Aluminium Guitar Neck build

samzadgan

so as some have seen on a guitar thread, i ordered an aluminium neck about 5 months ago, and yesterday the neck arrived and today I assembled my new guitar...instead posting all the pics under the other thread, i thought it would make sense putting the build here.

The neck was built by Bastin Guitars...and the body is from a squire Jazzmaster...the pickup is a Lace Dirty Hashers bridge pickup...so here go the pics...

Even my kid got involved in the build!

BigMonka

Looks great, very unique. What's it like playing an Alu neck? Has it affected the sound much?

HollowAxis

That's really damn pretty!
I like

samzadgan

BigMonka;792100" said:

Looks great, very unique. What's it like playing an Alu neck? Has it affected the sound much?

Didnt get to play at loud volume...but even at low volume theres more clarity and more defined attack on the strings.

As far as feel goes...its really different...the profile of the neck is thin and not what im use to, but it is really comfortable. It probably plays faster (if i could play faster) and the fretboard is very smooth...im totally sold on the aluminium guita thing.

I can feel that might be buying some kind of EGC in the future!

GavRichList

This sounds stupid... But is it cold? I really struggle to play well when my hands are cold.

samzadgan

GavHaus;792140" said:

This sounds stupid... But is it cold? I really struggle to play well when my hands are cold.

Yeah a little, nothing that bad. Also i live in australia now...so it doesnt get that cold here

Deadman

That's fantastic!

Moss

Genuinely the coolest guitar I have seen in weeks

BloodEagle

That looks really really cool - am thinking of getting in on the next round of Bastin neck orders. When I got my EGC the alu neck was a big culture shock in terms of feel and profile (really really thin), but now I find it very hard to play anything else. Nice work sir, nice work

DiscoStu

Sex!

usedtobe

Oh, I say...!

samzadgan

BloodEagle;794690" said:

That looks really really cool - am thinking of getting in on the next round of Bastin neck orders. When I got my EGC the alu neck was a big culture shock in terms of feel and profile (really really thin), but now I find it very hard to play anything else. Nice work sir, nice work

I know what you mean...ive got the alu bug now too...im chating to Bastin about a complete alu build...his cheaper than EGC...but only does runs of 5...so may be even more wait than EGC!

BloodEagle

Didnt realise he did whole guitars - id definitely be interested in one of them - must do some research about this . I can see Bastin becoming very popular over time

ThePrettyDamned

I must have one!

samzadgan

So i put it through its paces today...and its everything i want. I've always thought that i would dig a simple one pickup guitar and i do!

First of all, a few notes on the build which i notice i didnt do...the only bit i didn't do myself was the pickguard...i started by cutting out the rough shape, but then realised the finer details were beyond my skill and tools. So i gave that to a gutar tech to do. But i got him to do it in a way that if i ever want to put a jazzmaster pickup in, i could.

The pickup is a lace sensor dirty hesher, which had way too much low mids for my les paul, but with this its perfect. And its sitting in a jazzmaster case that i cut out for it...so its all screwed into the body like a regular jazz pickup. The bridge is a staytrem and the no buzz is ok...serves as more weight on the body than anything else, as i didnt really notice any difference with it on.

The hardest thing was the rickenbacker knob...the pot was fender size and the knob was smaller...so i had to drill the hole bigger...which took ages to get right as i didnt want to over do it. But now thats on tight and looks great!

The most surprising thing was the neck and shim...i thought it would be a long process, but the neck fit perfectly...and i put a 0.020 shim in and that proved to the perfect too, the action is pretty low by my standards and is almost the same from the top to bottom.

Also...sperzel tuners...i have seen the light! I love them so much...i think along with aluminium, sperzel is the other thing that i will get on my next guitar.

gusman2x

Very cool. How did you find out there was a batch f necks being made? Notice any increased neck dive?

samzadgan

thanks man...found out through Instagram/facebook/forum friends in the US...but he has a shop on reverb so when he did announce it, he also set it up on reverb so the purchasing was all done there.

there is no neck dive at all...when i was considering bodies, i talked to him about potentials, and he advised the squire JM, as he had fitted one himself and it balanced really well. I would say a lighter body could have neck dive for sure.