I recently picked up a Stratocaster (a Partscaster really) from Andy Preston at WudTone - which is by far the nicest sounding Stratocaster I have ever played. It features his wonderful 'constant pivot' tremolo (which really stays in tune) and 'proper' single coils by Wudtone with A5 / A3 magnets - as opposed to the Kinmans I usually play. Andy has done a beautiful job with this guitar - and he's a great guy to deal with too, a real gentleman.
The guitar had been pre-assembled - I asked him to send it over so I could get an idea of how his guitars sound prior to placing a custom order. But this one is really special - and I'm keeping it...
Everything except the neck is perfect for me (I prefer a slimmer profile, flatter radius and jumbo frets).
I'm very tempted to pick up a neck from Warmoth - of similar woods etc. But I'm a bit worried that it might drastically alter the sound of this guitar - should that be the case, I'd be happy to live with the current neck - the guitar really does sound that good...
One option is of course to re-radius the current fingerboard and re-fret it - but it's an awful lot of work.
Expert opinions deeply appreciated...
Comments
If the original plan was to place a custom order with Andy Preston, ask whether he thinks he could get the same sounds from a similar guitar with your preferred neck profile by changing other components to compensate. (I suspect not.)
Never irreversibly alter a guitar you love - changes to the wood, even quite small ones, can drastically alter the resonance. If it’s great now it can only go one way...
It *may* not do, but you only find that out when you can’t go back.
"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
I have two telecasters on which I swapped the necks around to see what the effects would be. I was to admit that the tonal effects (unplugged/ acoustically) are very subtle indeed...
Perhaps I’ll try that Warmoth neck after all