Advice needed regarding finding the right neck for my Fender Deluxe Strat body

DL57

Hi there, my name is David and I’m new to the forum. I currently live in Spain and am recently retired.
I need some advice regarding this Fender Deluxe contoured heel body.
It has a natural finish and came fitted with only the two pin tremolo bridge with no scratch plate or electronics.  Presently it is mounted with Fender Hot Noiseless pickups in an SSS configuration with a TBX tone control which I fitted because I needed that extra warmth for Jazz and at the time was unable to source an S-1 volume pot switch.

I would have posted some photos, but I don’t see how to do that?

At present I have a Fender Strat maple neck with rosewood fretboard fitted, from the 90’s, which is totally wrong for this body, lacking any of the special touches or appointments the Deluxe series necks are noted for. Unfortunately this neck was re-profiled to a similar profile to the Wizard necks fitted to the Ibanez 540s series, which was every Fusion player’s dream at that time. But the luthier did a slipshod job on this, with the result that there is now a slight divot which can be felt on the skunk stripe around the centre of the neck, and I have been unable to find a local luthier who could be trusted to carry out the repair in this part of Spain.

Deluxe necks are difficult to find and very expensive, especially taking into account customs import duties - so which Fender necks would you recommend for this body, both in terms of playability and feel and adding the best value to this instrument when it comes to selling it on? Is it worth fitting the S-1 switching?
Thank you.

Jonathangus

Welcome!  Have a look here for info on posting pics:
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/54241/posting-pics-vids-soundclips-how-to

paulnb57

Have look on the Fender website, they sell a variety of replacement necks

rossi

I  use a Fender Strat  roast maple 22 fret  replacement 12 inch radius neck .Its actually on my Telecaster  at present but may wander over to my strat when i finish painting it .its my spec of choice  .Thats how I like my necks .Thats the joy of Fenders ,you can screw on all your favorite specs.

I never saw any problem with s1  .I  had  it on a Baja but I dont oppose change  so  make of that what you will .One of the positions sounded really wanky at modest levels of overdrive but fabulous cranked right up .

DL57

Jonathangus said:

Welcome!  Have a look here for info on posting pics:
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/54241/posting-pics-vids-soundclips-how-to

Many thanks. I found an alternative service which I am going to try. If it works you may want to add it to the list since it’s free and requires no registration to use. 

DL57

Thank you. Yes, I have a roasted maple neck on my Hartley Benton Fusion HSH superstrat, and I must say that before trying that I have never much bonded with maple neck instruments. I find the profile a little fat compared with that of my favourite guitar, and it is also a little neck heavy, but the same is true of my favourite guitar, so you can’t win . 

I’d really need to hear the range of new tones available with the S-1 switching, but since the TBX pot is a tone pot, there would presumably be no reason not to combine that with the S-1 switching for maximum versatility. 

rossi said:

I  use a Fender Strat  roast maple 22 fret  replacement 12 inch radius neck .Its actually on my Telecaster  at present but may wander over to my strat when i finish painting it .its my spec of choice  .Thats how I like my necks .Thats the joy of Fenders ,you can screw on all your favorite specs.

I never saw any problem with s1  .I  had  it on a Baja but I dont oppose change  so  make of that what you will .One of the positions sounded really wanky at modest levels of overdrive but fabulous cranked right up .

DL57

Here are some links to some photos of this guitar, so you have a better idea of what this project entails:
https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/rCxi3jO.jpeg

https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/39Cg0aB.jpeg

https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/CzOYa7e.jpeg

https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/NkKHl10.jpeg

https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/TmFHH0l.jpeg

DL57 said:

Hi there, my name is David and I’m new to the forum. I currently live in Spain and am recently retired.
I need some advice regarding this Fender Deluxe contoured heel body.
It has a natural finish and came fitted with only the two pin tremolo bridge with no scratch plate or electronics.  Presently it is mounted with Fender Hot Noiseless pickups in an SSS configuration with a TBX tone control which I fitted because I needed that extra warmth for Jazz and at the time was unable to source an S-1 volume pot switch.

I would have posted some photos, but I don’t see how to do that?

At present I have a Fender Strat maple neck with rosewood fretboard fitted, from the 90’s, which is totally wrong for this body, lacking any of the special touches or appointments the Deluxe series necks are noted for. Unfortunately this neck was re-profiled to a similar profile to the Wizard necks fitted to the Ibanez 540s series, which was every Fusion player’s dream at that time. But the luthier did a slipshod job on this, with the result that there is now a slight divot which can be felt on the skunk stripe around the centre of the neck, and I have been unable to find a local luthier who could be trusted to carry out the repair in this part of Spain.

Deluxe necks are difficult to find and very expensive, especially taking into account customs import duties - so which Fender necks would you recommend for this body, both in terms of playability and feel and adding the best value to this instrument when it comes to selling it on? Is it worth fitting the S-1 switching?
Thank you.