Chinese 22-fret 24in" necks with OVERHANG? Will this work?

[copacetic]

Howdy guys and gals,

I've been on a long search for ready-made jaguar/mustang necks with blocks and binding as this is a spec i get requested often for builds. The only option other than having something custom built or waiting for a listing for a used neck to pop up has seemed to be the Squier CV 70s neck, which isnt ideal due to the Laurel fretboard and smaller block size, but works out great after a little tlc to the frets/board when im able to find them which isnt terribly often.

I've seen these chinese necks on eBay for the longest time and i must admit theyve always LOOKED great.. I've used lots of 25.5" scale ebay necks in my time and once you swap the cheap plastic nut and give the frets a little (or a lot of) love, they make for fantastic instruments if you can get along with the flatter radius/bigger frets and often fatter neck shapes/slightly "off" headstock shapes. You wont find a super vintage feeling neck, but you can definitely find well made ones.

However I've never pulled the trigger on a shortscale neck from the same makers/factories because literally every single 24"/22 fret neck i find seems to have a fretboard overhang. Of course, jags and mustangs typically have 22 fret 24" scale necks with no overhang, so this makes me concerned about the scale length/intonation being thrown off with the ebay neck..

Can anyone shed some light on this? Anyone owned one or played a guitar that had one of these necks? Itd be far easier to tell if itd work if i had one in front of me and could take measurements etc. but id rather not gamble and waste my money on one if it turns out they indeed will not work on a standard 24" body.

Part of me feels the additional length added is so small that the overall distance between frets wont be affected too much, and i'll possibly just have to move the saddles back a bit more than usual to get the intonation right. But the other part of me thinks the 12th fret surely has to be in a different spot that might necessitate a different bridge position. Lots of people have reviewed the 25.5" scale necks on the seller's ebay pages, but hardly any reviews exist for the 24" necks, and theyre always way too brief to give me any peace of mind. "great neck, better than expected quality" doesnt tell me if the person ever even installed it let alone checked intonation before writing the review, and of course nobody has posted a thread on here that i can find mentioning this..

Any pre-emptive help with this? Or do i need to just go ahead and order one and see definitively if it will work or not?

[camilonava27]

I've seen these necks too, I always thought the overhang was a little odd. I think that for the price, it's worth ordering one and finding out for yourself. getting your hands on one would also help you figure out how to work around the added length if you decide the necks work for you.

[Lost In Autumn]

I bought one to try to use with a Jagmaster and it didn't work, it was off by 1/4", iirc. however, iirc, jag master necks don't work with jaguars, so it may be fine. the quality was surprisingly good for the $. I traded it to a coworker for fretwork on one of my builds.

[bodhi]

Hmmm, from the look of it, to me it seems like the whole heel is basically misplaced by one fret. I mean, typically on a fender style neck the flat area starts where the body ends, which is at the 16th fret.

Maybe they reused some tools or cut paths without really understanding the concept as traditionally applied. All that said, it's not like the neck shouldn't work if the frets are in the correct location, just that it's probably a good idea to be prepared to sand down the heel. Filling in the area under the overhang is possible, but shouldn't really do that much outside of make it sit and align in the neck pocket a bit better...

[Norrin Radd]

…, just that it's probably a good idea to be prepared to sand down the heel.

I’ve purchased two of these necks and that is exactly what I’ve had to do. You will also find that the end of the fret board sits remarkably close to the neck pick up (presuming your guitar has one - I tried mine on a couple different Strat builds).

Yes, mine were 25 1/2 inch scale, but the same idea applies. As noted above where the heel starts to enlarge as you go down the neck towards its end it’s about a fret earlier than on a traditional neck. I can’t say for certain, but to me it looks like exactly the same construction issue. YMMV

[Tiga]

I bought one of these necks last year for a project I was planning but unfortunately never got past ordering the neck. Been in the closet ever since. I too was curious about the overhang. Aside from that the neck seems well made and looks great.

[Shorty Medlock 5151]

I have three aftermarket necks...one 24" and two 25 1/2". All ebay numbers. Two are Chicom and one from the US. The overhang doesn't seem to be an issue.