The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

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solfege
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The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Fri Jul 15, 2022 6:26 pm

When last seen, our hero was attached to a Musikraft Strat body with Mustang pickups and funky wiring.

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But things proved somewhat awkward in the higher frets, and he eventually got relegated to a bookshelf in my office while the Strat-Stang became longer scaled.

But this doesn't mean the end for our intrepid adventurer. On the contrary, a new home is currently in the process of being CDCed out of a hunk of African Mahogany somewhere in the wilds of Calgary (I assume there are wilds).

To wit:

Image

So how is this going to work? Well. There's a remarkable amount of unused stuff lying around here that is just sort of dying to become part of a short-scale, hardtail Telemaster thingie. Such as? The pickups I pulled from my MIJ Jazzmaster, which really aren't bad at all, the standard issue CTS 1 Meg Audio pots I pulled from my Jag in favor of some more vintage taper ones b/c that resistor in the Jag tone circuit plays merry hell with pot tapers, a couple of stray, very nice caps in just the right values to do a Bill Lawrence 5 way Tele Circuit. Order a few more things from the house of Riley, including a patent pending Tele bridge plate that I'll take a hacksaw to, some brass saddles, and assorted small bits, and we'll be there.

Finish is going to be pure, unadulterated super blonde shellac, which if I'm lucky will bring out all the glory of the mahogany. And my current idea, since our neck friend is very shallow (and was originally on a pickguardless Tele construction), is to do a Telemaster version of a Cabronita-style lower bout only pickguard out of transparent tort of the sort usually used for acoustic pickguards.

Somehow, this is all feeling like it's going to be kinda right. The offset body will work much better with the short scale neck, the wiring and bridge assembly should do fun things with the sort of half-strattiness of the MIJ JM pickups, and the amount of unused stuff I already have here means that the new bits outlay should be pretty minimal.

I'm excited, and I feel much better about this than I did when the neck was sitting on a shelf doing nothing.

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countertext
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by countertext » Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:21 pm

Will you have to make adjustments to the bridge placement to avoid the intonation problems you had with the Strat? Or was it not an intonation problem?

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solfege
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:38 pm

countertext wrote:
Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:21 pm
Will you have to make adjustments to the bridge placement to avoid the intonation problems you had with the Strat? Or was it not an intonation problem?
It's a 24" scale conversion neck, designed to be used on guitars built for 25.5" scale. It started life attached to a Tele body, so this is kind of full circle in a way.

The problem wasn't intonation (which is spot on -- Andrew knew what he was doing), just that the upper frets are, by the nature of this kind of beast, a bit farther into the body than they might otherwise be, and with the thickness of a Strat body / the shape of the cutaway, it was just frustrating to play up there.

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by countertext » Fri Jul 15, 2022 8:46 pm

I understand the access problem now.

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bodhi
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by bodhi » Sat Jul 16, 2022 12:16 am

Would it make sense to use one of those angled neck plates rather than a square one, to help with upper fret access?
Jazzmaster project (got a body, placeholder neck, some pickups and ideas)
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Blake Mills-inspired Strat project w/ Gold Foil and slide pickup

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solfege
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Sat Jul 16, 2022 4:30 am

bodhi wrote:
Sat Jul 16, 2022 12:16 am
Would it make sense to use one of those angled neck plates rather than a square one, to help with upper fret access?
I thought about that, but I don't want to redrill the neck again. Also, going with the minimal pickguard and the thinner TM body should help a lot all by itself. The neck is actually cut a bit thin at the pocket, to the point where I had to shim it a couple mm to get the overhang to clear a pickguard in the Strat. I'm hoping this setup (which is closer to what it was originally designed for) should eliminate all that.

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solfege
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Fri Sep 30, 2022 5:20 pm

Lo! Progress.

Image

Sanded to 400, with a little 'see how the hardware looks' mockup. Lots of decisions still to be made, but the next step is shellac as sealer / grain filler and maybe just finish, but we'll see how it looks when I've gotten that far.

Part of me is tempted to take a crack at a Duplicolor paint job, maybe in Hampstead Green or maybe in the Bright Aqua Metallic, maybe even with some judicious sanding back around the forearm contour to expose the mahogany again. But part of me is also liking the mahogany. If the joint were a bit less obvious, I'd probably just leave it natural for sure. As it is, harder call.

The bigger question is what my pickguard shape is going to be. I'm really tempted to try to do something minimal.

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Sep 30, 2022 5:27 pm

I feel like that line will be less bothersome with some finish on it. I think it looks great natural.

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by MattK » Fri Sep 30, 2022 7:10 pm

You could always wipe it down with some naphtha for a "clear coat preview" in deciding. Great idea tho! I'm anxiously awaiting delivery of a Squier telemaster myself.

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Sat Oct 01, 2022 4:30 am

We'll see. I'm going to shellac it one way or another just for grain fill and seal. If I like it that way, I'll just roll with it.

In the mean time, here's the beginnings of an idea for a pickguard shape, but in transparent single ply tort. Castedosa inspired, but reversed.

Image

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solfege
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:17 pm

I'll take a picture later, but super blonde shellac on mahogany, holy crap!

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:17 pm

Oh. Kay. This might be something to work with.

Image

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by Embenny » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:24 pm

That's some pretty grain.
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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Sun Oct 09, 2022 5:55 am

Shellac (and a bit of aqua coat) has been proceeding slowly apace.

Next step, bridge. First part of that operation looks like this.

Image

Chopped, deburred and began rounding the corners with 320 grit on the workbench. Will need to do a bit more, but first gotta get the drill press out and make space for the pickup screw ears.

In the mean time, another mockup.

Image

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Re: The ADH Conversion Neck, Its Continuing Adventures

Post by solfege » Mon Oct 10, 2022 1:16 pm

Not perfect perfect, but functional.

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