Any 25th anniversary strat experts? Need help ID'ing this neck.

[surfin_bird]

Hi All,

Sooo a few years ago when I lived in LA I wanted a maple jaguar. After looking around on ebay I found a lovely maple mustang neck.
With a serial on the headstock trussrod access in the heel.
I took it to "Imperial Vintage" in burbank and they added a missing fret.
They said it was a lovely vintage neck.

So it stayed in my parts corner for a few years and today I was looking at it, while it was standing next to my 50's mex strat and it looks like it the same length maybe even longer? It's definitely longer than my '67 jaguar neck. Is this possible, or is there something I don't know about these necks?
Or am I simply scammed.

So the serial is from 1984, a year mustangs weren't even made. So I assume the neck could be older.
After searching a bit more the only big headstock neck without a bullet truss rod and 4 point necks are the 1979 25th anniversary strats. A lot of those got send back to the factory because they had issues with the original pearl white finish on the body.
I can image that a lot of parts of those have been floating around in the factory.
Then there are remainders of the lined sticker and that the neck is sanded on the place where there would be a date.


So to continue in the quest of finding out what the this neck is:
















A 25th anniversary neck:



The wood underneath the chipped poly is similar to this one:

[andy]

Woah! I didn't those existed. What does it measure from the nut to the 12th fret?

[adamrobertt]

I mean, if it's 25.5'' scale then it isn't a Mustang neck. Someone could have just taken a Strat neck and put a Mustang logo on it for some weird frankenstein project. Who knows.

[surfin_bird]

Updated with photo's

[Ben17e]

Its impossible for us to tell from the pictures (at least hard). Measure from the nut to the 12th fret..if it is 12" it is a Mustang Neck. If it is 12.75" it is a strat neck of some kind w/ a Mustang decal. 25.5" scale Mustang necks were never a thing.

[shoule79]

How many original frets does it have? Strat necks only had 21 at this point, mustangs had 22. If it has 22 it's either legit or a repro that is 25.5.

That neck has a lot of similarities to my 76 stangs maple neck, minus some of the writing on the underside of the heel. The neck on mine would definitely not be mistaken for a strat's though, much shorter.

[dylanafghjkl]

Can't tell from these pics but super interested.

[surfin_bird]

I'm bumping this because I still try to figure out what it is.
This is it next to my stratocaster.

[Tree's]

Could the Strat have a Mustang neck with a Strat decal? Seriously though , the Mustang decal neck is definitely a Strat neck , 21 frets.
My guess would be that it's a factory second because it had the incorrect Mustang decal.

Other oddities I see , are that the original F-tuners have never been installed , and no marks from the splined tuner bushings ever being pressed in.

Also, no sign of a string tree , something going on with the mounting holes , seems like two of the original pilot holes were never used? Someone mounted it on a non Fender body , didn't drill pilot holes for the top two, witch is why the screw broke.

[surfin_bird]

Yeah I think we can say this is not a mustang neck.
I'm wondering if someone could tell if this is an old fender neck?
Maybe with regards to truss rod, headstock, the 4 point neck and sticker placement at the heel?
And the headstock decal that is from 1978 could maybe also drop some hints.

[s_mcsleazy]

yeah. that aint no mustang neck. saying that, i'd say stick it on a sunburst jazzmaster with a black guard. i think that could look sweet.

[surfin_bird]

Update the title and first post with some new suspicions about the origin of the neck.
I mean I think it makes the most sense regarding it's features and the date of serial on the neck. Maybe a neck that floated around during the CBS-Dan Brown transition when eventually it got installed on a ill fitting body, just ending up to not be used.

I was thinking to use it onto a david gilmour ish strat, since that I just have a new found love for strats and pink floyd orrrr... a 25th anniversary inspired jazzmaster/stratomaster?