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Post subject: '56 neck variations
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:17 am
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Interesting to note that this 2009 '56 Custom Shop reissue Strat was fitted with a large U backshaped neck (just like mine) and not a V neck.
Weird no ?

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:20 pm
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Last edited by my56strat on Sun May 25, 2014 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:46 pm
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Why do they call it a 56 Strat, I wonder.

Did Strats have a 9.5 radius, five-way switch, RWRP mid-pup, and U-necks in 1956?

If think that if one takes that kind of license, might as well throw in a neck with a truss-road adjuster at the headstock end.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:05 am
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Tiglath wrote:
Why do they call it a 56 Strat, I wonder.

Did Strats have a 9.5 radius, five-way switch, RWRP mid-pup, and U-necks in 1956?

If think that if one takes that kind of license, might as well throw in a neck with a truss-road adjuster at the headstock end.


So I was talking to a friend of mine who was around, though young, in the early fender days, and yes it is possible there were 9.5 radius necks originally made. it had to do with them all being hand-made and is someone leaned in a little more it would have easily been done. most 9.5 radius necks were "upgrades" done to the older guitars or the result of refret jobs.

neck shape would fall in the same category... they are all over the place because they were hand shaped. it would be impossible for fender (and gibson for that matter) to accurately reproduce an example that represents every guitar made that year. they were all different. that is why they find one and use that as thier base - hence the "10/56".


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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:15 am
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I understand that the so called 10/56 refered to by the CS, reflects an average size of the necks made during that period and which varied substantially.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:22 pm
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sikoniko wrote:
Tiglath wrote:
Why do they call it a 56 Strat, I wonder.

Did Strats have a 9.5 radius, five-way switch, RWRP mid-pup, and U-necks in 1956?

If think that if one takes that kind of license, might as well throw in a neck with a truss-road adjuster at the headstock end.


So I was talking to a friend of mine who was around, though young, in the early fender days, and yes it is possible there were 9.5 radius necks originally made. it had to do with them all being hand-made and is someone leaned in a little more it would have easily been done. most 9.5 radius necks were "upgrades" done to the older guitars or the result of refret jobs.

neck shape would fall in the same category... they are all over the place because they were hand shaped. it would be impossible for fender (and gibson for that matter) to accurately reproduce an example that represents every guitar made that year. they were all different. that is why they find one and use that as thier base - hence the "10/56".


This thread is an obvious attempt to rescue the hopeless proposition that the 10/56 neck is not a V-neck.

Instead of trying to move the target to score a hit, it would be much more refreshing to see a, "I stand corrected," from the OP, given that the jury has been out for a while on this question.

sikoniko's remarks add only haze to the issue. I doubt very much that Fender would randomly pick a 56 guitar and declare its neck to be representative of that year, and that it just happened to be a V 10/56 neck.

It's much more likely that Fender had a neck spec for that year with a specific profile and radius, and that is what Fender picked for its modern reproductions, exceptions notwithstanding.

One needs to distinguish between manufacturing deviations from the spec, and not having a spec at all.

For those who find ME's word on the issue not definitive, they may want to check out, "The Fender Stratocaster" by A.R. Duchossoir:

"The round clubby neck of the earliest guitars was replaced by a V profile (boat neck) after 1955, which in turn was superseded by a much slimmer profile in mid-1958."

"The Fender Stratocaster"
40th Anniversary Edition
Duchossoir, A.R., 1994, Page 17, Hal Leonard

I find it curious that an alledged Fender connoisseur, would argue from the particular to the general such that a single 56 Strat neck of his, which he says has a round profile, suffices to conclude that 10/56 necks have no V in them, instead of considering his neck an exception; especially since it's common knowledge that 10/56 necks are Vs, and the fact is all over Fender's descriptions of 56 Time Machine Strats.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:39 pm
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are you sure?

somewhere on this very board (either here or the ME thread) it was stated that a musician owns a telecaster dated 10 '56 that the custom shop used to base the neck off of. So I'm not pulling the info out of my $@!.

Just like in the new custom shop book, Chris Flemming talks about how they selected serial number 0100 (owned by the author of the book the sound heard round the world) to be the base model for the 50th anniversary MB 1954 guitars.


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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:42 pm
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sikoniko wrote:
are you sure?

somewhere on this very board (either here or the ME thread) it was stated that a musician owns a telecaster dated 10 '56 that the custom shop used to base the neck off of. So I'm not pulling the info out of my $@!.


Your words not mine.

What you relate is not incompatible with Fender having had a definite spec for 56 necks. They picked one with those specs so that they would have an actual neck to make copies of.

That is completely different from the situation that previous posts suggest; that it was a chaotic situation of anything goes, which made the terms 10/56 or boat neck ambiguous, where in fact that is not the case at all. There was a spec and there were fortuitous deviations from it. And it appears that Fender did not chose a deviant neck, but a compliant neck to base reissues on.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 4:43 pm
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Tiglath wrote:
sikoniko wrote:
are you sure?

somewhere on this very board (either here or the ME thread) it was stated that a musician owns a telecaster dated 10 '56 that the custom shop used to base the neck off of. So I'm not pulling the info out of my $@!.


