Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

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phutyle
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Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by phutyle » Fri Oct 13, 2017 1:33 am

My latest project.

I think I posted about it before, but last year the girl that sits beside me in work gave me a blue Strat knockoff for free (I gave her a bottle of rum as thanks). I'm not a really fan of strats in general, but this was particularly horrible. But who's going to refuse a free guitar?

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Inspired to turn free junk into something special, I painted it matt grey, put in chrome-covered humbuckers, chrome knobs, upgraded bridge and a Tone Guard anodized aluminium pickguard that I beveled the edge on myself. From the beginning I had a vision that this needed an aluminium neck, and I've been waiting the past year for my funds and someone's run of necks to align (as many of you know, these things are only made by a handful of people, and in small batches that are usually oversubscribed).

Alef Guitars (https://www.facebook.com/alefguitars/) from Israel announced in August that they were doing a run of 20 guitar necks, so I jumped at the chance. A couple of PayPal transfers and a short wait and it arrived yesterday. Here's the end result:

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The neck is CNCd from a block of solid 6061 T6 aluminum, and polished to a mirror shine. Neck weight is about 1.3kg with tuners, total assembled guitar weight is 4.3kg. Neck thickness is 0.750" with no taper (same thickness at nut and 12th fret). Fretboard radius is 12". 43mm aluminium nut. Stainless Steel medium/jumbo frets and Gotoh tuners.

The neck feels really nice in the hand, and adds clarity and chime and increased sustain. Unplugged, the guitar is much louder than it was with the traditional wood neck.

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Embenny
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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by Embenny » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:20 am

Holy moly, what a transformation from its original form to now! Incredible choices for the aesthetics, by the way.

Are there any existing Fender necks you could liken the feel to, in terms of profile and thickness? I've always been curious about alternative neck materials (graphite and aluminum) but have never run across any in the wild.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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leokula
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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by leokula » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:09 am

This thing totally rocks now... looks amazing, I wonder how it plays. Reminds me of Buss Osborne from the Melvins who plays an aluminum guitar with a very similar neck. Good work on this strat!
Jaguar > Jazzmaster :)

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Flurko
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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by Flurko » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:32 am

Really nice !
On a related note, I wonder how many more people are crossposters from the Aluminium axes group

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phutyle
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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by phutyle » Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:41 pm

mbene085 wrote:Are there any existing Fender necks you could liken the feel to, in terms of profile and thickness?
Not that I’m familiar with. It’s thinner than anything else I have (Blacktop telecaster, MIM Standard Telecaster, SQJMJM and Modern Player Marauder), but it’s a D profile so it actually feels like it a bit of chunk to it. Also because it’s heavier than a wooden neck, even though it’s thin it feels substantial. The lack of taper also means that there’s no contrast in thickness between the 1st and 15th fret. I’ve found it very easy to get used to.

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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by dezb1 » Sat Oct 14, 2017 2:41 am

This might be the biggest pos to gas inducing turn around in a guitar I've witnessed on t'internet

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mackerelmint
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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by mackerelmint » Mon Oct 23, 2017 4:36 pm

Way cool. Those aesthetic choices are top notch, I bet it sounds great too. Any sound clips?
This is an excellent rectangle

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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by dylanafghjkl » Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:38 pm

damn that thing is so cool i love it

i've been gassing so hard for an aluminium neck guitar and this ain't helping

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phutyle
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Re: Aluminium necked strat-shaped-object

Post by phutyle » Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:45 am

mackerelmint wrote:
Mon Oct 23, 2017 4:36 pm
Way cool. Those aesthetic choices are top notch, I bet it sounds great too. Any sound clips?
Thanks! I appreciate people being interested in how it sounds (it is of course the most important thing about a guitar), but I'm not entirely comfortable with committing my bad playing to public consumption. I'll have a think about it. I never feel that I would do any guitar, or song, or even set of strings, justice.

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