I love the sound of a stratocaster. I also own a epi special II which I love the feel of the neck (size and fret spacing) as I have somewhat small hands. I have done a little research and am thinking of building a strat style body and making a neck styled after the epi. I am a fairly talented woodworker with a fully equipped shop. Has anyone tried this before? I think it would be a kick butt combo for me. Budget is an issue, and there is great satisfaction in making something yourself. I also have a load of 5/4 mahogany flooring that was given to me from a friends home renovation job (over 100 linear feet). I have been checking out the stew mac website they sell mahogany blanks for the body. All input is welcome.

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With every mistake we must surely be learning..

Music is the space between the notes.

I made a decent Tele copy for a friend back in the 80's - out of solid Canadian Rock Maple. I made the body, but bought a stock neck.

It's quite within the capabilities of any reasonably competent hobby woodworker.... just take your time and measure the neck & bridge positions very very carefully! But don't make the same mistake I did - my friend kept saying he wanted it as heavy and solid as possible... I took him at his word and made a great guitar.... that was too heavy to play for more than 10 minutes at a time!!

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Oh man. there are a couple key design differences between gobspn and fender models. These can be overcome, of coarse, but for me the most important factor in a hybrid would be concerning the way the type of bridge you use affects the angle you use to set the neck.

fender types have no, to very small difference between the angle of the neck, to the angle of the body. this is due to the bridge being set so low.
The high bridge on a gibby requires around 4 degrees back angle on the neck. this is why a fender with low action has strings so close to the body, while a gibby with low action has strings far from the body, and the pick ups rasied.

figure out whether you want to go fender style bridge or gibson style, then you will need to set the neck accrdingly. anything else would be gravy I think.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Hi picklefingers: never done that one myself. Put a Tele neck on a Strat body for a friend - that's as far as I've gone into hybrid territory.

However, if you look at cheap guitar kits you will find that Les Paul style kits tend to have bolt-on necks. Maybe that explains a Les Paul body with a Fender neck I saw once. Frankly, I thought it was horrible, but there you go... And the non-back tilting headstock must have created issues. Don't know how that was solved. Can't really remember, but the bridge must have been moved backwards.

In reverse, I've certainly seen aftermarket Les Paul style necks for sale that appeared to have a bolt-on type heel. However, you couldn't simply put an LP neck on a Strat because the bridge would be in the wrong place...

In addition to what Twelvebar said about bridge height you have to think carefully about scale length. If you are building from raw lumber it's achieveable, presuming you have the skills - which it sounds like you do. Then I suppose you just make a 25.5 scale length neck with a Gibby looking headstock. Ibanez have done some guitars a bit like that, haven't they?

Hmm. If you do it please post some pics!

Les Paul neck on a Strat. Probably not absolutely unique, but certainly unusual. You'd get attention from guitarists at gigs. Would it be the kind of attention you want...?

Good luck - C

I have been comparing the two necks and the fender style looks easier to make from the size stock I have an abundance of. I will just shape to the les paul style and size and add a paul read smith finger board (already slotted at 25 fret pitch). I don't want to mess with my strat I am not quite that confident and this would be a first attempt at this for me. If I mess up a piece of my own wood I can throw it in the firewood pile and try it again. Should be an interesting project. I will post pics when I start it. Can't get any more "american made" than that.

Thanks for the great info. This forum is the best!

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With every mistake we must surely be learning..

Music is the space between the notes.

Pickle, if you haven't already pick up Melvyn Hiscock's book on guitar building.

it is a must read for anyone looking at doing anything more than building from a kit. he really does a great job breaking down the steps that go into designing a guitar. he even walks you through a couple builds, one of which isn't very far off from what you want to do.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I will. Thanks for the heads up. Looks like a good book.

actually I did. should have in 2-4 days thanks again.

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With every mistake we must surely be learning..

Music is the space between the notes.

Hi picklefingers. Er - well, don't do that. PRS fingerboards are slotted for 25 inch scale lengths: Fender use a 25.5 inch scale.

You can buy pre-slotted fingerboards from a number of sources, including Stew-Mac, who offer many scale lengths in several timbers:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_nec ... oards.html

And of course, they also offer a nice mitre saw setup and paraphernalia for doing the job yourself. I have that gear and it works well. Fingerboards slotted spot on every time.

As well as Melvyn Hiscock's book which Twelvebar named I'd additionally (not instead of) recommend to you Martin Koch's book, Building Electric Guitars.

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Electric ... 179&sr=8-1

It is much more idiosyncratic than Melvyn's but is full of neat little tricks and work-arounds of his own, developed from building in a small workshop environment. For example, as a woodworker you'll like his method for using a power router to create radiused fingerboards, including compound radiuses. I've never used that technique, but it's interesting stuff!

Later in the year you will find me on this Forum using Martin Koch's method for thicknessing body timber with a router, another good one. (Affordable timber thicknessers don't seem to go wider than 12 inches - not quite big enough for an electric guitar body...)

I suspect you'll find no single book covers everything you need and the detail has a funny way of running out just when you need it the most: for instance, on shaping the backs of necks. But get two or three books and you'll find they cover one another's gaps...

Good luck - and let us know how you get on, won't you?

Cheers - C

Thanks ceri, I have been following your thread for saving a trashed body. Great work. Can't wait to see it finished. Are you sure you're not a Luthier?

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With every mistake we must surely be learning..

Music is the space between the notes.

Hi picklefingers: yes, I'm sure I'm not. But it does my ego a power of good being asked! Thank you!!

Cheers man - C

Exactly...and part of the reason Gibby's and Epi's feel the way they do is an even shorter scale (24.75).

I used to have a lot of people come in the shop wondering why the same gauge strings feel different on their Gibson's compared to the Fenders, that's the reason why. You can't truly replicate the feel, but the first thing to try would be to use a heavier gauge on your Epi than you do on your strat. i.e. if you use 9-42 on a strat, go 10-46 on your epi.

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