Just how bad are those super-cheap Chinese Strat necks?

randella

I'd love a Warmoth or Musickraft neck for my project - I want a maple-board Strat neck with a reverse head, but I'm moving house at the minute and I'd, quite rightly, be in the doghouse if I dropped several hundred quid on a plank of maple right now. 

I've got some fretwire and abalone dots kicking about so I'm half-tempted to spend £25 on seeing just how much can be done with a cheapy. Wonder if it might be a fool's errand though. 

WezV

fairly rough, about what you would expect for the money

but they can usually be made reasonably playable with a bit of work... unless the frets are in the wrong place

Roland

Last year I bought a £20 Tele neck to check whether it would be usable. The wood is ok, and its nicely finished, but the frets are irregularly spaced

randella

@WezV @Roland ;

Useful, thanks chaps. I never thought I'd make something to embarrass a prepro Charvel, just thought it'd be an interesting mini project but it'd be exceptionally irritating to put in hours of work only to find the soppy gets had sawn the fret slots wrong. It never even occurred to me, I just assumed they'd be bashing these things out by the thousand on CNC. 

Ah well - back to the drawing board. Quite literally - I've got a lovely block of rock maple and a very tasty slab of bird's eye for a fretboard. I managed to knock out a Strat body from a lump of southern Swamp Ash that I'm very pleased with. The neck is something else altogether though. I suppose the worst that happens is I ruin a plank of wood

Roland

Yes. I'd assumed that the wood and fretwire would be of questionable quality, but that CNC would produce the right shape

AustrianJohn

I bought a Strat neck from China for a project last year for €33 (including postage). I expected it to be poor, but it's actually rather good.

Jez6345789

Both cheap Chinese ones I bought from eBay were fine on the fretting posistion heavy on lacquer which I thinned out.

the issue was one neck went S shaped sort of bent beyond repair and the rosewood came away on the Tele due to lack of glue.

i tend for partscasters to use the Northwest guitar one and they have all been solid a little work to get that played in feel and nobody has complained and my V shaped is excellent

longjaw

I bought a strat neck from China last year for £28 not expecting much but, apart from the headstock being a bit too big, it's great.

Nice shallow D profile and no need for any fret dressing etc straight out of the box.

FX_Munkee

Not had a super cheap one but I'll second the recommendation for North West Guitars, I got a finished Telecaster neck from them and it's fairly decent quality.

Jack_

I'd rather get a used Squier one or a lefty and change the nut.

Sarge

Northwest for me too, I have one on my partscaster and it's excellent.