). If I really wanted the resulting guitar and never planned to sell it (and it wasn't worth stupid money to start with), go for it. There's something satisfying, IMO, in having a "#1 of 1" guitar...



my $1/50.

Slick51

 

[DeeDub]

OK, I'm open to the idea of reshaping the neck. Even to the point of (if i need enough leeway) having a kind of "extended" fingerboard, if you know what I mean. With a sander or some wood rasps, I think that would be easy enough.

I do have one question, though: what method would you use for redrilling the neck mounting holes? As it is now, the holes lined up perfectly. I don't really have any serious tools... no drill press or anything like that... so how would you keep the neck in the proper position and keep your drill perpendicular to the neck?

 

[Slick51]

That's weird...I'd have thought the holes would be the same, judging from Chiba's post.

First, you'll need to peg the old holes. Go to Home Depot/Lowe's/wherever, and buy an oak dowel rod the same size as your neck's screw holes (or the hardest wood they have available...when I did this, oak and poplar was all they had, and poplar was too soft IMO). Peg the neck, using Elmer's glue or one of the many good carpenter's glues. Cut away the extra dowel with an X-acto knife and sand the neck smooth.

Now to drill.

There's a perfectly good and cheap way, as long as you're careful.

Remove enough wood until the neck fits the pocket, and the intonation measurement is 25.5" with the bridge saddles in the middle of their adjustment. Clamp the neck and body together. Use a caul (hard padding) between the clamp and the parts to make sure you don't scratch the neck/body. Leather works fine; an old belt is great.

Wind the outside two strings until the slack is out (but not up to pitch!...just want to use them for neck alignment). Sight the outside strings and make sure they are where you want them (use where they are now as your benchmark). Measure the thickness of the body/neck combo at the screw holes, and check that against the length of the exposed bit (or easier, use the screw's length to set the exposed length). Don't want to drill through the neck and the fingerboard! However, if the fingerboard is rosewood, watch for dark sawdust to let you know when you've gone too far.

Now drill the holes through the body's neck mounting screw holes, being careful that you are removing wood only from the neck (not the holes in the body; i.e. using the tip and not the side of the bit). Your bit will probably just barely reach the neck wood; if you can just get into the neck 3/16" or so, then you can remove the neck and finish drilling it separately, letting the prior hole guide the bit squarely.

I think that covers it, but write back if I've forgotten something. There are probably better ways, too; this is just what I've done before with acceptable results (before I bought a drill press!)

HTH
Slick51

 

[waxnsteel]

My first electric was a Squier Bullet which was a Strat body, 3 single coils, standard Strat layout, and a neck and headstock like a Tele. Now when I search for em online, they only have strat headstocks. They had to have made more than one, right?
Was a nice playing guitar, sounded like hammered ****. Not to mention, I could barely play!!!

 

[KHK]

Originally posted by robbert

I don't know if he had to do any serious modifications, but Eric Clapton played this telecaster with a strat neck for a while in Blind Faith.

I wouldn't do the strat neck to the tele body if I were you. It looks way too loud. Great picture!