Hi:

Anyone here know where I can get a 1965 era specific genuine Fender Strat neck. I have a '65 in need of a replacement. I was thinking that Fender produce reissues that are accuate to spec.

Anyone?

Thanks for the help.

Fender do not supply replacement necks on demand. You can try customer services
E-mail: consumerrelations@fender.com I think you may be wasting your time though. Aside from ordering a CS 65 scrapping the body and bolting the neck to your 65, i cant think of any other anywhere near appropriate way of solving your dilema.

Hopefully someone will know where you can get a vintage correct replacement neck and chime in.

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No no and no

I assume you don't want to buy an actual vintage '65 neck from one of the parts cowboys...

Recently I've noticed a couple of Crafted in Japan '65 reissues selling near me (Southern hemisphere, unfortunately!) that are almost as dead-on as a CS guitar. I have a CS '66, and the Japanese Fenders certainly equalled it for period-correct detail. Mid-60s necks have a distinctive heft to them; I can understand why you'd want to get the appropriate year for your Strat. You could buy a CIJ '65 for around $1K US, or a genuine neck stripped from a '65 for four or five times as much.

Sometimes the parts dealers sell necks from Custom Shop guitars, too... usually around half the cost of a CS guitar, though.

1965 was a transitional year.

From small headstock to the large CBS-headstock.

And who knows how many different neck shapes they went through -- that wasn't real consistent at that time. And you had the different "nut widths," with "B" necks being the most common ...

You'll have to try some necks to see what fits to your hand.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Try some of the sellers here :


http://www.vintageguitar.com/classifieds/

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Ah, good points... Things were a bit up in the air at that time, it's true. For the sake of drawing a line somewhere, though, the Custom Shop seems to have settled on the large headstock (with correspondingly wide-margin decal) for the '66 and the small headstock for the '65, and no skunk stripes. I think that hunting for a neck with a slab rosewood board or maple cap will prove to be the toughest job, as they're in demand (for whatever reason) and thus expensive.

But yeah, there must have been a mixture of headstock sizes and neck shapes available in 1965. The '66 Strats I've seen have all shared the same characteristics, so it seems likely that the transition was complete by then.