I picked up this 1960's WEM Sapphire this weekend, my dad has had it since he was young but the neck was toast and I (maybe naively) replaced it with a Mighty Mite strat neck about 15 years ago.
From my limited research, the Sapphire should have a 24-3/8ths scale length, rather than the 25.5" it now has with the strat neck so the first question is do I try and source a shorter scale neck? It's quite a bright guitar so i'm thinking a rosewood board would help tame that.
Next, the electronics. The pickups are very very basic and are low output and at some stage the toggle switch has been disconnected and the four-way selector is the only way of varying the tone. My thoughts would be to completely replace all the electronics and pickups. The current pickups measure about 30x72mm so i'm hoping mini-humbuckers are an equivalent size.
Three-way toggle switch and master volume and tone. Sound about right?
The bridge has been replaced by a tun-o-matic type but the tailpiece is still the original floating type and is a right pain to restring. Perhaps a change to an intonatable wraparound?
Couple of pics below, comments and suggestions welcomed!
![Image: https://i.postimg.cc/rF1SCMd6/Photo-25-10-2020-11-48-59.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/rF1SCMd6/Photo-25-10-2020-11-48-59.jpg)
Comments
What type of replacement neck you need depends on the distance from the neck pocket to the bridge, with the saddles in a more normal position.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Distance from the neck pocket to middle of the bridge is 176mm
Is that a 22-fret 'overhang' neck, or a full-length 22-fret neck?
If it's an overhang neck, you might actually be best looking for a full 22-fret 25.5"-scale one - these do exist, some Chinese Strat-types have them - because that will move the whole neck about 1/4" further out of the body.
A 'conversion' neck - intended to make a Fender into a 24-3/4" Gibson scale - is also a possibility but might need the end of the neck padding with a piece of wood to get it to the right position.
If it's already a full 22-fret neck things get more tricky, since they're not standard dimensions and you'll need to either do some complex calculations or find a substitute neck and see if it fits.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It is a 22-fret 'overhang' replacement neck. The original neck was a 21-fret 'full' neck.
Would I be correct in assuming that if find a Jaguar neck that would be almost perfect?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Edit: themusiclocker on ebay reckons his is 24"...
Wow, it's proving quite the minefield for you. Good luck.
I can't work out how if the original scale length is approx 24", a replacement strat neck gives an effective scale length of 25-3/8" without loads of intonation issues
like:
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
That looks more like 172mm to me...
The top E saddle position will be a couple of mm forward of the centre of the bridge, so I would say 171mm is the measurement you need.
From photos online the original neck had 21 frets, so the end of the pocket would be almost exactly at the 22nd fret position, which is 0.281 of the scale length - so that makes the scale 609mm or 24".
That means that a Jaguar neck will definitely *not* fit without modification since they have 22 frets, so you'd need to cut an overhang into it so the 22nd fret was over the end of the pocket.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
But yes I understand what you are saying. Here are the current saddle positions. It’s intonated pretty perfectly, maybe one or two cents out.
12th root of 0.5 (the calculation for each fret position) to the 22nd power = 0.281
176/0.281 = 627mm or 24.7".
So whoever suggested 24.5" was close. It might be a Gibson scale - 24-5/8" or 24-3/4", depending on how you define that.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein