I'm still in the planning stage to mod a MIM (probably as a summer project)

and was wondering if the standard body without the contoured heel could be modded to have contoured heel...

Is it hard to find a place that would offer this kind of service?

If I found one, would it be a costly procedure?

A luthier would do it for you. You would pay by the hour and the real cost would be any refinishing work.

Not worth it in my opinion unless your body is already a wreck.

How so? because of the refinishing work?

you might be better off buying a new warmoth body with a countour heel.
roughly the cost to refinish it would be alittle over 150-200. depending color, finish, if its poly or nitro, etc. plus the actual work might not be so expensive as the re finish.
shop around see whats more economical sound.

_________________
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Hi JTLee9153: whatever you do is going to involve refinning the guitar, so if you are want someone else to do the work the cost of stripping and relacquering has to be factored in on top of the carpentry.

Two ways to do the contouring. First is like on an American Deluxe Strat. That will involve carving the corner off the heel, which will also necessitate filling the front treble side screw hole and redrilling it in the MIA Deluxe position.

Alternatively, you could leave the neck screws where they are and reshape the heel in a different way. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, here's one I have been working on (halfway down this page):

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... &start=390

And as of this moment here is what it looks like with a white buildcoat on it, so's you get a better idea of the finished shape (towards the bottom of the page):

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... &start=570

Obviously, that involves using four individual screw ferrules rather than a Fender style neck plate.

Some options.

Cheers - C

Thank you for the great examples!

I am an avid reader of your current project thread, and I did notice that you were making that heel contour.

Now, I am not very well educated in the anatomy of the guitar, so the procedure (if I decide to do it) will have to be left to the pros to avoid being your next "guitar revival" thread... (although it would be a cool experience to do it myself...)

Will the contour change my playing experience significantly or will it be one of those things that are just nice to have?

And will I be able to find a person that can do this in an everyday music store?

Hi again JT: well that really is one of those totally personal things. Jeff Beck likes a contour heel so much he had the corner of his early '50s Esquire reshaped into one. I don't suppose that was the very first sculpted heel - but it must have been an early one.

On the other hand, unlike the heel on a Les Paul (which often gets in my way) I've never had much of an issue with Fender heels. I'm only doing the one on my project because that part of the body was already slightly misshaped and it seemed neat to turn the problem into its own solution.

It did seem to feel nice in the hand with a neck temporarily bolted in place, but I haven't strung it up and played it for real yet, so I can't positively say for sure. Frankly, I think it is a small, non-essential but quite pleasant mod.

For absolute certain, other users' mileage will vary on this one!

Let us know which way you decide to go with it, huh?

Cheers - C