Your words not mine.

What you relate is not incompatible with Fender having had a definite spec for 56 necks. They picked one with those specs so that they would have an actual neck to make copies of.

That is completely different from the situation that previous posts suggest; that it was a chaotic situation of anything goes, which made the terms 10/56 or boat neck ambiguous, where in fact that is not the case at all. There was a spec and there were fortuitous deviations from it. And it appears that Fender did not chose a deviant neck, but a compliant neck to base reissues on.


well... yes and no. ME has said they pick dates of reissues arbitrarily. for example, I had a '57 relic that had a 10/56 neck.

BTW, I am in agreement with you on your original question - why do they call something (say a '56 in this case) when an original '56 didn't have a 5 way switch or 6105 fretwire. It irritates me too. they should call it a '56 HotRod or something like that...


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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:20 pm
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Tiglath wrote:
sikoniko wrote:
are you sure?

That is completely different from the situation that previous posts suggest; that it was a chaotic situation of anything goes, which made the terms 10/56 or boat neck ambiguous, where in fact that is not the case at all. There was a spec and there were fortuitous deviations from it. And it appears that Fender did not chose a deviant neck, but a compliant neck to base reissues on.


well... yes and no. ME has said they pick dates of reissues arbitrarily. for example, I had a '57 relic that had a 10/56 neck.


Hardly arbitrary, I'd say. I quoted from the Strat's book saying that the 10/56 neck began in well, 10/56, and not until mid-1958 was changed to a thinner profile; if that is right, it would mean that all 57 Strats had a 10/56 neck.

sikoniko wrote:
BTW, I am in agreement with you on your original question - why do they call something (say a '56 in this case) when an original '56 didn't have a 5 way switch or 6105 fretwire. It irritates me too. they should call it a '56 HotRod or something like that...


Yeah, the 56 hotchpotch at the top does a nice job confusing customers. Maybe it's a good guitar, but as a concept a contemporary 56 is a bit of a square circle. No boat neck, no vintage radius, modern wiring, etc., take the life right out of "'56." I so want some of the weed they smoke.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:38 am
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sikoniko wrote:

So I was talking to a friend of mine who was around, though young, in the early fender days, and yes it is possible there were 9.5 radius necks originally made. it had to do with them all being hand-made and is someone leaned in a little more it would have easily been done. most 9.5 radius necks were "upgrades" done to the older guitars or the result of refret jobs.

neck shape would fall in the same category... they are all over the place because they were hand shaped. it would be impossible for fender (and gibson for that matter) to accurately reproduce an example that represents every guitar made that year. they were all different. that is why they find one and use that as thier base - hence the "10/56".


I'm talking here about '56 necks.
The so-called 10/56 neck started to appear in 10/56; which means:
- During the first 9 months of 1956 necks were of a different shape.
- Because of Leo's policy of First In-First Out, batches of previously made necks have been used even after 10/56 thus the bulk of such necks is found from the beginning of 1957.
We do have an early 1957 Strat (which can be seen on our site) and effectively it has a differently shaped neck but it's not a '56 Strat.
So there are some reasons for Fender to propose a '56 Strat reissue with a large U shaped neck.
Fender adjusts to the market requests regarding wiring and frets but I agree we divert from a diehard clone of a '56 Strat

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:02 am
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The point I was trying to make earlier...

The custom shop has multiple neck shapes for the '50s

'54 U
10/56
57-V
clapton V
hard V
'59 C

The book The Black Guard has a pic of different tele shapes and neck radius throughout the early '50s. they all vary.

But in the '50s, they didn't have that. They had people hand shaping necks. lean a little heavier on the neck and a 7.25 becomes a 9.5 radius... this whole notion of the necks being the same shape from '56 to '58 is somewhat absurd. so the reality is anything goes on neck shape on the vintage instruments.

Like I said before, when it comes to custom shop, they usually use '57V or 10/56. I've owned both and the differences are VERY subtle.


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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:25 am
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It is rather difficult to talk meaningfully about vintage year models when substantial changes were happening at any time in any year. AND any dates the guitar bears refers to the date the component, not the guitar, was made. So if a neck has one date and the body another and the pups yet another what model year is it?

It's easier with re-issues because Fender decided on a spec to represent a year, but that is now being muddled too.

Alain is right here, the CS '56 with a boat neck should be qualified as a "late 56" at the very least, for those who care.

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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:31 am
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I have a 56 NOS. It is a 10/56 "V" shape boat neck, alder body, 7.25 radius and small vintage frets.

If it is of any help.

Chris


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Post subject: Re: '56 neck variations
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:21 pm
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"It's easier with re-issues because Fender decided on a spec to represent a year, but that is now being muddled too"
I fully agree with you :wink:

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