Allparts necks- finish quality?

[claytushaywood]

Looking for a new neck for my telemaster guitar I just traded some home brew pedals for. Surf green relic jazzmaster body with a suepr thin nitro finish, vintage tele bridge with brass saddles. I'm figuring I'm gonna put a jazzmaster neck pickup and a single coil jerry style in the middle with the tele bridge- this might be my ultimate guitar- as jerry taught me the wonders of the strat middle pickup- but those other two are my personal style favorites. The neck that came with this new telemaster is just a plain old thin mim tele neck with super small frets. it isnt relic'd either.

So I'm thinking of putting a solid maple neck or a maple neck with ebony board on there. something jerry'ish (hey an ash tele with vintage bridge is already more like a jerry strat than a strat itself!) as long as you got the strat middle pickup.

I found a hugely discounted site for allparts necks and bodies- a finished one is only $50 more though! I was wondering if anyone has any experience with a neck finished by allparts themselves? Apparently their nitro used to be poly over nitro and super thick... but then i heard they fixed that. How are their nitro finishes?

they also have a new satin aged finish- that apparently is poly, but looks like it has nice moderate aging and a thin smooth finish with vintage tint... anyone seen these? played? owned? have more pics?

Anything would be greatly appreciated... as apparently not many people have tried allparts finished stuff because it is such a huge upcharge from them... now that i've found these finished necks for $170 I'm seriously considering one!

anything would be awesome! Thanks!

[Tony6Strings]

I've played a couple allparts necks and have been pleasantly surprised. They make good stuff. I've even played some Mighty Mite necks that have impressed me, albeit they were doctored up a bit. A lot depends on having a skilled neck and fret guy go over it after you buy it, most of the time an aftermarket Fender type neck needs a fret level/crown/dress, rolled edges if that's your thing, etc... I gotta say though, if I was building a partscaster, my own personal choice would be a Warmoth Pro neck. The AP necks I tried had decent finish but I can't say if they were finished by Allparts themselves or elsewhere down the line. What you could do is get an unfinished neck and do a tru oil finish on it. Can't go wrong there. Good luck on your partscaster venture, post pics as you go along!

[tigger]

Jazzmaster with a Tele bridge? I'd like to see a photo of that!

[tigerstrat]

AllParts, Mighty Mite (maybe Warmoth too)... a big thing to consider is thaT no two necks (of the same model) are alike: the finish, frets, fretboards, can be pretty inconsistent. The ideal situation is if you can go through a bunch of them and hand-pick the one that looks the best. On my '87 MIJ Strat I have an Mighty Mite MM2927 (birdseye maple/ebony board/jumbo frets) that I picked out from about a half a dozen; it stood apart from the others in quality.

[strumminsix]

I agree with TS.

I think the first thing you need to do is figure out the neck measurements you like:
radius
nut
width
neck curvature and how that translates across other manufacturers
depth at 1st
depth at 12th
fret material
fret sizes

Only after that can you buy a neck online that you'll be happy with, in my opinion.

[claytushaywood]

I have a general preference of my neck dimensions... nobody needs to have an Exact preference--- I ONLY play 11" radius... I know my nut width and string spacing- not vintage and not jumbo frets...

What necks are all of CONSISTENT quality then tigerstrat and strumminsix? sure as HELL aint gibson, fender, ibanez, gretsch, warmoth, musikraft, rattle rattle rattle...

I taught myself fret work several years ago and have all the tools- I think there are VERY few guitars that cannot benefit from a full fret level and recrown. Carvin is one company that does a decent job- ESP and new charvels are others- definitely not my style guitars.

You really like warmoth pro's? Those things have no resonance from that stupidly huge steel handrail going through them- especially the thin contour- gross. The warmoth vintage and vintage modern's are fine by me. That might be what I end up doing. Though if you cant find anything in the showcase they charge you for the most outrageous things... $35 if you want a back contour other than super thin or 1" thick. $35 to get a different radius besides 7 1/4 or compound 10-16.... shit they probably charge you to NOT get a warmoth logo or to not get fret dots.

Every allparts neck I've played has been doctored- but then again every one has been better than every fender i've ever played excluding custom shops those are on par with them.

Anyways- i've been doing research- which is hard to find on my original quesiton- which was purely asking about allparts finishing process. A guy told me they were "nice and thick" haha! nice and thick with a poly base and nitro on top of that-- so my advice- stay away from allparts finishing. The body for my telemaster came from MJT finishing company. They do relic work. My body is a little more relic'd than I would like, but I didnt order it. The finish is SUPER thin (SUPER light allparts ash body- big jazzmaster body too) and I have always loved the "checking" tons of checking... anyways I contacted MJT and they will sell me an allparts neck with a hand cut bone nut aged kluson style tuners and an aged string tree on my choice of allparts neck with my choice of aging for $300. Get a vintage tint with a matching surf green headstock- theyll even have me ship my body and match the headstock to the finish- checked- with a super smooth back of neck and some maple fretboard wear... I think that is gonna be my ticket. Basically a King Bee neck- which I have LOVED... they just feel perfect.

I was contemplating a warmoth solid rosewood neck, but I think i'm going to have to wait until i build my solid rosewood telecaster

and tigger- telemasters are extremely popular these days...
the board wont let me add an attachment- just search "telemaster and you'll see what i'm talking about"

speaking of necks... Last year when I bought a strat I played tons of guitars all over the place... I didnt have a huge budget but I ended up selling a custom tele with a flame maple neck from musikraft in favor of the fender blacktop strat rosewood fretboard. They need a new nut and some polishing, but man at least 50% of the rosewood strat ones I played were amazing! better than ANY of the 50 US teles and strats I played. I took out the humbuckers of course

[jackevorkian]

I think USACG has a great reputation as being very consistent and generally the best of the bunch, although they don't have "accurate" headstocks, if that matters. I've had great luck with Musikraft...their V to C profile is my favorite carve. I have owned one Warmoth Pro and would never do that again, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a vintage modern from their showcase - great prices, no wait, and you see the actual neck you're buying. The Warmoth 59 is a nice profile.

[barefootdave]

I have a finished Allparts start neck that I have played for years. It is fantastic !